Shelbyville's Veterans Memorial Statue

Happy Memorial Day!

Located at the Bedford County Courthouse in Shelbyville, TN. This statue was dedicated on Mar. 11, 2006 and was sculpted by Russ Faxon of Bell Buckle, TN. There are 1,111 bricks honoring donors of the project. There are 4 benches, one at each corner, to represent the 4 continents that the Bedford County Veterans have fought in.

Hohenwald, TN Train Depot

Hohenwald was settled by German immigrants. The name translates to "High Forest." The original 1896 NC&StL Hohenwald Depot has been restored to its original appearance. As one of the first buildings constructed in the town, the Depot welcomed the new settlers. Later, it witnessed visits from Thomas Edison (coming to the region to find Cobalt) and William Wrigley, as well as served as a work site for German prisoners of war from Rommel’s African Corps during WWII.

This Depot was moved several times over the years but returned to its original location and restored in 1985.

Vintage Dixie Highway metal sign

This sign is inside the old Roane County Courthouse of Kingston, TN, which is now a museum. If you are not familiar with the Dixie Highway, it was a National Auto Trail (which predated the US numbered highway system) and connected Miami with the north. A portion of the highway passed through Roane County. This sign is probably about 80 years old.

AT&T Building at Dusk

As of the beginning of 2008, Nashville's most prominent skyscraper, the Bellsouth Building has been renamed and re-logoed the AT&T building. With the two spires at top, it has been locally dubbed as the Batbuilding. Maybe I'll call it the Bat&tbuilding.

Unless the Signature Tower gets built, this is Nashville's tallest skyscraper at 617 ft and 33 floors. It was built in 1994. Another logo in this view has changed about the same time. The Red CVS Caremark was just a white Caremark, and that change was made in late 2007.

See 7 States from Rock City - US70 in Humphreys Co.

SEE 7 STATES
from
ROCK CITY
atop LOOKOUT MT.

This Rock City barn is located along highway U.S. 70 (Broadway of America) a couple of miles east of McEwen, TN in Humphrey's County. This message was written for the eastbound passngers to see.

This barn was built in 1925 and belongs to the Holloran family farm. I saw a photo of this barn taken in 1995 and there was another faded ad on the front of the barn which you can't even see now and was very faded in that photo from 15 years ago. It looks like it spelled ORELISKET, so your guess is as good as mine.

Foster Falls - Marion Co. TN

Foster Falls is a 60 ft. Waterfall and is part of the South Cumberland State Park in Marion Co., TN. The entrance is located right off highway US41 between Tracy City and Jasper in the Monteagle area. For perspective, my wife is wearing an orange shirt and is on the rocks to the right. The area is open from April to Nov and swimming in the lagoon is permitted.

The Pigeon Forge sign

This sign has apparently been there for a long time, but I had never noticed it until I found a post card for it. Then, I kept my eyes open for it all over town, only to find it on the main parkway at the Gatlinburg side.

Jail door not keeping anyone in.

This jail door now stands in Fayetteville's stone bridge park. According to the marker, this jail door is from the old city Calaboose which was built in 1867. Cahoots Restaurant is located in this structure today (where you can eat in a jail cell.) According to the marker, "Many a person has looked through these bars."

Baby Chimpanzee George - Knoxville Zoo

One of the cutest things about the baby chimp is he had his own stuffed toy chimpanzee that he carried around with him often.

The Knoxville Zoo has a blog about George growing up:
www.chimpfamilychronicles.blogspot.com/

Nashville Flood Debris at Warner Park

After the big Nashville Flood, people in the Bellevue area were invited to bring their flood-damaged possessions to Warner Park where it could be hauled away.

Most of the photos on this blog were taken by me, However, this photo was taken by my mom on 5/12. Luckily nobody in our family suffered any flood damage.

Andrew Jackson Statue, Washington, DC

Yesterday, I posted a picture of the similar statue in Nashville. This statue is on the other side of Pennsylvania Ave, across from the White House.

The cast metal part of the statue is the same, but the bases are different, as the one in Nashville has the name JACKSON in large letters at the base, and this one is surrounded by cannons.

Andrew Jackson Statue, Nashville, TN

There are three of these President Jackson Statues in the US. This one is on the East side of the Tennessee Capitol on capitol hill. Another one is "across the street" from the White House in Washington DC. The third is in New Orleans. I had never seen that one, until President Bush spoke on TV in front of it in his Post-Katrina speech.

Tomorrow, I'll post the picture of the statue in Washington.

MTRCS sign

Those in Nashville and Middle TN who like to fly model airplanes can do so at a model runway at Cane Ridge park on the south side of Davidson County. This is the sign there at the entrance. On the other side is the board where the enthusiests reserve their plane's frequency.

If you look closely, there's an actual propeller on the front of the plane.

My brother was really into this hobby in the late 80's

William H and Edgar Magness Community House & Library

along Main St. in McMinnville, TN

William H. and Edgar Magness Community House & Library; (118 W. Main St.)
Mr. W. H. Magness, Jr. (1865-1936) was a co-founder and the first president of the National Bank of McMinnville in 1874, which became First National Bank in 1905. He was the city's foremost philanthropist, and donated the land and construction cost for this classic and dignified cut-stone building. It was built in 1931 at a cost of $40,000, and is named in honor of the father and brother of Mr. Magness. His other charitable gifts included the construction of the carillon tower of Magness Memorial Baptist Church at 403 North Spring Street. That building burned after his death, and was rebuilt as First Baptist Church. Mr. Magness is buried in Riverside Cemetery.

Mrs. J. M. Cunningham was the local champion of reading and headed the library from 1913 until her death in 1954.

www.tngenweb.org/warren/warsite.htm

Huntsville Depot

Built in 1860, the Huntsville train depot is the oldest in Alabama. During the Civil War, the depot was used as a prison for Confederate Soldiers, when Huntsville was occupied by the Union in 1862. (Some of their graffiti has been preserved on the walls.)

The Depot served as division headquarters and passenger station on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. The line is now part of Norfolk Southern Railroad. The last passenger train came in on March 30, 1968.

The depot is listed ont eh National Register of Historic Places, and looks to be an impressive museum (although I was unable to see the inside.) It is part of the EarlyWorks system, along with Constitution Village.

Sligo Bridge

It carries US70 over center hill lake. This bridge was made necessary by the formation of Center Hill Lake in the late 40's. Old highway 26 crossed this spot when it was just a river, and I have heard that the old span is still down there, below the water.

Picture taken from the Sligo Marina.

World's Oldest Coca-Cola Mural

You see the old Coke murals all over the place, and it had to start somewhere. Not surprisingly, it wasn't far from Atlanta. This mural was painted on the side of Young Brother's Pharmacy in Cartersville, GA.

In 1894, James Couden, a Coca-Cola syrup salesman, felt the vast exterior of the building would make a great location to advertise his product. 100 years later, preservationists wanted to see what this sign originally looked like and 25 layers of paint were carefully removed. Thus, in 1994 the sign was repainted and preserved to look like it did a century earlier.

This sign is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Little Herbie in Gatlinburg

Little herbie is one of the cars at the Gatlinburg famous movie cars museum. The brochure says they have 30 cars on display, and half of them seem to be outside to entice you to be a paying customer

Columbia Military Academy

Has been "Columbia Academy" (without Military) since 1979. Located at the important location of 7th St. (U.S. 412) at the train tracks. On the National Register of Historic Places, built in a Colonial Revival and Romanesque style.

From the historical marker:
In 1888, local residents gave 67 acres to the U.S. Army for an arsenal. The Bowling Green stone buildings quartered troops in the Spanish-American War. Columbia Military Academy was founded in 1904 and opened formally August 23, 1905 with 167 young men from eight states. Designated an "Honor School" in 1935 by the U.S. Government, youth nationwide trained here as military and civil leaders, among them: general officers, battle heroes, governors, educators, and corporate heads.

The "Old" Cumberland County, TN Courthouse

Crossville, TN

The "New" Courthouse (inasmuch as you can call a 1905 building new) is across Main Street from this building. This was built in 1886 and much of the inside was destroyed by fire in 1905. It was restored and used as a school for a while. Now it is home to the Military Memorial Museum of Upper Cumberland.

Like most every other building in the area, the courthouse exterior is made of Crab Orchard stone. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is located on Main St. (U.S. 127)

The Ready House of Readyville

I recently watched a documentary on the history of Rutherford County. The first county seat was the now underwater town of Jefferson. County officials wanted to move the county seat to a better location. Murfreesboro was ulitmately chosen, but Mr. Ready wanted his town of Readyville to be the new county seat (presumably so he could make a lot of money selling a lot of his land in the area.) After Murfreesboro was chosen, Mr.Charles Ready continued to throw a fit about Readyville not being chosen.

Soon afterward, when it was necessary to create the border between Rutherford and Cannon counties, Officials made sure the border went through Mr. Ready's house and mill so that he'd have to pay taxes in both counties. From this vantage point, the East side on the left is cannon County and the right west side is Rutherford.

Eventually, Charles Ready became a U.S. Congressman.

The Great Flood of 2010

OK, so there were a lot of photo opportunities to get out and see the devastation or the high water levels downtown. However, I decided to stay at home this week and not get in anybody's way. Most of my postings here are usually done in advance, but a couple of my recent posts seem to be flood related, specifically last Saturday with a kayaker.

I did take a couple of flood pics on the way to work on Monday, this was the soccer field at Smyrna Middle School:



In the foreground you can see a sidewalk underwater also.

also, not far away:

Seattle Wheel at dusk

The colors on this ride make it the prettiest ferris wheel I have seen. It was developed in the 1960's for the Seattle World's Fair and now days one comes every year to the Williamson County Fair every August. One thing that sets it apart from a typical Ferris Wheel is the speed at which it spins, providing a free-fall sensation.

First Baptist Church of East Nashville

601 Main St., Listed on the National Register of Historical Places. Classical Revival architecture.

The church building was built in 1928 on the corner of Main and Sixth streets. It was expanded in 1931 and continuously improved, especially from 1934 through 1941. The front entrance of the church was restructured because of the widening of Main Street during the 1960s. Built in a Classical Revival design, this beautiful church building contains a magnificent pipe organ, melodic chimes, a mural by Tennessee State University professor and artist Frances Thompson, and memorial windows.

Twin Falls at Rock Island

Rock Island was already a scenic location, and home to the Great Falls when a dam was added to the Caney Fork River in 1916. Although the waterfall you see here is not man-made, it is the direct result of human action, and is nature's response.

The creation of the Great Falls Dam, caused the Caney Fork and nearby Collins River to rise. This unexpectadly caused water from the Collins River to dig through the rock (perhaps helped by caves that were already there) to form this waterfall.

This "leak" now turns into a 65-to-80 foot segmented cataract. There were early attempts by engineers to plug the hole, but then leaks developed elsewhere. Then, the engineers decided to leave it as is, but still monitor the area to make sure the hill won't collapse.

Rock Island was opened as a Tennessee State Park in 1969, and this area is easily accessible by car. (However, the sign pointing to the area seems to be missing often.)

Walterhill, TN dam

I wonder how many times I've driven past this and not realized it was here, right off of US231 north of Murfreesboro, where the highway crosses over the Stones River. The area is listed as Walter Hill Day Use Park. I just learned there's a designated State Natural Area close to here, because there's a rare plant that only grows here called the Stones River Bladderpod.

Austin Hewitt House

The most noticable feature of this Greek Revival mansion is the monumental pedimented portico. The central original part of the building was built in the 1830s as a female academy. Later, it was turned into a private residence and the portico was added. When Austin Hewitt died in 1921, he willed his estate to become a ladies retirement home, and was then enlarged.

Listed on the National Register of historic places.

Sgt. Alvin C. York's burial place

Tennessean and hero Alvin C. York was one of the most decorated soldies in World War I. On Oct. 8, 1918, while leading a small patrol through the Argonne Forest in France, Sgt. York had the assignment to eliminate a flank of opposition machine gun fire that was halting his regiment's advancement. York found himself alone facing a German machine gun unit and he took them on with only a rifle and a pistol. The fight ended with over 20 German soldiers dead and another 132 soldiers surrendering along with their four oficers and 35 machine guns. For his efforts he was awarded a dozen medals including the Congressional Medal of Honor.

After the War, he returned to his family farm in Pall Mall, nestled in the Tennessee Mountains. York never seeked to capitalize on his fame, and instead led a quiet life.

York's Family farm, grist mill, and burial site are now maintained by Tennessee as a State Historic Park.

The Cemetery, known as Wolf River Cemetery was established in the early 1800's. The Valley's first settler and ancestor of Sgt. York, Conrad Pile, is also buried in this cemetery in an unusual above-ground grave. Sgt. York died on Sept. 2, 1964. The cemetery is accessible from the rest of the farm by a 10 minute drive or a shorter walk that includes a new pedestrian bridge over Wolf Creek. The drive also passes a Sulfur Spring which was very pungent.

Kayaking in the Chattanooga Fountain

Everything at the Chattanooga downtown riverfront near the Aquarium has changed over the last few years, prompting a tourist slogan of ChattaNEWga for a while. One of these changes is stairsteps that lead down to the Tennessee River and large spray fountains that shoot into the river. It is apparently a popular place to get in your kayak and go through, which a family of four was doing on this afternoon. The daughter in the green kayak is about to go through and the son in the yellow kayak just did.