Elrod Falls

Elrod Falls is a waterfall open to the public in Hancock County, TN. From the town of Sneedville, it's about 7 miles south along highway TN31, then west on Elrod Falls rd. From there, follow a couple of painted rocks which point the way to the parking area. Then, it's about 500 feet up a trail which parallels the stream at the base of the falls. On this day, the waterfall is dryer than normal, as this area had a drought going into Oct. 2019, but it did rain the day before.

GPS: 36.433980,-83.245350

This waterfall is about 50 feet tall, and empties into a small but surprisingly deep pool at the bottom. From there it cascades over several more rocks before heading downstream.

207 Main St. (Queen Anne Cottage) - Wartrace, TN

Comes with a matching hydrant! As of 2021, this home is a solid Dark Blue, trimmed in white.

This home is on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Wartrace Historic District. Here is the description.

ca. 1880. Queen Anne Cottage. 1 1/2 story, frame, weatherboard, L-plan, gable composition roof, pedimented entry with cut-outs, Palladian serliana, decorative wooden vergeboards, porch supported by Doric columns, spindle balustrade, cornice with deptil, two interior brick chimneys.

Collierville, TN Train Station

The train station in Collierville, TN was originally built by Southern Railway for the town of LaGrange, TN. Then, in the 1940's it was moved to Collierville. In 1976, Southern realized there would be no more passenger service and the depot was given to the city and moved to its present location. Now it is on the town square and off of the quite active NS main line.

now is open as a train museum, which is under the oversight of the Memphis Transportation Museum. There are still some tracks that lead up to this station where the museum has some rolling stock on display. You can read more about the museum here: www.commercialappeal.com/entertainment/museum-on-a-roll

Asia (TN) Community School

This building certainly needs repair. After it was no longer a school, it was converted to a basketball gym. Portions of the roof and the floor have fallen in.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia_School
Asia School is a former segregated school for African Americans in the Asia community of Franklin County, TN.

For many years, the Macedonia Primitive Baptist Church operated a black school on the Asia School site. In 1940, the church transferred the property to Franklin County, which assumed responsibility for the school. The current school building is a concrete-block structure that was completed around 1952. It was operated as a county public school for African-American children until 1961, when the county closed the school and returned the property to the church.

Four years after Asia School closed, Franklin County integrated its public schools. Asia School was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011 for its significance as an example of a 20th-century African-American school in rural Tennessee.

For more info:
web.archive.org/web/20111015093515/http://www.tn.gov/envi...

Idler's Retreat - Smyrna, TN

From Wikipedia:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idler%27s_Retreat
Idler's Retreat, also known as the Dillon-Tucker-Cheney House, is a historic house in Smyrna, TN. It was built circa 1865 by J. D. Dillon. In 1882, it was purchased by John F. Tucker, and renamed Tucker Place. It was designed in the Greek Revival and Italianate architectural styles. By the 1940s, it was inherited by novelist Brainard Cheney's wife. The couple entertained other writers like Robert Penn Warren, Caroline Gordon, Flannery O'Connor and Allen Tate. The house was later inherited by Roy Neel, who served as the chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since May 19, 2004.

Other notes:
Original owner Joseph Dillon was a local attorney and Pro-Union legislator.
The home was briefly used as a USO headquarters.
Before the addition of Central Heat in 1957, the home was nicknamed "Cold Chimney's."
The name Idler's Retreat is based on a George Bernard Shaw quote, “A learned man is an idler who kills time by study.”

Learn more:
rutherfordtnhistory.org/harbers-history-idlers-retreat-se...

Starry Night Clarksville

This mural is painted by @draftsbyolasubomi features the Montgomery County Courthouse and Customs House museum on a background similar to Van Gogh's Starry Night. It is located off Madison St. near Hiter St. in the parking lot for Dollar General.

Hines Pond & Dam | Tracy City, TN | SeeMidTN.com Presents

Hines Pond is a nearly forgotten roadside stop along U.S. Highway 41 in Tracy City, Grundy County, TN. The pond is formed by a dam on Fiery Gizzard Creek atop the South Cumberland Plateau.

See Beautiful Rock City atop Lookout Mountain

Only a small number of the barns remain which advertised Rock City, the famed tourist attraction atop Lookout Mountain. The painted part of the barn seen here was originally located along highway US31E/150 in Spencer County, KY. However, after a 2014 highway widening project meant the removal of this barn, it was preserved by the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati.

Here is a newspaper article of the barn being preserved with some interesting photos:
www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2014/10/24/rock-...

Using the Google Street View history, here's where it originally was located.
www.google.com/maps/@38.001264,-85.4910179,3a,75y,168.33h...

Somehow, I managed to drive right past this barn in 2010 and didn't see it.

I'm not sure if I should count this one or not, but for now I will.
This is now one of 92 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 Map.

Oversized Strawberry Crate - Portland, TN

The claim to fame of the small town of Portland, TN is their annual Strawberry Festival. In 2022, it is this weekend.

With that in mind, Citizens' Park along Main St. was redesigned in early 2019 with this oversized crate to hold strawberries. Likewise, oversized strawberries were placed around the crate as well as all around the block. Inside the crate are a couple of park benches.

See a video of the area here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCoi6HD-Rxo

Video: Scenery in Murfreesboro, TN: Overall St. Trailhead | Stones River Greenway

This is one of several entry points for the Stones River Greenway in Murfreesboro, TN, but one I didn't know about until this day. Let's take a moment to enjoy the fall leaves and the babbling brook.

Shelby St. Bridge and Train

Here's a view that really doesn't happen anymore. This photo is from 2006.

I am standing between Adelphia Coliseum and the East Bank of the Cumberland river, as a CSX train is ready to come by, with the Shelby St. Bridge in the background

Cohen Building - Downtown Nashville

The historic Cohen Building is located in downtown Nashville along Church St. between the Downtown Presbyterian Church and the Viridian. The history of the building is taken from their website:

cohenbuilding.com/
Meyer and Etta Brinkley Cohen lived on the two upper levels, which had parquet floors, fireplaces in every room, stained-glass windows and wainscoting. Mrs. Cohen lived and entertained here from the time of her marriage in 1897 until her death in 1930. She commissioned lavish carved oak mantelpieces, stained-glass windows, and a grand staircase. In 1925, she deeded her residence and its contents to George Peabody University.

Obscured from view for a quarter-century by a store awning and boarded-up windows, this impressive building has been uncovered to reveal two white glazed-brick arches that rise from the sidewalk to the top of the second floor. Within the arches are two balustraded loggia with bay windows projecting from the second floor On the first floor of the Cohen building, Meyer Cohen ran a jewelry store. Mrs. Cohen enjoyed the balcony on her bedroom, fronting on Church Street.

Downtown uber developer and parking mogul, Tony Giarratana, has meticulously restored this once magnificent building to its former prominence. Mr. Giarratana along with Ryan Chapman have chosen the historic Cohen Building as the new home for Giarratana Development and Premier Parking.

Humphreys County Museum - Waverly, TN

This museum is located inside the Archibald Butterfield House which was built in 1922 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It's located at Fort Hill, which was a Union Civil War fort overlooking Waverly and the important railroad line.

Mexican leaf frog - Nashville Zoo

At the Nashville zoo in the Unseen New World building.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_leaf_frog

Sterchi's Barn - Old US 31E, Sumner County

"It costs less at STERCHI'S to furnish your home"

Sterchi Barns are an elusive thing. As someone who looks far and wide for advertising barns, there aren't many of these to be found, but they're not really near each other. There's this one near blountville, this one between Pulaski and fayetteville, and my favorite one north of Fayetteville. The one here is painted similarly to the previous two. During their heyday, the were the largest furniture store in America. Long out of business, their old warehouse in Knoxville has been turned into loft apartments.

The road to find this barn is a bit of an elusive thing, too. There are two old routes between Nashville and Louisville, which have been signed US31E and US31W. From there, almost all of US31E between Gallatin, TN and Scottsville, KY has been replaced by a modern smoother and straighter highway. If you'd like a slow leisurely drive that doesn't take you anywhere fast, I'd suggest you get your GPS and drive the old winding road between the two cities. This barn is a couple of miles north of Westmoreland. Before the days of US highways having numbers, back when they were called Auto Trails, this was known as the Andrew Jackson Highway, which follows a small stream through the area. This route dates back to 1911 and connected Chicago and New Orleans via Nashville.

There's one more thing that's been elusive. Sadly, that's been me taking a photo of the barn I could be happy with. The day I stumbled across this place, I noticed there was nowhere to pull over and there was just enough traffic that I couldn't just stop in the street. The same ad is painted on both sides, and I drove back and forth past it a couple of times. Then, I found on what otherwise would have been my best shot, the sun was hitting the roof is such a way to wash out any evidence of writing. I made a return visit a few months later and again I didn't get a good shot, plus the barn's owner didn't take too kindly to me taking a picture of his barn. (at least that was my impression, I didn't stay any longer to find out.) It pains me that I'll settle with the photos uploaded today, where I've picked one from each side, one from each visit.

First Farmers & Merchants Bank - Columbia, TN

High St. Branch

Norfolk Southern Tennessee River Bridge - Knoxville

Located in downtown Knoxville, this railroad bridge now used by Norfolk Southern has elements dating back to the Civil War, but has been rebuilt several times.

The stone piers and approaches are the oldest element of the bridge, dating back to the 1850s. Wooden spans were completed in 1867. In 1903, wooden spans were replaced with a steel trestle. It underwent a major rebuild in 1940. A tugboat hit one of the piers in 1993 and that pier was fortified. The center span of the bridge is a Pratt through truss and the other segments are Warren deck trusses.

The original builder of the bridge was Knoxville & Charleston Railroad which chartered in 1852. In the 1870s, they became the Knoxville & Augusta Railway. In 1890, they were bought out by East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway. Then, in 1894 they were bought out by Southern Railway.

Rev. War Major Thomas Kilgore Gravestone

Recently, I was driving highway TN25 west from Cross Plains, TN when I saw a historic marker for Thomas Kilgore. I saw a stone wall and a gravel driveway, so I turned around to check it out.

Text of the marker:
One hundred yards south is the grave of Thomas Kilgore, Revolutionary War veteran from North Carolina, close friend of James Robertson, and one of the earliest settlers of this area. Kilgore first visited here at age 62 in 1778 and returned in 1779 to erect an important early stockaded fort, "Kilgore's Station,” which became a point of gathering and departure for the settlers of this part of Tennessee and Southern Kentucky.

This sign must have moved because the grave is about 5 yards away. The gravestone is obviously newer than 1823. Of note, Kilgore lived to the age of 108. Thankfully, someone must be maintaining this area.

Photo Slideshow | Ashland City & Cheatham County, TN

This is a photo slideshow of Cheatham County, including Ashland City and Kingston Springs, highlighting the Courthouse, The Montgomery Bell Tunnel and the Bicentennial Trail converted railroad to pedestrian bridge. All photos taken by SeeMidTN.com and can be viewed in this gallery: https://seemidtn.com/gallery3/index.php?album=MidTN-Counties/cheatham-co

Civil War Cannon - Dover

Located across the street from the Stewart County Courthouse is this cannon that was used in the civil war at nearby Fort Donelson.