Southern Design at The Cottages

The first thing you notice when you visit The Cottage is that it looks more like a single family home than your average senior housing community. When The Cottage founders were deciding how they would serve families with older loved ones, they did not want to follow the large, hotel like models of other senior housing providers. They were determined to create an environment that was as close as possible to homes that our residents and families spent their lives in.

In the summer of 1994, our Founder family took a day trip to Opryland theme park with their family. As they entered the park, Peg Thompson, one of The Cottages’ founders, spotted a Southern Living™ Idea Home built just inside the park entrance. It was the Cumberland River Cottage by Stephen Fuller Designs, and Peg spent the rest of the day walking through the home, taking pictures, and asking questions. The Cumberland River Cottage became the blueprint for the home-like design the founders were looking for.