About the House

The Historic Dent House, circa 1854, is the last standing antebellum home in Chattanooga.  As a beloved icon, this beautiful treasure is open to the public as a full scale restaurant specializing in the nourishing art of Afternoon Tea.

Small and large events are held year-round and the historic carriage house is laden with wares for shoppers to explore.

This 165-year-old grand home is the perfect place to experience a full four-course afternoon tea service for lunch, or relax before a fire enjoying a candle-lit dinner.  Special occasions and celebrations of every sort are perfectly placed amid the centuries-old Magnolias and Oaks, seven large fourteen foot high walled dining rooms, and picturesque fountain centered park of the Bonny Oaks Arboretum

History of the Dent House

The Historic Dent House, circa 1854,  packed with history and memories, provides four stories and seven large main rooms, an extensive butlers pantry, and six bathrooms. 

The grand home was no easy build for Colonel Jarret Dent in the mid-1800’s.  Colonel Dent moved to "Tynersville" to expand the Western and Atlantic railroads here in Chattanooga.  Colonel Lewis Shepard, owning over ten thousand acres in the Hickory Valley area, agreed to sell Dent the 320 acres that comprised what we now know as the lovely Dent House and the surrounding Bonny Oaks.  

Amazingly, Dent built his home as an exact replica of Shepard’s home, which was later demolished after deterioration in the late 1970's, leaving The Dent House as the last standing plantation home in the Scenic City.  

Owning 22 slaves did not sit well with the neighbors of Jarret Dent. While the heat of the civil war encroached upon the south, Jarrett Dent stole away to Dallas, Texas under the cover of night, where the Colonel felt his family would be safe.   Charles Dent, the Colonel's eldest son, did not share his father’s southern loyalty and left Chattanooga to fight valiantly for the cause of the North.  It is an accepted truth that Jarret Dent’s cousin was Julia Dent Grant. She married General Grant who later became President Grant.  Whispers of history tell of the Dent mansion being used as a heroic military field hospital, due to the many graves marked nearby. We do know the Dent Mansion was occupied by "Bush-Wackers", opportunists, and profiteers who looted plantation homes across the south only to trade and sell the plunder.  

Colonel Peak bought the spacious home from Dent just after the war ended and further crafted the acreage into a sustainable farm which including several outbuildings.  

He saw the beautiful trees and exclaimed, “Oh the Bonny Oaks!” and the name has stood to this day.  

After a widowed woman climbed the steps and left her child on the porch, Colonel Peak took the child in as if it were family. This began the house’s history as a safe haven for children.  Upon Peak’s death, he deeded the home to the city of Chattanooga and thus it became Bonny Oaks Children’s Home.  For decades, the building was home to countless children.  Dormitories were built s well as a church, library, and kitchens … the Dent House became the superintendent’s place of residence as the land supported a full dairy and farm for the children that called the land home.  Many happy memories were  made within the Dent House and the beautiful surrounding grounds.

Throughout the course of time, The Dent House went on to support a small meat and three restaurant, a bed and breakfast, and even a church extension area for Sunday School and administrative offices.  And through it all, the walls have stood strong, memories continued to be made, and the history is alive for sharing.

Today the doors are open to  all who want to remember the past and make new memories with their family and friends.  Long live the legacy, and herald praise for the future, as the home continues to be an open door.  

Genesis House of Tea is happy to continue to legacy of bringing new life to the Dent House, this time as a restaurant and venue. There’s no wonder it will forever remain on the National Historical Register as Chattanooga’s famous Dent House.