Travelers Rest Historic Site

4339 Riverdale Road
Toccoa , GA 30577

Located just off U.S. Hwy. 123 six miles east of Toccoa.

Explore Travelers Rest Historic Site

Traveler’s Rest, a stagecoach inn and plantation home, was built around 1815 by James R. Wylie, a stakeholder in the Unicoi Turnpike, a busy thoroughfare that passed nearby. Wylie operated the inn until the 1830s when he sold the place to Devereaux Jarrett, the “richest man in the Tugaloo Valley.” 

Among other things, Jarrett doubled the size of Traveler’s Rest, which also served as the headquarters of his 14,400-acre plantation. The Jarrett family inhabited the site until the 1950s, when the state of Georgia purchased the remaining few acres of the once-vast plantation and opened it to the public as an historic site. 

Thanks to its unique and well-preserved architecture, Traveler’s Rest was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. 

Today visitors can enjoy a tour of the house and see many original artifacts and furnishings, some of which were crafted by Caleb Shaw, a splendid cabinetmaker from Massachusetts.

Hours: Open Wednesday-Sunday, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.; Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Open Mondays on Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day weekends.

Note: Travelers Rest Historic Site has no reservable facilities.