A hotel owner named Whitley built the first hotel on what is now the Donoho property sometime in the 1890s. Around 1901, the first hotel known as the "Donoho" was built on the property by Whitley's son-in-law, Squire Donoho (1863–1908), whose family had operated a general store in Red Boiling Springs since the 1880s.Roddy, p. 121n. After Squire Donoho's death, the hotel and property passed into the hands of Whitley's daughter, Tennie, and her husband, Brady Chitwood (1875–1958). The first Donoho Hotel burned in 1915, and the following year the Chitwoods built the present hotel as a replacement.
