At the end of a narrow gravel road, nestled among the trees in a quiet cove, sits The Jumper’s Rest, a 55-year-old wooden clad cabin that has been the vacation home for three generations of the Jumper family.
The cabin is filled with memorabilia and photos of those long-ago family vacations. As you walk about the cabin looking at those memories captured in time, you can almost hear faint laughs and shrieks of children jumping off the dock and swimming or fishing in the cove.
Very little has changed since Jim and Ann Jumper built their family vacation getaway on Soddy Lake in 1955. A rowboat has been replaced by a ski boat. Indoor plumbing replaced the outhouse. The cabin originally had no running water, but now has well water. The heating and cooling system still consists of wall heaters and window air conditioners.
Joe Jumper, along with his two brothers and sister, laid the sidewalk that leads to the cabin and the indoor stone floor. He remembers when their cabin was only one of two along the cove. Through the years, house after house began popping up. Today, the Jumpers’ cabin is surrounded by larger modern houses, but none, no doubt, rich with the memories contained in the Jumpers’ cabin.
The original cabin was only one room that contained the kitchen and living room. The children slept on old metal Army-style bunk beds on a back screened porch that faced the cove. The screened porch, which has since been enclosed, has knotty pine floors and a wooden raftered ceiling. A long bank of windows was incorporated into the remodeling to take advantage of views of the lake. The porch is now a dining room and sitting room, but still contains two bunk beds for extra sleeping space.
A large dining table is surrounded by a mixture of ladderback chairs and small wooden twig chairs that Joe remembers his father buying long ago from a man who sold furniture. A Welsh dresser displays green ivy-patterned dishes that belonged to Joe’s grandmother – the same pattern used on the I Love Lucy show.
The original front door from the screened porch into the house was salvaged and now leans against a small window “to hide the air conditioner,” notes Joe. The location of the original front door is now the doorway into the kitchen and living room.
The kitchen and living room have a stone floor with a wooden beamed, gabled ceiling. A combination laundry room/bath with shower was later added off the kitchen, as well as a new front entrance. The kitchen still has the original red countertops with metal border and knotty pine cabinets.
A large bar with wooden stools separates the kitchen from the living room. The bar was added when a fire damaged the original countertop and a matching replacement could not be found for the red countertop. The knotty pine cabinets below were saved – even one door that had been chewed by some “critter” that somehow made its way into the cabin.
On the wall at the end of the bar is a vintage wooden crank phone. Hanging over the bar is a Tiffany-style lamp. However, it is the large and odd-looking light fixture on the bar that catches the eye: an old globe shaped like a candle flame that used to be a Christmas decoration on top of street lamps in downtown Chattanooga.
Bright red kitchen accents, such as a coffee maker and buckets that hold cutlery, complement the red countertops, white double sink and cooktop. Decorative plates, iron trivets and candleholders are displayed on two built-in shelves over the sink.
The refrigerator is a repository of family memories, as well as food. A black and white picture of Ann and the four children posed on the dock is prominently displayed on the front of the refrigerator, while a collection of lanterns used for night fishing sits on top of the refrigerator. The fishing poles are nearby, leaning against the refrigerator – one for each family member, ready to be picked up for a trip down to the dock.
Looking toward the far end of the living room, it is easy to imagine the room bathed in warm light from an evening fire crackling in the stone fireplace. The fireplace is flanked by two corner cabinets, a black leather sofa, chair and ottoman, and a Windsor rocking chair. The furniture is grouped around a braided rug, forming a cozy circle.
A massive wooden yoke is a focal point over the mantle, which holds family mementos such as a collection of small amber bottles and a brass propeller. Propped up on the mantle are two black and white photographs, one of the gravel driveway and the other of the dock, captured by Joe on a foggy day that could have been a year ago or 40 years ago. Sitting on the stone hearth is an antique red Coca-Cola cooler used to chill drinks on hot summer afternoons at the dock.
There are other red accents in the living room, including a ladderback chair, a comfy throw over the leather chair, and two brightly painted matching tables in front of the sofa. On the wall behind the sitting area and to the right of the front door is an antique flour bin cabinet and Jim Jumper’s wooden oak desk.
A vintage Philco radio on the desk and pictures over the desk are reminders of days gone by. The radio belonged to Jim, and the pictures are of Jim and his brothers, Bob and Tom, during their football careers. Jim is a former Red Bank High School football coach, and Tom played on the 1951 Tennessee national championship football team.
The cabin’s only bedroom is accessed from the living room by a step down into the light green paneled room that looks out onto the deck and waterside. Ann Jumper’s decoupage of an antique world map became the headboard for the bed. Next to the bed is a small nightstand with a black and white photograph of Jim Jumper and his two brothers when they were young. The furniture is an eclectic mix of styles and materials, from the American oak dresser and chest of drawers to the French-style armoire and Louis XV fauteuil chair with contemporary geometric print upholstery.
A wooden deck that spans the length of the house was added at the rear of the house and is a favorite spot to relax and enjoy the quiet, wooded cove.
The Jumpers built a boat dock and a swimming dock. Joe fondly remembers water relays that he and his brothers and sister used to swim between the two docks.
Although the entire family does not vacation at the cabin as they did in years past, it has become a favorite getaway for Joe and his siblings, as well as another generation of Jumper children. They can look back on the carefree days at The Jumper’s Rest, while creating new family memories in the years to come.