W.C. Handy Home and Museum - Florence, AL

Here is the description of the log home which later became a museum on the Florence website:

"Where the Tennessee River, like a silver snake, winds her way through the red clay hills of Alabama, sits high on these hills my hometown, Florence." William Christopher Handy begins his autobiography, Father of the Blues, with these words.

W.C. Handy was born in a small log cabin in Florence on November 16, 1873. Handy became famous for his blues compositions such as "Memphis Blues" & "St. Louis Blues". He was also a musician, band conductor, and author.

The museum houses a collection of memorabilia, musical instruments, personal papers and original sheet music. Handy's famous trumpet and his personal piano are just a few of the items on display.

W.C. Handy died in New York in 1958. His hometown of Florence honors the legacy of the "Father of the Blues" with a birthday party at the museum each November 16th and with the week-long W.C. Handy Music Festival during the summer.

Meigs County Bank - Decatur, TN

Located on the Decatur town square is the historic Meigs County Bank which dates to the early 1900s. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

First Presbyterian Church - LaFollette, TN

Holden Hardware & Glidden neon sign - Murfreesboro

At the Murfreesboro, TN town square is this decades old hardware store.

The Painted Lady - Jackson, TN

This elegant old Victorian house near the central business district of Jackson has been converted into a restaurant. "The Painted Lady" has apparently been the name of the house for a while and the cafe that opened up on the inside is known as "Lunch at the Lady."

Old Morgan County Jail - Wartburg, TN

Painted in a nice, relaxing light blue color with a double arch along the front (with the entrance on the left one. The two-story structure was built in 1930 and renovated in 1970.

If you like books on old county jails, there's one about Tennessee Jails published in 1979 by Paul and Sophie Crane called Tennessee's Troubled Roots. On the cover of that book is a closeup of the hand-painted message above the front door: "It Doesn't Pay to Do Wrong."

Wilson County Courthouse - Lebanon, TN

A couple of blocks east of the town square on Highway U.S. 70

Cameron-Patton Hotel - South Pittsburg, TN

Along the main road (old US72) through the heart of South Pittsburg, TN

I don't have any info about this former hotel other than the name of the building on the side, in addition to the classic Drink Coca-Cola mural.

Baggett Pharmacy Neon Sign - Kingston, TN

Located along Race St. in the heart of town (US 70)

Waverly 1978 Disaster Site Memorial Museum

On February 24, 1978 at 2:55 PM, two days after 24 cars of a Louisville & Nashville train wrecked on this site (The tracks are behind me across a street and behind a fence), workmen were cleaning up when 22,000 pounds of liquid propane fuel from a derailed tanker car ignited and caused a massive explosion. The blast and resulting fire destroyed a great part of Waverly's old town section that included homes and businesses. Sixteen people were killed in the disaster, including Waverly's police and fire chiefs. More than 200 people suffered injury, and damage was in the millions of dollars.

Today at this nearby site is an L&N Caboose, which also functions as a museum. Even though I stopped by on a Saturday in January and nobody was around, the door was unlocked. If you happen to arrive when the door is locked, there is a sign in the window for who you can call to have the door unlocked.

Bordeaux Motel neon sign

Located along Clarksville Highway (US41A) in the Bordeaux area of Nashville, just a couple blocks north of the river.

Burgess Falls State Park

Once providing the power for the city of Cookeville, This is the largest of three waterfalls along the Falling Water River along the Highland Rim.

Belle Vue I - 1795 Log Home

This historic log cabin now resides at Red Caboose Park in the Bellevue area of Nashville.
The following text is taken from the Bellevue Harpeth Historic Association website where they also have some "before" photos:
The Belle Vue I log cabin was built by Abram Louis DeMoss in 1795 on a hill overlooking the Harpeth River on what is now Morton Mill Road. Later, Riverside was built next to the cabin. Riverside was destroyed by fire, so in order to preserve the history for future generations, Dolly Carter (wife of descendant Frank Carter), donated the cabin to the Bellevue Harpeth Historic Association. BHHA then contracted with Leatherwood to dismantle, label and reconstruct the cabin at Red Caboose Park on Colice Jeanne Road.

See Rock City Today

Originally known as the Tennessee Road, US411 was the highway used from Northwest Georgia to reach the Smokey Mountains. This Rock City barn in a cornfield is seen by northbound travelers in Bartow County along this highway.

This is now one of 85 different Rock City Barns I have photographed and uploaded to Flickr in my Rock City Barns set. People often ask me how I've found so many of them. I have drawn from many resources such as books and web sites and sometimes luck, but there's not really one "go to" place to find them all. Well, now on my website, I have tried to create a one stop source for the locations of all of the barns I've been to. On my Map of Rock City Barns page, I have plotted each barn on a Google Map.

Fred Hallmark Farm - Warrior, AL

This barn and its reflection in Hallmark Lake can be seen from Interstate 65 southbound near exit 280.

Fred H. Hallmark owned the local Hallmark Coal Co. He also purchased the steam locomotives from the defunct Petticoat Junction theme park of Panama City, FL. At one time, those locomotives were on this property, but you probably couldn't see it from the interstate.

Whitworth Memorial Baptist Church

You can see this church from I-40. I had passed it many times on the east side of Nashville, so I decided to find it from the street it was on.

It looks like a church that would be several decades old, but it was built in 2004.

The Whitworth family owned some farmland that I-40 cut through. The land on this side of the interstate was given to be this church

New Daisy Theatre - Beale St. - Memphis

According to Wikipedia:
The New Daisy was originally conceived as a movie theatre, and operated as such until the late 70’s. In the 80’s , the venue was renovated to house concerts with a capacity of over 1000 and became one of the preeminent venues of it’s kind in the US.

The venue has featured artists such as John Lee Hooker, Gatemouth Brown, Jerry Lee Lewis, Al Green, Sam and Dave, Bob Dylan, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Nirvana, Justin Timberlake, Nelly, The Cult, Foo Fighters, Smashing Pumpkins, Jack White, Dave Matthews and Oasis, among others.

Bob Dylan used the venue to record a video of a song from his Grammy-winning CD Time Out of Mind.

Would you like to see more photos from Beale street? Check out the Beale Street gallery

Mine Launcher outside the Overton Co. Courthouse

I didn't know anything about this, so this comment was left on the flickr photo page:

25cm [ 10 inch] sMW - schwerer Minen-werfer - heavy mine launcher.
It's weight is 1,386 pounds.
This picture shows it in travel mode, it was not fired with the wheels attached.

It was originally developed by the German and introduced in 1910.
It was developed as a lesson learned from the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. During this war it was duly noted that artillery alone could not eliminate all obstacles. The infantry needed a close quarter weapon capable of dropping a heavy explosive charge exactly onto a yet undestroyed target a few hundred meters/feet away. This area immediately in front of the assault troops was an area in which friendly artillery could not be relied upon to deliver accurate fire; as much due to communications as due to the power of the shell, which would be a hazard to their own men.

The 250mm sMW has a rifled tube, was muzzle-loaded, has a recoil mechanism, and the sight and laying mechanism of a full sized artillery piece. It was electronically fired at a distance from the mortar.
It fired a 215 pound shell containing 110 pounds of explosives out to a maximum of 2910 feet.

Reference:
Jäger, Herbert
German Artillery of World War One.
Ramsbury, Marlborough, Wiltshire:
Crowood Press, 2001

This information is presented to give a casual viewer information on this gun.
The specifications of this weapon differ between sources and often contradict each other, mainly due to information of original manufacture and from later modifications/models.

In the news: Rock City Barns get repainted

Recently, a See Rock City barn near Crossville, TN was repainted. The Chattanooga Times Free Press has the story and includes a slideshow. You can see the article here:

Barn bearing iconic "See Rock City" sign gets a fresh coat of paint

Here is a photo of the same barn taken in 2006. Back then, it looked like it hadn't been too long since the previous repaint. This barn is east of Crossville along highway TN68 in the Grassy Cove area of Cumberland County.



Rock City's facebook page also shared this photo of another recent repaint:

Not so long ago we did this See Rock City barn repaint - today (hoping for no rain) we're on the road again doing...

Posted by Rock City on Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Allandale Mansion Front - Kingsport, TN

The Allandale Mansion was the dream home of Ruth and Harvey Brooks. The mansion's distinctive portico has caused the mansion to be nicknamed "The White House of Kingsport." The mansion was built in 1953 and from the 500 acre property the Brooks raised Black Angus cows and Tennessee Walking Horses. In their will, they deeded the mansion to the city of Kingsport so that it could be used by the community.

The mansion is designed in a Georgian architecture style. There are four chimneys, formal fireplaces in each main room, and a hipped roof. A grand wooden curved staircase is the main feature in the foyer.

The Barn is located along US 11W (the old Lee Highway) in Kingsport, where the city extends into Hawkins County.

"Ladies Rest Room" - Lewisburg, TN

Serving an unusual purpose is this brick building at the Lewisburg town square in Marshall County, TN. My understanding of the idea is that when men would come into town on business, they'd bring their wives who would socialize here. I'm not quite sure how popular the idea was, but if it was really successful every town would have had one.

The Ladies Rest Room building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. At the time of its listing, it was still being used for its original purpose. For the full story: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladies_Rest_Room

See Beautiful Rock City

This beautiful Rock City barn has been well maintained, and the farm is for sale so it can be your for the right price. This barn is located on state highway KY91 about halfway between Princeton and Hopkinsville, KY. It's in Christian County, but it's just about a mile from the Caldwell County line.

This is now one of 83 different Rock City Barns I have photographed and uploaded to Flickr in my Rock City Barns set. People often ask me how I've found so many of them. I have drawn from many resources such as books and web sites and sometimes luck, but there's not really one "go to" place to find them all. Well, now on my website, I have tried to create a one stop source for the locations of all of the barns I've been to. On my Map of Rock City Barns page, I have plotted each barn on a Google Map.

Mobile & Ohio Passenger Depot - Trenton, TN

The rail line through Trenton, TN was built in 1861 by Mobile & Ohio (M&O) which eventually became GM&O and the Illinois Central in 1972. Today the tracks are part of short line West Tennessee Railroad. This area also had some Civil War history as seen by this historic marker: seemidtn.com/gallery/index.php?album=historical-markers%2...

Dixon Springs Union Church

This church building in Dixon Springs, TN dates back to 1878. It is called the Union church since different groups met here over the years. Originally the building was a Christian Church, and then became a Church of Christ. In the 1960s it became a Baptist church for a few years until it became abandoned.

This road is part of the old main road between Carthage and Hartsville, but now highway TN25 bypasses the old part of the city. This church building is on the national register of Historic Places as part of the Dixon Springs Historic District.

Sleep in a Wigwam - Cave City, KY

I had always heard about the place like this along Route 66, but didn't know that there was one near Mammoth Cave until more recently. Wigwam Village #2 This is just north of the center of Cave City, KY along highway U.S. 31W, which was part of the Dixie Highway way back when. At the height of roadside tourism, there were several of these around the country.

www.wigwamvillage.com/

Stones River National Cemetery Rostrum (Replica)

From the marker:
Only a handful of original rostrums still exist in the United States. Formal platforms for speakers and dignitaries-like the one you see reconstructed here-were common to all national cemeteries and provided focal points for decades of patriotic speeches and ceremonies during veterans' reunions and Memorial Day activities in the years following the Civil War. Some even served as bandstands for summer concerts. The original 1883 Stones River rostrum was torn down in 1941-42 after it had deteriorated beyond repair. Ground-penetrating radar helped archaeologists find the foundations of the original rostrum in 2004.

To see all of my Stones River Battlefield pictures, Look Here.

Culleoka, TN Post Office

seen along highway TN373

Sergei Rachmaninoff Statue - Knoxville, TN

The only statue to Russian-born world famous composer and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff is at World's Fair Park in Knoxville, TN. His last concert was in 1943 nearby at the University of Tennessee. This statue by Victor Bokarev was dedicated a half-century later.

This article tells the full story:
www.metropulse.com/columns/secret-history/rachmaninoffs-l...

Bald Eagle at Reelfoot Lake

There are quite a few Bald Eagles that have taken residence at this popular Tennessee state park. They also have a few at the visitor center, such as the one seen here.

Vacation Motel - Clarksville, TN

Located along US41A/79 in the Providence area of Clarksville, TN