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 Murray County Museum  
THE WRIGHT HOTEL
ON THE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES

THE WRIGHT HOTEL

In planning the building of his hotel in the new town of Chatsworth, Thomas Wright cut heart-pine lumber from his farm and let it dry for a year. While the lumber cured, he rented a brick plant for a year to make the soft rose-colored bricks to build his hotel. This was not to be just another hotel–Wright was creating a structure that would also serve as home for his family of eight.

The three-story hotel had 17 rooms. Walls were wooden lath covered with plaster. Floors were heart-pine tongue-in-groove. Wright built a separate building just northeast of the hotel to house the people who worked at the hotel. The water pump for the hotel was also located in this building.

The new hotel opened in 1910 and, because of its close proximity to the new courthouse, eventually served as home-away-from-home for visiting judges, politicians, attorneys, and witnesses as well as a place to house jurors when needed. The hotel's dining room was highly rated.

For one year (1915), while Mrs. Wright was very ill, the Wrights leased the hotel to Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Spencer.

After Mr. Wright's death in 1925, Mrs. Wright continued to operate the hotel until the mid-1940s. After she died in 1948, the hotel was leased to Lester Quarles, then later to the Keeter Family. Under new management the hotel's name was changed to Chatsworth Hotel.

In 1969 one of the Wright's daughters, Kate Raine, returned to Chatsworth and made her own changes to the hotel. She also added numerous Indian items that she had acquired while serving for many years as a nurse in the southwestern United States. She continued to rent rooms.

After obtaining a promise from the Whitfield-Murray County Historical Society to preserve and maintain the Wright Hotel as close as possible to its original condition, Mrs. Raine willed the property to the Society. She died in 1986.

Visiting the Wright Hotel today is like taking a step backward in time. Many of the original furnishings remain. Hotel registers from the earlier days are displayed, along with Mrs. Raine's accumulation of Indian baskets, pottery, and other artifacts.

SPECIAL NOTE: THIS PROPERTY IS OWNED BY THE WHITFIELD-MURRAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND IS ONLY OPEN TO THE PUBLIC WHEN ARRANGEMENTS ARE MADE IN ADVANCE.

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