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the Bristol Hotel, plans to open next year. “I think it’s really important


to realize Bristol has some momentum,” says Maggie Bishop, executive director of Believe in Bristol, an organization promot- ing the shared economy of the twin cities, Bristol, Va., and Bris- tol, Tenn. “With these new hotels and the new distillery, it’s going to bring in a whole new clientele.” The new development won’t


just draw people downtown; it will give those people something they don’t have now — a place to stay.


“With those two hotels, it’s


going to change our downtown drastically and Bristol drastically. Right now, we don’t have any lodging in our downtown district. Basically, all our lodging is on the interstate [I-81],” Bishop says. “Those hotels bringing people to the heart of our community is going to be amazing for us, so we’re really excited about that.” The Sessions Hotel plans


include renovating and repurpos- ing three buildings constructed between 1915 and 1922 into a 70-room hotel with two restau- rants, an outdoor music venue, rooftop gardens and a rooftop bar. The Bristol Hotel will have


a rooftop bar, too, and one res- taurant to go with its 65 rooms, including a 1,200-square-foot penthouse. Both hotels plan to have spas.


1927 recording sessions Tax credits available for his-


toric renovations are part of what’s shaping these developments. Yet Bristol also may be motivated by the historically important Taylor- Christian Hat and Glove Co., a building that’s already been lost. That building already was empty when Victor Talking Machine Co. producer Ralph Peer set up his traveling recording studio there in 1927. During July and August of that year, Peer recorded more than two dozen groups and perform-


Rendering courtesy Bristol Hotel


ers, including Pop Stoneman, the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers. Johnny Cash called those


recording sessions “the single-most important event in the history of country music.” Others have called the Bristol sessions the Big Bang of country music. In 1998, Congress declared Bristol the birthplace of country music. The region has leveraged


that designation and its affiliation with The Crooked Road, Vir- ginia’s heritage music trail, into an identity that took physical form when the Birthplace of Country Music Museum opened in 2014. The same nonprofit that operates the museum hosts the Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion, an annual three-day series of concerts — about 130 bands on 20 stages in downtown — that brings about 45,000 people and more than $16 million to the region each September.


Downtown Bristol has been


busy collecting and promoting the kinds of things that draw people between festivals — coffee shops, craft breweries, live music, artisans and galleries — and it seems about to collect another. Nick Bianchi and his father,


Joe, closed on the Bristol Supply and Equipment Co. building in April. By September, they hope to be brewing and selling gin, rum and Tennessee whiskey (the building is on the Tennessee side of State Street) in the 113-year- old building. It takes more than geography to make Tennessee whiskey, according to Nick Bianchi. It’s essentially bourbon that’s filtered through sugar maple charcoal before it goes into barrels for aging. Lost State’s first whiskey will skip that time in barrels, Bianchi says. It will be “white, unaged whiskey.” But don’t call it moonshine.


www.VirginiaBusiness.com VIRGINIA BUSINESS 63


Plans for the 65-room Bristol Hotel include a restaurant and a rooftop bar.


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