The house was built in 1777 by James Hollis, who hosted the second meeting of the Sullivan County court. The court continued to meet here and at other homes until the county seat of Blountville was built in 1792. It stands beside the original Island Road, built in 1761, Tennessee's first wagon road and oldest road still in use.

In 1782 John Yancey, a tavern operator from Abingdon, Virginia, bought the Hollis house and opened it as Yancey's Tavern throughout the remainder of the 18th century and on into the 19th century. By the 1840's ownership had passed to John Shaver and the place was known as Shaver's Inn. It was a regular stop for the stage form Abingdon as it was ten miles from Blountville's Deery Inn and ten miles on to the Netherland Inn. Horses were changed every ten miles and drivers every twenty. The Eden's Ridge post office was located here from 1842 until 1866. Previously it was at Exchange Place. It was during the Shaver period that the hewn logs (still visible with hewn and pegged rafters upstairs) were covered with poplar siding, the plank poplar paneling was installed in the east upstairs room and lath and plaster with chair rail updated the first floor. It is thought that the large mantels date from the Shaver period. Original plank doors with wrought iron strap hinges remain unchanged.

In 1889 John Spahr from southwest Virginia bought the house and 230 acres from the Shaver family. The house became the Spahr's residence for their Spahr Farm, which continued until th eearly 1950's when East Lawn Cemetery was founding. The cemetery now covers most of farm. Miss Mary Spahr, John Spahr's daughter, was the last of the family to occupy the house. After her death in 1962 it remained vacant for the next 42 years. It did receive minimal maintenance from Miss Mary's nieces and heirs, Dorothy and Ruth Wexler. Miss Dorothy placed the house on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The only major change to the house after 1889 was John Spahr's building the dining room to connect the separate kitchen to the house.

Following the death of Ruth Wexler the old house was bought at auction in September, 2004 from the Wexler heirs by Rann Vauix for restoration for the pride and pleasure of the citizens of Sullivan County and the state of Tennessee. It is not a house museum but is furnished with good older reproductions of the late 18th century. The corner cupboard, blanket chest, adn dining room table are early 19th century pieces. Shown by appointment, the house is available for meetings of groups dedicated to historic preservation, patriotism, or genealogy and for church socials. Forty can be seated in three rooms for catered or covered dish luncheons or dinners.

The Spahr barn is included in the Yancey's Tavern National Register site. John R. Spahr built it in 1903 and kept a detailed ledger of its materials and costs. This enormous structure stands on a cut stone foundation and is an excellent example of an early twentieth century east Tennessee barn. Its hewn timbers, marked with Roman numberals and joined with wooden pegs, appear to have come from an earlier barn. A section of the 1761 Island Road connects it to Yancey's Tavern. At the Sarah Spahr Wexler estate auction in September 2004, the barn was bought by Dr. G.A. Agett, who completed necessary repairs and a badly needed clean out of old hay. In 2005 it joined the quilt barn trail. Its quilt square pattern is Grandmother's Flower Garden, inspired by a fragment of a yo-yo quilt found behind a wall upstairs in Yancey's Tavern during restoration. Blountville artist Anita Long and her family who made the quilt square carefully replicated the patterns of the 1920's dress fabrics in the yo-yo quilt. It is believed the incomplete yo-yo quilt was made by Mrs. John Spahr (1858-1936) or by her stepdaughter Miss Mary Spahr (1886-1962), last resident of Yancy's Tavern. Rann Vaulx, owner and restorer of Yancey's Tavern, purchased the Spahr barn is 2006. The barn with its quilt square is featured on the cover of the 2006 Kingsport Sprint telephone directory. John Spahr's barn ledger and the framed fragment of yo-yo quilt, which was the basis of the quilt square, are on display at Yancey's Tavern, shown by appointment.

East Tennessee