World's Largest Guitar - Interstate View

This has been several things over the years, but is currently vacant. Most recently, it was Joe Merrell's Grand Guitar Museum and Gift Shop.

This spot is strategically placed where you can see it from the Interstate, I-81 from a rest area, near the TN/VA border in Bristol. The street running along the other side is US11W.

The Guitar is 70 feet long and three stories high

More info:
www.talentondisplay.com/grandguitar.html

Post Card Tuesday: Blount Mansion

The Blount Mansion in Downtown Knoxville was the home of one the areas earliest leaders and the house is one of the oldest in the state.

Blount was a signer of the United States Constitution, the only governor of the Southwest Territory, the olny US Senator expelled from the senate for treason (excluding the Civil War) and an early important politician in Tennessee.

Blount moved to the area now known as Knoxville in 1792 and built his house overlooking the Tennessee River. When the house was completed in 1796 it became the de facto capitol of the Southwest Territory. The mansion was built at a time when all the other homes in the area were essentially log cabins. Then as a new state was ready to form, the Tennessee Constitution was drafted in the house.

By the 1920's, the house had deteriorated, and there were plans to demolish the house and turn this land into a parking lot. This was despite well-known Tennessee historian John Trotwood Moore calling the house the most important historical spot in Tennessee. By 1930, D.A.R. and the East Tennessee Historical Society had enough money raised to purchase and restore the house.

Today, the Blount Mansion operates as a museum. It was one of the state's first properties to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is also designated a National Historic Landmark. For more info: www.blountmansion.org/

The Barn at Rutledge Falls

This is one of the most photographed barn in the entire state, and there's a couple of reasons for that. First of all, it's photogenic, with it's nice maintained red color and tiered multi-story shape. Also, it's along the walk to Rutledge Falls, a place where many people bring their camera anyway. Rutledge Falls is on Private Property, but the owners are nice enough to provide a small parking area, plus a walkway between their barn and their home that leads to the falls. This is in Coffee County, just outside Tullahoma.

Lincoln Plaza neon sign - Fayetteville, TN

Today is Abraham Lincoln's birthday. Lincoln Plaza, however was not named after our president. Fayetteville is in Lincoln County, named after Benjamin Lincoln, which was established 4 or 5 decades before Abraham Lincoln became president. This plaza is seen on US64 on the west side of town.

Sterchi Bros. Stores Barn

"It costs less at"
STERCHI BROS. STORES
to furnish your home.

Sterchis barns are a real dying breed of advertising barns. The company is long out of business and their old warehouse in Knoxville is now turned into lofts. Who knows how many barns they ever painted. This is the 4th one I've found and they all coud lbe be 80 years old. at their height, they were the largest furniture chain in America.

The other barns i've seen all looked the same, with the message painted on the roof like this one.

Compared to the others I've seen, this ad is painted on the side of the barn instead of the roof, and that has helped preserve the color. The slogan stays the same on all of the barns I've seen except the others say "Sterchi's" where this one says "Sterchi Bros." which sounds like something that makes this as barn even older than any other I've seen.

You can see this barn if you travel highway TN126 west of Blountville on the way to Kingsport in Sullivan County.

Loval E Ayers monument - Livingston, TN

SSGT Ayers was killed in WWII on this day in 1945, and there is a monument to him in front of the Overton County Courthouse in Livingston, TN.

Top Plaque:
Staff Sergeant Loval E Ayers
Avers Kaserne is named in honor of this soldies from Company B22 infantry, United States Army who was killed in action on 10 February 1945 at Prum Germany. He was Posthumously awarded the distinguished service cross for extraordinary heroism in action in the defense of his country.

bottom inscription:
SSG Ayer's Plaques were transferred from Germany to Overton Co. TN and dedicated on Veterans Day Nov.11, 1998.

Emory River Railroad Bridge - Harriman, TN

This Warren Camelback Truss bridge was built by L&N in 1910 over the Emory River in Harriman, TN. Today, the bridge is in use so that CSX can deliver coal cars to the TVA Kingston Steam Plant via trackage rights with NS. The main span is 23 feet long, although there is a lengthy approach on both sides. The bridge also parallels highway US27 across the river.

Adventure Golf: The Giant Octopus

"Big Jim" Sidwell worked at his family's furniture business in Murfreesboro, TN. He was looking for an outlet for his creativity when he and his family visiited Goofy Golf on a vaction to Florida. In his backyard, he built a large dnosaur out of wood and wire mesh, and then another and another.

In 1961, he opened Jolly Golf in Gatlinburg with many of his creations. He went on to build more mini golf parks in Daytona, Marietta and Lake of the Ozarks. When other attractions which also wanted his dinosaurs came calling, he started a fiberglass dinosaur factory in Murfreesboro. In the late 70's his tourist attraction vision expanded to a theme park in Pigeon Forge called Magic World.

At the gateway of the smokies, tourist attractions come and go, but one of the Sidwell family's parks is still open. Pigeon Forge exploded in popularity once Gatlinburg couldn't expand anymore. Adventure Golf along US441 looks like it remains popular after all these years. It has a charm I like that many oif the newer large corporate parks don't have.

There's a large Dinosaur by the entrance and a shark in the pond right by the 18h hole. Perhaps the most noticable thing is the oversized octopus in another pond and one of its many tentacles is raised up in the air!

Evacuation Routehouse

There are plenty of jokes available here to go around. I'll let other people make them. Seen in Leanna, TN, a small rural community in Rutherford County.

Post Card Tuesday: Toll Gate on Old Nashville Pike

These days, if you're driving from Nashville to Murfreesboro, you probably take Interstate 24. Before the Interstate, people would take Murfreesboro Rd. through Antioch, Lavergne, in Smyrna it becomes Lowry St. and then in Murfreesboro, it becomes Broad St. For a while, this stretch of highway 41/70S was also known as the "New Nashville Highway." Long before that was what we now know as the Old Nashville Highway, but well over a century ago, it was a turnpike.

If you've never driven this road before, it splits from the newer highway in Lavergne and passes some out of the way businesses. In Smyrna, it becomes a well traveled road, but south of there it becomes quite a scenic route. There's a lot of farmland through the area, a couple of old mansions, a new Laotian Buddhist temple, a rock quarry, the entrance to the Stones River battlefield and eventually College St. in Murfreesboro.

The road dates back to the 1830's when toll roads were built to connect the biggest cities and this road started out as the Nashville, Murfreesboro and Shelbyville Turnpike. Toll gates could be built every five miles, but not within a mile of the city, by state law. This post card dates to 1909, so it's probably about a mile north of the old city limits. Archaeologists determined there was at one time a toll gate very close to the Hazen Monument at the Stones River Battlefield, and it was destroyed in the battle. This picture could have been taken very close to there.