The
Beall Family
In 1976, Kreis and Sandy Beall laid eyes on Blackberry Farm for the first time. The Bealls were enthralled by the possibilities and the beauty of the land. Sandy, a 26-year-old restaurateur, and Kreis, a visionary in her own right with a knack for cooking and entertaining, decided to take a gamble, and the Bealls, in partnership with a few other families, purchased Blackberry Farm that same year. The Beall family moved into the inn with their 4-month-old son, Sam.
Resourceful and fueled by their passion for hospitality, they made a plan to renovate the house. To aid in their efforts to redecorate on a limited budget, they enlisted the help of Kreis’ mother. Kreis likes to say, “I wanted Blackberry Farm to look like Mom’s house, but to feel and taste like Mami's,” a combination of her mother’s style and her grandmother’s warmth. In the dining room, Kreis and Sandy used their own wedding china and silverware and filled the rooms with vintage furniture they would find on antiquing trips.
In the early days with the Beall family, Blackberry Farm was run primarily as a corporate retreat. Kreis, Sandy and Sam lived in two of the inn’s rooms, and the remainder were reserved for guests. Sandy and Kreis ran the inn as if they were hosting guests in their home, often sending toddler Sam out to carry plates to guests in his pajamas.
Their dream was to run an inn, create a legacy for their children and grandchildren and preserve the land's natural beauty. In 1979, 1,688 additional acres of land were acquired, building upon the legacy of conservation that the Bealls and Blackberry Farm team are passionate about.
In 1990, Blackberry Farm officially opened to the public. Kreis and Sandy had grown the inn to 29 guest rooms and began welcoming guests to what was becoming a place defined by warmth, craft and care. Over the next decade, Blackberry Farm continued to grow and expand with the building of the Holly Glade, Oak and Chestnut Cottages, increasing Blackberry Farm’s capacity to 44 rooms by 1997. In 1994, Blackberry Farm was invited to become a Relais & Châteaux member.
When Sandy’s business took the family to Mobile, Alabama, Gary and Bernadette Doyle served as innkeepers, carrying on the Beall family’s tradition of hospitality. After they departed in 1994, the Doyles opened a restaurant in Knoxville, the first in what would become an incredible collection of Blackberry team members to take their hospitality expertise and grow the local community.
Over the next few years, the Beall family expanded the team, hiring some team members who still work at Blackberry today, marking decades of hospitality service. In 1995, a young Brian Lee answered a job ad in a newspaper and began his career with Blackberry Farm. He quickly rose through the team and became an integral part of the guest experience, which he remains today. In 1999, fresh off a stint in Colorado, Matt Alexander returned to East Tennessee and became general manager of Blackberry Farm, beginning his multi-decade career with the Beall family. Matt has served as president of Blackberry since 2017.
As the property entered its next chapter, much of its physical growth was guided by Chuck Alexander of Hickory Construction, who oversaw the building of nearly every structure at Blackberry Farm from the early 1990s through the 2020s — helping translate the Bealls’ vision into enduring spaces across the land.
