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Knoxville's newest hostel takes root in cozy Fourth and Gill

by Paige M. Travis

Knoxville now shares something else with the greatest cities in the world. You may have been to one of these places in London, Paris, Amsterdam, New York or Santa Fe. It's a place where like-minded individuals can meet, talk about their travels, experience the comforts of home, explore their surroundings and go home feeling fulfilled. Knoxville is lucky to have one of these places, although if you live here you may never stay there. This new business—which is less a business than a cultural fixture—is Knoxville Hostel, a home-away-from-home that will make it easier for adventurers both young and old to make our town a stop on their tour of the United States.

What is a hostel? Originally conceived in the early 20th century for German school children on field trips, hostels have developed as inexpensive housing for travelers who don't expect or ask for cushy amenities like whirlpool tubs or in-room coffee makers. Hostels are a kind of cultural experience that includes shared bathroom facilities, dorm lodging (with several beds in one room), a common room, kitchen access and a general sense of camaraderie that you just don't get from traditional hotels or motels. Hostels have personalities and quirky caretakers, and they're often established in old houses or former hotels. Hostel devotees tend toward the wayward, the funky, the hippie or gypsy. Some hostels even have private rooms for couples or entire families. Since they are inexpensive and frequently located in the heart of most of the major cities around the world, hostels are major destinations for travelers who would rather spend their money on souvenirs and good food than on fancy rooms.

Since it first opened in September, Knoxville Hostel, housed in a renovated cottage in the Fourth and Gill neighborhood, has hosted visitors from the United States and the world over. It has two bedrooms with five bunks each, two bathrooms, a living room (with a big cable TV) and a fully-stocked kitchen with free Internet access and laundry facilities. A cabinet in the living room features genuine Appalachian handicrafts and copies of A Death in the Family and other Southern literature. The hostel is as comfortable as a friend's house, but more DIY than your average American bed and breakfast. In other words, it's a lot like home.

"That seems to be the comment I get most: 'This is like home,'" says hostel manager Elaine Kerley, herself a Fourth and Gill resident. "I mother everybody."

The hostel began as an idea budding in the mind of Kerley's neighbor Al Wishart, who hostel-hopped in Europe many years ago. "I did what most college students had done: the first time I went to Europe I stayed in hostels," Wishart says. He recalls the Anne Frank hostel in Amsterdam and a sailing ship hostel in Stockholm. "I just thought it was the coolest idea. You meet people under the same circumstances that you're traveling under. It's sort of like a little United Nations under one roof."

The hostel took its first step toward reality when Wishart was walking through Fourth and Gill and stopped to say good morning to his neighbor. "He said 'You look like you're deep in thought,'" Kerley remembers. "And I said, 'Well, I am. I was thinking of how I wish I had a job where I didn't have to stay in an office every day.' He said, 'Well, now that you mention it, I have an idea to open a hostel.' And that's what started this."

Wishart owned the house on East Fourth, which for a long time was so covered with kudzu vines that it blended right into the hill that sloped down from the interstate. Having remodeled two homes in the historic neighborhood with her husband, Kerley was put in charge of overseeing the same process with Wishart's house. A "before" picture is tacked on a cork board so visitors can see the dramatic change: a shell of a building transformed into a cozy lodge.

Kerley got her wish: she quit that office job and became Wishart's full-time employee. Although the hostel hasn't been flooded with guests in the past eight months, word is spreading, mostly via their listing on Hostels.com. That listing, along with the pamphlets and flyers Kerley sent to other hostels, lets hostellers know Knoxville is friendly to travelers who don't have cars or a lot of cash. Before the hostel opened, Kerley says "No one thought about coming through Knoxville." Not because we don't have breathtaking scenery, tasty food and heaps of culture, but because we're not really accessible, except by car or Greyhound, which, like trains in Europe, is many foreign travelers' transit of choice. Then there's the matter of an affordable hotel room near downtown, the only place to be if you're here for a few days with no car. The price of a room at the hostel is $15 plus tax. Compare that to the cost of $30 for an inn on Chapman Highway to $66 for a hotel on campus or $124 for the Radisson on Summit Hill.

Kerley is clearly proud to introduce international travelers to her hometown, her neighborhood and the house she decorated with antiques, refurbished woodwork and white metal bunk beds. She's steered many folks toward walking tours of Fourth and Gill, down to the Old City and up to Market Square. "Now the Old City has had visitors from Europe and other parts of the United States who wouldn't have previously been there," she says. One such visitor was Jonathan Rogers from England, who charted a course from New York to Atlanta and stopped in Knoxville in between. "He was one of the people who told me that he would never have thought about coming to Knoxville; he would've gone straight to Atlanta," Kerley says. "When he got here, he said it made him think so much of home, because it was like a little English cottage, that he stayed a while."

"Knoxville is real America," Rogers emails during a recent stop in Austin, Texas. "It is (so far) unspoilt by commercialization and excessive tourism. It has the charm of a small Southern town, but still offers a wide variety of things to do." These words of praise might come to a surprise from jaded locals who find it hard to believe that world travelers could be smitten with li'l ol' K-town. But Rogers and other hostellers have discovered some of the very things city boosters have wanted to impress upon locals; Rogers names the Old City, the East Tennessee History Museum, the Country Music Hall of Fame walking tour and, naturally, the Smoky Mountains as his favorite destinations. "Most of all," he says, "the town has a real charm about it, partly supplied by the people who live there, and partly by the way the whole town fits together." Rogers visited during the Fourth and Gill Historic Neighborhood tour of homes, so he got to participate in a community barbecue and see what proud homeowners had accomplished. "That was really something to see, for in England pretty much all our houses are made out of brick and stone. It was wonderful to meet the everyday people of Tennessee, and to be included in their community events."

The young Englishman praises the hostel too. "I have stayed in many hostels throughout the United States. Knoxville is by far the nicest hostel at which I have stayed," he writes. "The hospitality within the hostel is fantastic, the two people that run the hostel are some of the kindest people I have met."

"For me, it's been the chance of a lifetime," Kerley says. "It's opened up the world to be able to sit and chat with people from all these different countries, and they tell me all kinds of things about their country. It's a learning experience." She now gets her share of letters, postcards, email and overseas packages. One couple from Ireland sent a cookbook. "This is all so new to me," Kerley says. "Everyone that's come here has been great to hang out with, lots of fun. Now it's like I have many, many children all over the world."

Although some hostels are non-profit organizations, many others are business ventures. Knoxville Hostel is a for-profit...with heart. "A hostel isn't really intended to be a huge money-maker or to have a huge profit," Kerley says. "It's more to help the young traveler." Or the young at heart, as the hostel is open to travelers of all ages. And while hostels require guests to belong to a hostelling organizations to stay the night, Knoxville Hostel doesn't have such requirements. The hostel is considered an independent, which means it isn't affiliated with any hostelling organization, although they have applied for membership with Hostelling International/American Youth Hostels, a perk which would include the hostel in annual guides of all HI/AYH hostels.

Toby Pyle of Hostelling International/American Youth Hostels says common traits of non-profit and for-profit hostels alike are their contribution to their communities. "When the hostel in New York at Amsterdam and 53rd opened 15 years ago, the neighborhood was not so great. But since the hostel's been there, it's created a market for the little shops and restaurants in the area and really raised the value of the neighborhood." She tells of hostels that bring together elementary school students with foreign visitors and develop programs for neighborhood youth. "The whole focus is on cultural exchange, within the hostel among visitors and also in the communities themselves."

In addition to the hostel, Wishart owns and drives for Sassafras Transit, a van line that conducts riders to and from Gatlinburg. He's conveyed a number of international students who work summers in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. He talks fondly about hostelling and understands that fellow travelers bond over their common (and sometimes uncommon) hostel experiences. "There are certain people in the same circumstances, independent adventurous people seeing the world. And they share information. It's like a communications network too."

One international guest lives in the hostel permanently. Elena Kubikova of Russia, a graduate student in ornamental horticulture at UT, answered Kerley's ad seeking a student to board for free in the hostel in exchange for keeping an eye on things at night. "In school I have to be there in the mornings and during the day, but then I come home and do my homework," Kubikova says. "It's quiet and nice. I don't even have the feeling that it's a job. It's my home."

Knoxville Hostel is one of an estimated 6,000 hostels worldwide and just one of many places to stay in town. Its 10 beds won't bring in many tax dollars, but imagine the variety of people who will now find Knoxville a viable destination because of a cozy and inexpensive place to stay. Just this week, every bed has been filled with attendees of an evolution conference at UT. Maybe the hostel won't make an impact big enough for the Chamber of Commerce to measure, but if you visit the Old City on a random Friday night and notice some unfamiliar faces and foreign accents, you might just be witnessing a Knoxville Hostel guest being converted into a new fan of this city we call home.