Dandridge: Named for the First First Lady
Near Pigeon Forge, Tennessee
Dandridge holds a distinction shared by no other American town: it is said to be the only place in the country named for Martha Dandridge Washington, wife of the first president. Euro-American settlers reached this East Tennessee valley in seventeen eighty-three, and by seventeen ninety-three it had been named the seat of Jefferson County.
The town survived the Civil War and two centuries of floods from the French Broad River, but almost did not survive the Tennessee Valley Authority. In nineteen forty-two the TVA proposed flooding nearly all of downtown Dandridge to fill Douglas Lake. Residents saved the town by writing to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, pointedly reminding her that Dandridge was the only town named for the wife of George Washington. The appeal worked, and the TVA built a protective levee instead. The old courthouse still stands.
