Welcome to Sequoyah Country

Sequoyah Caverns closed for good on Labor Day, 2013. If you need to read about that, look here:
www.flickr.com/photos/brent_nashville/9536698948/in/photo...

The way of getting to Sequoyah Caverns is to travel along highway US11 around Valley Head, AL and then turning at a big billboard which points the way. After travelling a few hundred feet down a county road, you see this barn which reaffirms you are on your way.

The Painting of Sequoyah seen here is similar to other renderings seen at the tourist attraction.

The other side of this barn is for people leaving Sequoyah Country, and gives you the options for which way to go on US11: www.flickr.com/photos/brent_nashville/7942607164/

Visit Sequoyah Caverns barn - Valley Head, AL

Sequoyah Caverns is a cave and now-closed tourist attraction in DeKalb County, AL. When the cave first opened commercially, they hired the famous Rock City barn painter Clark Byers to run the operation. I suppose barn painting was still a hobby of his as he painted several of these in the area. (By my count, there are 8 in and around the county.) The Barn seen here is located near the town of Valley Head, AL. Highway AL117 as it heads west out of town curves around a bend where this barn is visible. The last line mentions the barn is 6 miles away on US11. If you look closely you can see an older message where the paint is starting to show through. There's an old white border that goes all the way around the message and in cursive, the word SEE in the top right corner. Maybe the Sequoyah message changed over the year, or perhaps it used to be a Rock City barn before Sequoyah opened up in the 1960s.

Bleak House - Knoxville, TN

From Wikipedia:
Bleak House is an antebellum Classical Revival style house in Knoxville, TN. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The house was first occupied by Robert Houston Armstrong and his wife, Louisa Franklin. It was built for the couple as a wedding gift by the bride's father, Major Lawson D. Franklin. Robert Armstrong's father, Drury Armstrong, gave them the land. The Armstrongs named the house after Charles Dickens' "Bleak House" novel of the same name. The bricks in the house were molded on-site using slave labor.

The home was used by Confederate Generals James Longstreet and Lafayette McLaws as their headquarters during the 1863 Battle of Knoxville. Three Confederate sharpshooters who were stationed in the house's tower were killed by Union cannonballs. Two of the cannonballs are still embedded in the walls, and Civil War-era sketches of the slain soldiers are displayed on the walls of the tower.

The home now belongs to local Chapter 89 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and is commonly called Confederate Memorial Hall.

In the news: iconic Grand Guitar building is demolished

Grand Guitar view from US Highway 11W



View from the rest area along Interstate 81

This had been several things over the years, but was vacant for many years. 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, near the TN/VA border in Bristol. The street in front is US11W.

The Guitar was 70 feet long and three stories high.

Despite the well-known building being listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it was demolished in August, 2019.

Read more from this story in Bristol's newspaper.

Site of Big Rock Court - Chattanooga

For years, motorists around Chattanooga have seen a Big Rock with the words Big Rock painted on it. This is the story.

During the golden age of automobile travel, Joe Light opened a motel along Cummings Highway. This highway is located at the base of Lookout Mountain near the Tennessee River. Until I-24 paralleled the old highway, it was the only way that connected the city to the west, which meant lots of travelers passed through here. The most notable geologic landmark at this site was the Big Rock. Thus, the motel was called Big Rock Court and "Big Rock Court" was painted on the rock. Even though it has been several decades, the makeshift sign is still legible.

Big Rock Court wasn't the best motel around. It gained the reputation by the locals as a den of gambling. After a shooting, a police raid finally led to the Court's demise.

This spot was still a prime location for tourists, so in 1977 the Super Water Slide opened for business. Advertised as the largest water slide in the world, the fiberglass slide zig-zagged down the hillside. The popularity faded until the summer hot-spot went out of business in 1989 and the slide relocated to Tullahoma where I find no record of it. With no use, this property became covered in kudzu.

Local conservationist John C. Wilson let the group now known as the Lookout Mountain Land Trust to purchase the land and turn it into a park. Trash was removed, overgrowth was cut down and the park named after Wilson has opened. You can read Wilson's story on preserving the park in this article. Today, you can hike a trail, have a picnic, climb the old stairs to where Joe Light's house was, or get a better view of the Big Rock Court sign that beckons motorists to this day.

Sumter County Courthouse - Livingston, AL

The courthouse was built in 1902 and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The two-story Beaux-Arts style structure is red brick with terracotta architectural elements over a stone foundation. It is topped by an domed cupola. The courthouse is centered in a large public square that is enclosed within an iron fence.

Taco Casa

I don't know if the food's any good, but I like the look of the cactus sign. Seen along US11 in Tuscaloosa, AL.

See Rock City Today

Small Rock City Barns get shorter messages! This is along US11 in northern DeKalb County, AL about a mile or two from the GA state line, where the older highway closely parallels Interstate 59.

In fact, the other barn has a message, too - it's an old painted ad for Ruby Falls. That message is only visible from the interstate and not US11. Also, the barn on the right has a message on the other side facing southbound traffic on US11, a very faded ad for Sequoyah Caverns, which is a couple of miles away.

I last visited this barn in 2006, when it had been recently painted. For those of you keeping score at home, and I'm not sure why anyone would, this is one of over 80 different Rock City barns I have posted to flickr in my Rock City Barns set.

Big Apple or Big Easy?

This is a barn that you see when you leave the Sequoyah Caverns in Dekalb County, Alabama. This is at the junction of Highways U.S. 11 and County Rd 731. If you have trouble making out the paint, this is what you have: In the center on a pole is a faded sign for U.S. Highway 11. Since the paint is peeling, you can see that it used to be an ad for Phillips 66. If you go north, you are 877 from New York, NY (or about 40 to Chattanooga, TN). If you turn right and go south, you are 462 miles to New Orleans, LA.

TN Dept. of Highways Roadside Park

In the earliest days of the highways, it was an era before fast food restaurants and service stations at every interstate exit. During that time, the state highway department would develop a roadside park and pull-offs for the convenience of the motorist as it was essential for there to be places to eat and take rest breaks. Most of the pull-offs in Tennessee would have a concrete picnic table, such as the two seen in this photo. Several of these parks can be found around the state, but only along the oldest routes. Most of these parks were linear, but the one seen here is triangular and located at a major intersection.

This highway Park was built in 1928 and is located along Main St. on the east side of Rogersville along highway TN347. At the time it was built, it was along the important State Route 1 at the intersection of TN70. TN1 was the states most important highway back then as the Memphis to Bristol Highway, and eventually became part of the Lee Highway and US11W. Tennessee Department of Highways was renamed Tennessee Department of Transportation in 1972.

St. Luke's Episcopal Church - Cleveland, TN

Peter J. Williamson designed this Victorian Gothic church building in 1873. (He also designed the synagogue in Nashville, Central State Hospital and several buildings in McMinnville and on the Vanderbilt Campus. The tower reminds me of Kirkland Hall at Vandy.)

With a squared three story tower, arched lanset windows and doors, a broad gabled roof and brick buttresses, this church is unchanged from its original exterior appearance. The building, plus a parish house and a marble mausoleum occupy an entire city block in the heart of Cleveland, and is surrounded by a crenelated stone wall with iron gates.

The most famous thing located here is the "Bleeding" Mausoleum. The church was a gift from John H. Craigmiles of Cleveland in memory of his seven year old daughter, Nina, who was killed in a railroad accident on Saint Luke's Day in 1871. She is buried in the Mausoleum.

Late 40's Chrysler Police Car

There is a storage facility north of Bristol, VA along the old Lee Highway (US11) that features a series of vintage motel signs as well as this vintage police car. Also, here is the Robert E Lee Motel Sign which used to be just south of here.

See Beautiful Rock City Gardens

Although the last word is Gardens, I've never seen a picture of this barn unless the barn doors are open, making some of the letters hidden. At one time, the barn painters put GAR to the left of the door and DENS to the right of the door.

This was located just south of Loudon, TN along U.S. Highway 11, which used to be known through here as Lee Highway. Lee highway connected Knoxville and Chattanooga. As of late 2010, the last time I drove through here, this barn now appears to be gone. :(

Loudon County Courthouse - Loudon, TN

from the historical marker:
Loudon County, first named Christiana, was created in 1870 from portions of Roane, Monroe and Blount counties. Construction of this building was begun soon afterwards, being built by brothers Ira N. Clarke and J. Wesley Clarke.
National Register of Historic Places App. 1975

Loudon County is one of those rare counties that has only had one courthouse, ever. This courthouse was completed in 1872 for $7,000 and today looks very similar to the way it did 140 years ago.

The Courthouse has a tall two story central section, with two lower two story wings. The central section has a pair of main doors with a single door on either wing. The facade is enriched by brick piers which are rusticated on the first story, plus a horizontal band between the stories, and corbelled brickwork beneath the end gables and center pediment. There is a deep bracketed cornice located at the rood eave.

The main section has a low hip roof, topped by a square central cupola. (The cupola has changed over the years, as looking at an older photo, it appears to have a clock face on all four sides.) Both wings have gabled roofs.

Repica of Andrew Johnson's Tailor Shop - Rutledge, TN

Yesterday, we looked at Johnson's actual tailor shop in Greeneville. Here is a replica of another.

Located on the grounds of the Grainger County Courthouse in Rutledge Tennessee is this brick Replica of President Andrew Johnson's first Tailor Shop. Johnson started out as an indentured apprentice to a tailor in Greeneville, but ran away and started his own practice at this location. The small brick building was shared with the local sheriff for about six months. After Johnson's former employer died, he moved back to Greeneville. The replica was built in 1976.

Helms Candy Co. neon sign - Bristol, VA

This building must have been their factory. It was located on the north side of Bristol, VA along the Lee Highway (US11/19).

Helms was formed in 1976 when Jobbers and Loudy candy companies merged. The full history is here: www.helmscandy.com/companypage.html

Budget Motel neon sign

This colorful hotel sign is on Cummings Highway on the west-of-Lookout-Mountain side of Chattanooga (This highway is where US11, 41, 64 and 72 all get together) Credit cards now accepted!

Helms Candy Co. neon sign - Bristol, VA

This building must have been their factory. It was located on the north side of Bristol, VA along the Lee Highway (US11/19). Helms was formed in 1976 when Jobbers and Loudy candy companies merged.

Boone Trail Highway Marker - Wytheville, VA

This dates back to the days of Auto Trails where the highways had names and not the numbering system we have today. Unlike most other auto trails, the Boone Trail wasn't a creation of a new route, but these markers were placed along existing routes.

The Boone Trail was the brainchild of J. Hampton Rich of North Carolina who was looking for a way to keep the memory of Boone alive. He contacted communities to raise funds to place an arrowhead shaped marker in their town. From 1913 to 1938 he was able to place 358 of these from coast to coast. He started a group called the Boone Trail Highway Association and for about a decade had a publication discussing the installation of new markers called the Boone Trail Herald.

Today, most of the 358 are gone. As highways are decommissioned or widened, the marker is often removed, often without thought about what is being taken away.How many of the markers are still out there? There is a group out there called the Boone Trail Highway & Memorial Re-Association dedicated to finding out, and they've located about 60.

The marker in Wytheville was originally placed in 1928 and rebuilt in 2005 according to the modern marker next to it. This marker was located along The Lee Highway, which became US11 in Wytheville.

In the news: Rock City barn being torn down in Jefferson County

This barn was located on highway US11E about a mile west of New Market, TN in Jefferson County and was visible to westbound traffic heading towards Knoxville. The barn is being torn down, but by people who want to preserve it in another location.

See the story here.
http://www.local8now.com/home/headlines/Rock-City-barn-being-torn-down-in-Jefferson-County-261713551.html

Other side: