What today is the Blue Chair has been an eatery by various names over the last 80 years. And the Blue Chair Cafe actually began in the building to its left and eventually expanded into the space it operates now. Its outward appearance has changed as frequently as its name in recent decades, but the core of the current building appears first in the Sanborn map of 1907, labeled the post office. It was still that on the 1922 map, but by 1930 the post office had moved to the corner and this building was labeled a shop. The lease from 1918 to 1944 was held by Kirby-Smith descendants.
In 1942 J.P. and Juan Sherrill took possession, and they started a cafe. Theirs was the longest period run by the same family, and Sherrill's Cafe lasted from 1944 to 1972, the last 10 years with James Wiliam Sherrill and Cleo Dotson Sherrill in charge. After such stability, the lease changed hands 3 times in 1972, with Clarence Carter and family holding it from September of that year until March 1980. It was during this period that the building was expanded with the plate glass window located to the left, looking at the original structure. Lawrence Green then operated the City Cafe until 1992 and offered taxi service from it as well.
In 1992 Shao-nian Bates acquired the lease, modified the building's exterior and opened a cafe that included Chinese selections and offered health supplies and organic food. Three years later Louis Rice, Jr. became leaseholder and the name changed to Blue Chair. For the last 10 years, Jimmy and Sarah Wilson have been owners of the Blue Chair and the Tavern, connected by a stairway between the two buildings that had been side by side since 1907.
The TAVERN side was built circa 1908, and housed the Express office for the railroad. In more recent decades it was an electric shop, private office space, laundrymat, the Sewanee Mountain Messenger's first office, the Blue Chair's first location, and finally Sweet Cee Cee’s. In 2012, the Wilsons purchased the building and created the Tavern with its connecting staircase to the Blue Chair's Cafe.