"A Walk Down West Main Street" - w/ Rick Warwick

[Music] I wanted to thank you all those who registered at two problems at home I thought there was a lot of fun to know how many of you were born and raised here or got here really early like like four years old or something grew up in Europe as opposed to those of us including myself who came later who came as soon as we could and so according to my poll that I took that only about half off the answer but that's okay about 75% of you did not grow up here so I'm just thrilled it's interesting so I'm just wondering now that you're here how many of you did grow up in Cincinnati that's great well it doesn't matter to grew up here or not you are in for a treat to hear our County's historian Rick Warren speed rate has been collecting this wonderful story for years and years I think he's got about 200 years worth of stories he's done only 25 years we're so grateful he's gotten notice so many probably all of the oldest families here he's recorded the stories and saved images and we get to come and hear about what the stories that he's collected and it's just a thrill to have right here so without any further ado well it's a pleasure to be with you all today and if you followed me in the last well a year or so I guess you know back in December I had a book called the public square and I took all the pictures of the square that I had and put it together and Kylie made a really a pictorial tour of that really beautiful square and then I did a book on rural scenes of Williamson County I was going through all my photographs round bound old just last fall and I was trying to group him in areas and I noticed I had so many great photographs that had rural scenes in it I mean people with mules and horses and sheep and cattle and things like that so put that book together and then I decided that I had given a program a PowerPoint back in nineteen I'm in 2014 on a walk down West Main Street so I went back and revisited that and added photographs and finally enlarged the whole thing so we're going to start today at five points I hope everyone here knows where five points is it's it's a right at kind of where all the streets come together but the old elementary school of course was a major there for many years and today the County Archives is in that spot and then of course you've got cc's right there on the corner which at one time was the old telephone office and water bed at one time can you believe that in Franklin but we're starting off with this I love this photograph dr. Rosalie Carter took this I think around 1940 or 41 some of you guys with car experts can probably put a closer number to it but one thing I want to point out to you we have two of guy Wallace's children with us today and the Ford dealership was there where what we call the rescue squad was for so many years and it's good to have Deb and guy with us today and of course you can see a glimpse of the old elementary school of course st. Paul's Episcopal Church and the comer Presbyterian but if you'll notice take a close look what is in that picture that's not there today a two-way street yes and we're going to get in I think it was 1956 it's when we were not allowed to come down West Main Street after 7th Avenue okay let's let's begin the tour first of all this area that we're going to be working on today is part of hitch evil Hinchey mill was organized and as subdivided in 1819 it's one of our oldest subdivisions just a few months later John Bell and his father Samuel developed Belle town which is from the post office all the way up Columbia Avenue to folk street back over to coming Street and Evans so those are two subdivisions that are pretty much the same period but if you'll notice where West Main Street is more of an elite residence Belle town was more of a working-class neighborhood and of course the Lots never sold as well as those on Main Street so here they've been divided up and today we're going to see West Main Street was not built until 1819 when this when hichy bill was subdivided this is Hinchey Hinch a Pettway who was a son-in-law of Joel Parrish and Joel Parrish was a brother-in-law of Abram Murray who was the founder of town and he his property was over from hard bargain all the way down to about third Avenue where the old cemetery is all that bottom land around up to where about matches Street is today and Joel sold part of the farm 100 and some eight nine acres I think to his son-in-law well there was a big surge in Franklin to go to northern Alabama particularly around Huntsville and so that the gräfin Reid said mid-calf and his wife and big family and and Henchy Pettway and his wife and family went down there and then he eventually came they came back and instead of settling in Franklin and they went to Nashville the Historical Marker you pass every time you come down West Main Aur there at 7th Avenue and this kinda gives you the history some Nashville guys you can see their names well-known decided they wanted to invest in Franklin real estate so they're really kind of the first developers besides Abram re being the first of course and this is an 1878 map and I've used that to kind of illustrate what the street looked like and how the houses were shaped and you'll notice I have marked those that are Antebellum houses that are still standing so there's there are some there this is the old Tennessee female college which is actually pretty much a Presbyterian school Reverend Cunningham started the school over at the church and across the street on Main Street and then he got enough businessmen and substantial people in town to invest in building this building and what you're seeing here this is a picture that was taken probably about 19 it's about the time it was going to be torn down how many let's see the hands how many people went to Franklin Elementary School yeah good good number that that school was a beautiful school it looks back now it said he was sitting in a very congested place as we'll see later but it was built in 1907 for $20,000 Greene Williams who was a contractor made a deal with the school board that he would tear down the old school the Tennessee female college and used as much material that he could out of that building to build this building so you're looking at a $20,000 building of course over time as the population grew additions were made to the school and then eventually of course it just the population of the students outgrew that small area and then of course some of y'all remember in 1962 this terrible thing happened the old school burned and it was in January and it was also a very typical day but the heat from that building threatened all the neighboring buildings around it and they were concerned about other buildings catching on fire but luckily it didn't and then of course this isn't the photograph you saw at the first and then this is an aerial view of 1950 and of course this shows very well what you're seeing and the elementary school and you'll notice that is not concrete you're looking at that is dirt the kids played on the grass of course where it they would be worn out and so the the great tradition and that was the boys had everything from the sidewalk to Columbia Avenue and the girls had everything from the sidewalk over to West Main Street and lo and behold anybody that crosses it would have been a dangerous place luckily I don't think anyone ever got hit by a car oh you'll notice there that's what's there not is not there today is behind the Cumberland Presbyterian Church you'll notice the manse is there and then eventually it was torn down and there's a parking lot there that sits right behind the church and the archives today okay let's see I think I can this is this building right here that is the manse to the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and of course this is st. Paul's and then this is what we saw a few minutes ago the what we later became the rescue squad this is a probably the greatest most expensive house built in in Franklin it's probably considering money it was surely in the 20th and most of the 20th century the most expensive but this is a jam and Annie Briggs Harrison is known as the Harrison house and it was built in 1880 by is 81 and it was the finest material possible was put into this house after the Harrison's died the the high school needed space so the because the elementary school and high school were together and they were crowded the county moved the high school over to that building until 1926 when Franklin High School was built up here don't Columbia Avenue next to the Carter house sadly the house was torn down in 1936 but I want y'all to notice this iron fence this fence has been laying in a ditch out on Anderson Road since 1936 mister chap Anderson and his brother bought the fence when they were tearing down the house to put around the Anderson cemetery and the Andersons are sellable going to be celebrating their hundredth family reunion coming up and the family is going to finally put the fence up so from 1936 to 2019 I think that's a sure thing this of course is what you're seeing there's when the telephone office was there that the telephone office was there for many years and of course that's it was the exchange and there were several operators that worked 24 hours a day and you had to be connected I don't think we've sacani there Franklin had dialing phones until the 50s I think it was 56 or 58 you had to call the operator and they and they would hook you up but this is the Sandberg map which I think gives you an example of how much territory is covered there of course st. Paul's and and it had a rectory next door at one time that is the yellow this building right there because it's wood and this is brick and of course this was the dealership who goes all the way back here and of course this was the telephone office the st. Paul's was very smart they had a vacant lot back there and so they made a deal with the city we'll build you a built a newer building and you could rent it from us and then about 1978 or 79 st. Paul's decided to build OD hall so we tore down the telephone building and built the present OD home sir today these are some of the businesses that were there in that block between Five Points and st. Paul's and of course we've talked about the Ford dealership Pat Fagin's cafe and JW Jules Market was right in there next to the telephone company and of course over time of mr. dr. Thompson a dentist and mr. Robert dr. Robert Sullivan Sheraton office Jim Eddy had a pool hall and I think after pad had moved out so it was a is a good location and this is the way it looks today you can't imagine what a hard time it is to try to take a pick at that corner before cars start parking there I came about every morning I'd come at 15 to 7 and ended up I think at 6:30 one morning I came down and lo and behold they were already cars parked there so people in Franklin need a place to park and they find it this is a Bill Powell we need to give him recognition here he has taken that ugly building that had a poor face to it and he really did a good number on on both his he owns this this building right here he redid that those two offices and then he's taken the the old rescue squad building and done a rather handsome building st. Paul's st. Paul's is the only antebellum church building in Franklin the church was organized in 1827 and 1831 they built this building of course it was a to store of the walls are much higher suppose they had slave galleries above it after the war it was damaged during the war due to mistreatment of the soldiers that bivouac there and the in 1871 I think they took the walls down and made it a one-story building of course it's this is a picture I finally caught I got to take four car park there and inside of course st. Paul's is well known for its stained glass windows some attributed to the Tiffany company but it's it's a beautiful building it's really a landmark in in Frankie again we're going back to borrow the sanborns to give you some idea of it's a footprint of of what is there starting with the school courses here and then coming down we'll get to these photographs across the street from st. Paul's was the home of Joseph L Park and he was the one of the bankers in town and this house was torn down mrs. Gordon she lived at miles Manor and she wanted to come to town so she sold miles Manor about this house and tore it down and built this house which in the 30s and 40s and this was the authority knurl home Julian Bebe's office was there till he retired recently but this is where it looks today this is kind of a yellow brick which is not my favorite covering for a house but and that's as a photo painting by mrs. Mademoiselle Lundgren of Louise Cochran Perkins Gordon she married Robert Gordon and enjoyed his money after his death this is the Crockett house and this is next door to what the fire took one of the fire stations used to be and this is the home of many of y'all may remember Mary James Montgomery she was a Crockett and her parents built this house mr. Hugh Crockett was considered one of the best lawyers in Franklin is Tyler Barry before he died I said if you were going to rank the lawyers in your lifetime who would be the one outstanding he says oh by far Hugh Crockett you can notice today this house is being enlarged it is outside the historic district so you can do things like that I put this photograph because some people probably drive down West Main Street and never knows the 3-stone mounting blocks and this one is at a West West Main and 7th Avenue the other two are up at tenth Avenue in West Main and we'll see those in just a minute Robin Hood has one into his house but his came from Kentucky this I think was original when the subdivision was built okay this is that many of y'all remember Korean Carter Ward these are the ladies that live there for many many years and the house is really probably one of the earliest in Hinchey villan you'll notice this right here was a brick it's a brick house that was the brick kitchen to the Peter Williams house and Peter Williams house was built about 1819 and there's a good lawsuit that documents that that building because he ends up he he becomes my corrupt and they auction off the house and they describe it but I think the only thing that survives today is that the old kitchen Jonathan peppers and his wife live there today now coming down the street on we're gonna be on the west side of the street until we get past 11th Avenue and then we're coming back on the other side these two houses are important mrs. McCall who owned that whole block at one time and she started selling them off and mr. green built one house and I forget who if I say the other oh yeah yeah Joe great somebody I may remember miss uh maybe have gone to school miss miss Jessie gray but she lived in that house at one time the next house bill Barry Barry bless his heart is living there today and he was breaking one day about his house being a civil war house well I got to checking the deeds and it's not a Civil War house but it is an early house so jonbi McEwen bought that lot from Miss McCall and he built this house for his adopted son doctor judge white and he sold it to his wife put it in her name and then it's known as the crouch place for many many years and then build air barriers been there for a good while but it's a it's it's a up high off because there's a creek that runs right beside there and of course the in high water there's trouble that's why the that rock basement is so tall across the street now this is the West in seminary and dr. Rosalie Carter and Sarah English I know our two women that went to school there it was dr. Clark's house for many many years and it's an early house you can tell it's a hall and parlor house probably about 1830 because you notice the windows look very similar to those at the Carter House and at carton and Clouston hall so I got a feeling it was built by the same builder that there's a good story here I think this house right here was built on the same lot as the as the West End Seminary it's out of place and thank goodness Bill pal bought the house and turned it into this for his son now you're driving down there and you look at that that building you sell that's been there for ages well it had Bill just has good taste and will is enjoying his fruits in between that house and the one on the corner is of the old Amos house Jonas Amos came here at night in 1930 and built this house some of y'all remember his daughter was Miss Porter Cunard out it will applaud but he had Pete and Rebecca Amos were living there when I came to town and it's a nice house Marylou and plants lived there and today Johnny his Johnny is her her son and daughter-in-law lived there this is on the corner and this is dr. houses house the houses were probably the most prominent family on West Main you'll see their name popping up in several places miss sally was a sister and she wasn't never married and she ended up with most of that property in the block and so she started selling off the Lots particularly on Fair Street for those houses you see in that block between ninth Avenue and this the street Mary Pierce about this house after Miss Sarah Perkins died and she lived there and did her thing with it which was nice I think it had a lot of termite damage she says but it's a it's a beautiful house sitting right there on that corner for many many years now again we're going back to the Sandburg math we if you've bought the book you'll be able to study this a little bit closer but it's so interesting to see how valuable the Sandburg maps are if you're trying to check and see if something's been added to your house or taken away and you can tell that by the portrait sometimes they've been enclosed and it tells you whether it's a brick house or a frame by the by the pink or yellow I put these two Lots together these two houses together because they were really on one lot the house where the apples live on the corner that was Miss Kitty Mac the Moores house for many years her father Robert McNamara built the house but the house next door this house goes back to dr. Samuel Henderson had a farm or a house for all of his children and he bought this house which I think was originally built but John Dee Bennett and yeah man I think he had something to do with it and then mrs. Watkins comes here in the 20s with a lot of money from her who had the Watkins vanilla and spices and so she was spending money like a drunk sailor in almost every house that was up for sale she bought it and remodeled it or tore it down and built others so she really did a number on Franklin but on this house you can see she has added this this front part and the depression came and all that money that she was getting from royalties from her stop dwindled so she had to sell out and go back home to Chicago and there was really is a flood the market because she had many in the paper it lists all of her property and she's really just almost giving in the boy when anyways this house was purchased and turned into apartments for many years and then about 1970 in early 70s Mike and Bonnie Connelly bought the house and put it back into a single residence and today David Ogilvy enjoys the house this and this is another this is the Lilly house built by the one of the lilies that owned Lilly mill but this is Ike house owned this house for many many years and then today of course Ronald and Marty ligand this was her house and then they married and Ronald it too got to enjoy it but this is a famous house in that particularly every holiday it is covered with some kind of decorations and she really goes out particularly at Halloween and it's it's it's really almost a fairyland what time she gets through with decorating next door this is probably one of the saddest houses in town and I say that the man up there that is he green or ed green and he was the cashier at the old National Bank which is down on the square in the in the west corner of the square and he built that house in 1896 he and his first wife who was a Lilly and then he married again he married a Horton and he got caught he he was taking money out of the bank and and doing personal business with it which you know that's not a good thing he he got caught and here's how he got caught I think it's a great story the two Claybrook girls lived here in town and they had a big farm out it try you and they had their brother Frederick had gotten killed in the buy in in the Civil War and so as to honor him they wanted to set up a scholarship at swanee at the University of the South so they decide they're coming to town and they go down to the bank they always banked it mr. ed greens Bank they went in and said we want to withdraw so many thousand dollars to give to swanee well ed green this turned pale so he wouldn't let him have the money so they walk across the street over to Tom Henderson's office and they he's a cousin of theirs and they say cousin Tom said there's something fishy over at that bank said ed brain won't give us our money so captain Tom just picks up the telephone calls the governor who he's good friends with and he says send down a bank examiner we think there's something fishy going on here well it didn't take any time before the examiner looked at the books and realized something wasn't adding up so mr. ed green he was arrested and there was a short trial he finally admitted he and his son were had been taking money out of the bank out of sight saving saving lockboxes people's gold and silver was being taken he it really made a mess of things so they a man came down and became seized everything had a big sale and sold all of mr. Greene's property and it was the biggest sale of land since the beginning of the county he ended up going to federal prison as did his son in Atlanta that he served eight years and after when he got out he didn't come back to Franklin he was so embarrassed his family was so embarrassed that he went to California and shortly he went to live with his sister he died and they brought his body back and he's buried at Mount Hope they buried him at night now the sad thing is his family and this is Handy's wife and these are his two children and many though remember Lucy Buford and Marion Lucy fared really well it happened she was just getting ready to get married and the marriage goes through and her father courses in jail Marion probably suffered I think emotionally from that trauma they lost the house they ended up going out to Del Rio Park to the old Horton place and they spent the remaining of their lives there but you can see what a beautiful house this was but what a sad story of a man being greedy and doing things he shouldn't do runs his family it's a sad story next door now we're crossing over 10th Avenue this is the the TL Owen house it's a beautiful old brick house and Miss Jane Owen Mary's dick on and dick up and dives on her and she wants to be sure the house is in her name so she tears down the old house and has this house built bid y'all remember miss Frances Gibbs who was our librarian for many years and such a great librarian and of course that's miss Jane I love Miss Jane I missed her she was she lived to be 99 but she left before I got to really know where I know I feel like I know her but I know everybody that knew her she lived after she eventually sold this house to the Andersons and moved over on Church Street and Miss Jane was a very strong church Christ and in the late 60s early 70s the 4th Avenue Church Christ in heaven big discussion of whether or not to tear down the old church and build that present churches there today and there was they were holding congregational meetings and discussing how important it be if we could all be at one service and wouldn't it be nice if everybody could to be together they say Miss Jane whispered over to the lady next to her she says if our behinds was as narrow as our mind we could set on one seat next door there was another Owen House and dr. toon Nolan that's he and his wife Margaret Herbert and they lived there for about a year and then they decided they wanted a new house so they tore down another old brick house and built this this home which is delightful and dr. Nolan dead were the early I mean he died in the late 40s I think but this herb nolan lived until on up into the 80s I think this is one of my favorite pictures because this is Sarah Nolan marries Bill mcgavock and if you read the names across there if you can this is really Franklin's elite you have people like Tyler Barry winder mcgavock Hearn Bradley Susie Ayers it's just one after another but it's such a great great photograph and it's taken right in front of that house next door well this is Andrew Campbell and his and his brother Patrick come to Franklin to build the school this house was built by Patrick and his wife Louisa winder Campbell and Lillian Stewart sitting up here this is her great-grandparents and they built this house but I'm pretty sure it's not built as early as everyone says I've checked the the tax records and the land records and in this house was not built before the Civil War it's the Britons lived there for many many years Harriet lives there today next door this is the cook place and it was it was a vacant lot between the the Rittenhouse and the old Campbell school and they had an auction sold it and mr. Campbell a mr. cook bought it and built this and bonzi and is here today the Dillards lived there today this is the Campbell school it was officially known as the Franklin male Academy and it is a brick and I think it was built about 1867 so it's not a pre-war and the reason I know it is is the Campbells are advertising as it is their 11th season and if you go count back enough it's it's it's 1867 but it's a great house and it when they were building the elementary school down at Five Points Miss Camille Dozier was a young girl then and she said they went some of that some of the kids went to this house for school and then were judge Jim Crutchfield lives over on First Street the other classes went to that house so those are the two substitutes instead of Franklin Elementary again here's the Sandburg map that you can study at your leisure now we're starting down into some houses that are built about the same time this is a james king who was probably one of the most successful businessman in town he had the automobile dealership on the in the arlington hotel which would be where the First Tennessee bank is being remodeled today and of course his wife had he was she was a petheram she was billable therms a sister and this is the house they lived in then next door we have I've got Frank Craig's picture that he's not giving enough credit I don't think he was a major builder from about 1910 on up until 1937 his last building was the Franklin theatre he built that in June they had opened in July and he died like I think the next month August or September but he did he built a good house he's right up there with Farnsworth as far as quality I think but Mary James Montgomery and Bill lived here for many years and of course Patty and Kriol robbery creel they live there and today we have a new family that has moved in fove in the last six months then the house on the corner was built for EWH who had been a Williamson County Sheriff this house had been and he was built for I think mr. Jameson no church and then after he sold it it was divided up into apartments and it was in apartments until the Cooper's voted I think in 70 or 71 and did a beautiful job and the Thompsons live there today and then of course we're jumping over now to the next 11th Avenue and this is Miss Susan Gentry's house which was called Maplehurst and miss Suzie is famous in Williamson County in the whole state of Tennessee she was probably the most historical minded person if there was an organization about a certain historic thing she created one and this was her father who was dr. Watson I mean dr. gentry and he they lived in this house they came here right after the Civil War and sadly Thomas Macaulay sold this house 1965 to hurry and Smith and they tore this house down and built the colony house that you have today and next door now this is another example there was a vacant lot between the colony house and I'm and the next the next little rock house what was that lady lived in this well anyways Barry Harrison had a chance to get the house the old Carruthers house out on curd leg which was behind where the hospital is today and if you remember it's set right I mean the interstate just did miss it and he was able to they wanted to tear it down and he was able to move it and put it on this vacant lot and today it looks like it fits right in if you look across the street you'll see Robin Hood's house and you'd think there were contemporaries even though this is a house it was built after the Civil War Thomas Jefferson Carruthers was this was Mishima lead Jefferson's grandfather and Jeff the therm has the painting today on up a little bit at Pettway I just had to put this in house because it was such amazing everything from past misses all the way out to about where east view circle is today / - Boyd mill Pike that was the pet wave farm and this was a house that was built in the 1850s and the columns were 24 feet tall and in 1948 I believe it caught on fire but they were able to when it was burning the columns fell out away from the house and so Ollie lund from out of Hills world got them and took him to Hillsborough and put a front porch on his little house and yesterday it is still there Yeomans book sellers were there but this house was a real loss to to this area today that area is known as Lyndhurst and it was kind of a working-class neighborhood that was where the Pettway farm was divided up into lots and many of the workers were able to buy a small lot and build a house and have enough ground for a garden now we're coming back this is on the other side of the street now and this is the old Cortez Isaac house and today Tom Fox and his wife are retiring he was with 3rd National Bank for many years and he's coming back to Franklin and so they bought this house from Robin Hood but in the deeds I was trying to find out when this house was built and mr. ace Yvonne buys the whole farm in 1899 but in 1970 sells this house and he refers to it as the tenant house so it's apparent it predates 1907 and then of course this is Robin Hood's house but it's really Robert White it is has a nickname of being called the White House and you see this photograph is AC Vaughn's family standing out there and then this is a modern-day photograph that I took recently and you'll see Robin has a see right there he has his stepping stone or block great history there Robert White was one of those are those lights were an early family here they were in-laws to Abram re so they were able to get some land Chapman White was down on board Mill Pike and about 496 all that land in there and then that the graph and reed farm was next and they were all brother-in-law's to April mark there's a it was a theme Franklin was a family affair when it first started okay now we're jumping over 11th Avenue and we're coming back this way and of course this is the old Scruggs place of course the last ones lived there with a post it's being remodeled now and it'll be a I thinking a nice house once again this is another this is the house house and William house and a failure Woods house and I want you to look at a fear you think of Jody Bowman in drag look that is his great-great grandmother and they looked so much alike this is Miss Bowman's a great grandmother and anyways the connection here is mini pearl or a failure a can and Sarah cannon mother was borned in this house and had lived in a couple houses down and then the family moved to central and so that's why I'll fill you wasn't born did Franklin but her her mother was ok now we're here this is the Lily house and Sarah Karen Raye and John lived here today it's rather a rather pleasing house when I she wanted to put up a historic house marker and so I did the research and I thought it was dr. hunters house dr. George hunter then to come to find out I read in the newspaper that dr. hunter had gone back to Hillsborough had rented the house to reverend Rodriguez who was the rector at st. Paul's and the house burned so he sold a lot and somebody else built the house but anyways Miss Lilly was oh just a well-known she acted she was taught elocution she just was such a marvelous press she taught at BGA for many many years but Martha Lilly gave me these two photographs are a class that mr. Pryor Lilly gave of Midsummer Night's Dream which is very appropriate because just in a and a couple weeks we're going to have Midsummer Night's Dream out here in the back and so but you'd see how elaborate this this play was and it's hard to mention those little children I think they probably more enjoyed dressing up than they did the acting okay the next house this was done by Jesse hunter and he had the Buick dealership where the the Franklin Theatre is today but he lived in this house several people in time have lived there you can see Billy Henry was here for many years and Ben Haley I think was there and then of course next door everyone knew Edie Warren and Marian Warren Edie and the funeral home next right across the driveway of course Marian could walk down to the elementary school but this house was built by Armstead and then it was a hunter went on down to Warren I think got it in the in the early 50s and of course this is the old funeral home but before that it was the doe NV Dozier house I think it was built in nineteen three on the lot that had been the Harpeth male Academy before the Civil War right before the Civil War the HAARP Academy bent it out on bail rail Pike then in in the 1850s 40s it came to West Main and then right before the war I think in 59 they moved over to Mount Hope of where the cemetery is today and then when the war came the Federals came and tore down the building and used the brick at the fort Granger so this slot was vacant and mr. Dozier bought it in 1930 and built this rather elaborate house he had made some money in the iron business and he married a local girl and built this house then in the in the 30s mr. Regent voted it was a recent funeral home then ed Warren and Gerald Smithson bought it in 48 and it became their funeral home and then they all the funeral homes joined together and formed a Franklin Memorial and this is the way it's set for many many years the Canadian company that was going around buying up all the funeral homes about this building and they just let it set they didn't want another funeral home in Franklin so they wouldn't sell it to any other company and it really was my sort and then they started construction on it and they were fortunate enough that curved porch was still there they had just built a wall around it so they were able to put it back like it was and a few years ago about three years ago now and this house sold for two and a half million dollars and it's gonna be for sale again next door now this is like think of Colonel Hensley Williams a lot and this was the Turley house now this is another sad house this a beautiful house it's the only one I can think of in Franklin that was built with this elaborate structure of the turret is really nice Theo Turley married Genevieve Marshall and they built this the dream home then he got involved in the Franklin sir and Sugar Company in the 1880s and 1884 and 1885 it was a disaster people that had invested their hard-earned money in this thing lost everything and sometimes it even cost him more but he ended up losing the house he had to go to Nashville and work as a clerk the rest of his life but this house was purchased by around the turn of the century by a judge Debbie Debbie fall this is w fall here and about 1926 that house the roof caught on fire and so Judge Fogg did a whole number on it he bricked it he took down the turret but you can still see some of the detail when Hensley Williams lived there he let me go upstairs into the Attic to get a sugar chest one Saturday morning and you could still see the rafters and all were scorched the the fire had not taken all it had burned through the roof and so today after Hensley Williams had several owners but today Andy and Jan Marshall of pucketts restaurants lives here and they've done a beautiful job they put the new fence up they've done beautiful landscaping and it's a treasure for that mid part of West Main Street next we have this was the John Roberts built this house on this site was the old Wallace place judge Wallace came here from East Tennessee and from Mirabal and settled here and became a very prominent judge and then the house was torn down and John Roberts who had there were two Robert Walter Roberts and John Roberts and they both owned the Roberts store which was on Main Street for many many years later mr. Allen Irwin owned the store but anyways this house was built it's really a Foursquare house and kind of a sad thing about mr. Roberts he first married in Ian Cox's daughter and they were married for a few years and she got to running around on him and she had an affair with Clarence Watkins he lived over on third Avenue in that second Empire House very prominent family and they took off one weekend and went to Memphis well everybody in town knew about it so mr. mr. Roberts was very embarrassed so he took all of his belongings out of the house and moved into the hotel which was where the Franklin Theatre is today well one morning he came down to breakfast and there was Charles Watson in the in the hotel in the diner and he was just making snide remarks to mr. Roberts and so Roberts took about all he could so it was time for him to go open up the store so he walks out and and Charles says something about what you know you're not going to take up for yourself or something and so one of the workers in there runs down the street and says mr. Roberts said I don't I think this guy has said some stuff you shouldn't stand for so he goes back and confronts Wallace Watson well what's it makes a mistake of pulling out a gun and John Roberts takes the gun away from him and she him and Miss Bovard says she remembers as a little girl they took a door down and they put Charles Watson on the door and they carried him through the alley over to 3rd Avenue to his house where he died and charges were not brought against John Roberts everyone thought the old guy deserves what he got well later this became after Robert said this became the Jessee short home and then of course mr. Jack Whitfield which if you've been around town anytime everybody knows knew Jack Whitfield and then of course a next-door this is an interesting story miss a missus this is a Wallace this is judge Wallace's daughter Eliza she was a Wallace and she married Wallace and her husband took her up to Washington DC and while she was there she tells the story of she writes in the Revue appeal later describing the scene which is rather for us historic minded people it's important I think I'll tell it to you she says she was in the cemetery just going through the beautiful monuments and she came and there was a little old lady sitting on a bench and so she went over and carried on a conversation when introduced herself it turned out the lady was Peggy O'Neal Eaton who had married Senator John Eaton from Franklin Tennessee who lived where the Catholic Church is on on East Main Street and she tells about living here in Franklin and who her friends were and who were not her friends she spent specially remembers a ceremony avocado carton and and having happy times out there but she had a really a sad life at the end after John Eaton died she married her granddaughter's boyfriend and he went through all of her money and she was collee destitute and if she dies shortly after I think Eliza has this meeting with her well anyways Eliza comes back to Franklin and builds this house and it it's a beautiful house then if you went to Franklin elementary school from 1919 to 1946 I believe you probably had mr. horn it's Han but everybody said horn aun he was from East Tennessee and he came here right in 1910 he was he was the first principal of the element of the high school and the elementary school this was his house for many many years after his death I think the Minton's lived here for a while but again it's a very attractive house now we're looking at boxmeer again that this is a very historic house on West Main Street when you think of West Main Street this comes to mind and it's an old house the the back part of the house was probably again built by John D Bennett but Ian Cunningham who was the Presbyterian minister he hired Robert Courtenay to build this house this this Greek Revival part that you see in these are some old photographs that Bertha Mae Gasman gave me before she died and you could see the houses rather it has two-tone colors so it's not just a white house it's got some shading to it it was famous for its boxwoods as you can see there and of course it's got a beautiful fence which it doesn't have today of course but what's so famous about was during the Civil War the figures family was living there Athena she had married a Hardiman and she married the figures and and her one of her sons hard and Perkins figures it's famous for when he was an old man he wrote a story about during the Battle of Franklin he climbed up into the tree and in the yard and tried to watch the battle but the bullets got to whizzing around so that he had to come down and go into the cellar of the house this is the tree and at the base of it is Miss gas man's grandmother who was making Bostic Johnson Beckwith and this is her father W Johnson standing on step of this house and I think it's like 9th 1898 but what a great history this house has and of course the gatherings were there after her grandmother died I think in 56 tonight 2017 the Gammons owned the house and loved it and today Clay Perry and Tatum and little will call this home and they've done a beautiful job of restoring the house because it did need repair and then next door this is another example the Heritage Foundation has over the years saved many houses and many surroundings and this is a good example this house is the is the it was built by Hearn miss Missy Hearn Bradley who was a great teacher at Franklin Elementary School for many years her son was her and dr. Hern Bradley he was a great pediatrician in Nashville they lived there but then you'll see the Gibbons this is Margie Gibbons and her brother I should have put a picture of lowing Gibbons anybody here remember Lloyd Gibbons yeah Louie was every town about front of the size of Franklin has at least one genius in it and law was that genius he played the violin beautifully he could he could make anything there wasn't a lock he couldn't pick and the story goes that the bank they couldn't get the vault opened down at the bank so they asked Laura to come down and he went down one morning I know he had a problem he liked a drink but he but when he was sober he was brilliant so they called him down there to open the bank and he just went over and felt the tumblers and opened up the bank and they said well how much is that he said $20 and I said Oh Lord we can't pay that so he just kicked the door shut so they begged him to open it again and he got double his money now Loy also did our city he had a drinking problem and he lived he lived right down Fifth Avenue eventually after Margie died the fourth Avenue Church Christ got that building I'm going to get to that story when they moved the house but anyways Lloyd we got on these long drunks and he had a key to Gerald Smith since I mean Gerald hoods liquor store and so he'd go in and and get whatever he wanted and then he'd keep the bottles and then when he sobered up he'd go back and tell Gerald how many bottles he had taken so that was frankly what it's on a small scale you couldn't do that today and but anyways the house was going to be torn down for that the bank building that's there today or just savings alone I guess now and so the house went to the Heritage Foundation they gave it to the Heritage Foundation and the Heritage Foundation happened to buy the lot over there on ninth and West Main the old canard house had just burned so that lot was vacant the shelters I think were living there and so the Shelton sold a lot to the Heritage Foundation the Heritage Foundation moved the the Gibbons house to that lot and then they had workmen come in and and do a very nice job of restoring the house and they sold it for practically what they had in it just the get it make a home are you probably and on that weren't you vote the next test we're gonna jump over now tonight that V do it on this house there's a possibility there's an older house in this house that was the old Haynes place for you look on that 1878 map its Haynes is living there but I'd still the footprint that tells me that it's not this house I'm sure what we see there this skull a Victorian house with the Torah denial is EB Campbell and he was a his mother was a McEwan and his father was a Campbell that was a silversmith and they lived out where Glen Echo is where the where they had BGA that was the her house so he was he came in and bought this lot and built this beautiful house and it went through many owners when I came to town missus Eloise no more had purchased it and was beginning old Morse scooter design started here in this house with just like two or three students and then she built in the back a building that's just been torn down recently and then she moved up to the hill at the old Winstead place with a jewel place but uh today Larry and candy Westbrook and Laura live here and it's it's a very charming part of Franklin this is probably the most unique house in Franklin when I came miss Virginia Babbitt was living there she and her husband had bought that property for ten thousand dollars just a few years before Mary Frances Legum lives there today but it goes back very early it's called the long Hanes gordon the court dr. gordon lived there for many years but anyways the unique thing of it is it's shaped in a why shape its porch it sets out and the wing is in the back it's brick and it's it's beautifully sets on that lot now here's something that should not have happened and it has just been taken away from us look last week or two weeks ago again but these apartments I guess served a purpose they were eight apartments and most all of them were old retired school teachers after they had put in all the years at the at the classroom they come down and was able to live here Bernie Butler has purchased those apartments he's torn them down now and he promises to put back something fitting to the area time will tell nextdoor these this is a great picture I think these are two supposedly Sears and Roebuck houses that were built by mrs. McKay she was a CID way and the CID weighs came in here from Chicago they were very important family they lived out at mouths Manor oh there we go and they bought part of dr moscow carter's garden and she built these two houses and her grandson lived in florida and he came up to visit and brought me this photograph which I'm very pleased yeah you know it looks like a brand-new sidewalk that gonna tell us about when sidewalks appeared in Hinchey will of any consequence and this is the way it looks today these are two commercial buildings now they've but you pass by and you don't know that they're commercial buildings J Sheridan runs a public relations out of the yellow one and the grey one is a Bob best and has a insurance company there that you wouldn't know it that they all park in the back and it's it's a it's a nice city this is dr. Rosalie Carter's old house at 701 West Main and this is the family and it's an early house it in the back part there's one room back there this is a timber frame house which leads me to believe it was probably one of those early 1819 houses and then mr. Horton built this and the Carters lived up next to the Carter house and so they came down in both this these lots of the house and lot and Rosalie lived there until 1990 and then she went to the nursing home and then this is what it looked like her her father was a great gardener and mother too and so this picture that you see on your left is from the book historic gardens and houses in Tennessee 1936 and I think there were only two houses in Franklin and this was a garden that was in the book carton was one and maybe Carter house was the other so there was three but anyways this this is what that looked like and it was a people would come and particularly in the spring to see the daffodils and all the lush blooming that went on in this yard and of course this is the Cumberland Presbyterian Church rather a late comer to downtown most of the common Presbyterian congregations were out in the country the nearest one was McKay's out here on Franklin Road and that church decided to move to town and so most of those members move their membership here but this this building is built by Thompson who was the same architect that built the Ryman Auditorium this is in a very handsome building and it's inside has a wonderful sound the church was known as a great singing Church they used to have on Sundays all congregations in the in the area would come and have singing z' there the bell tower I mean the tower that you see above this is a mystery everyone thought that the great tornado of 1909 took that steeple well the picture that I showed you of the Tennessee female college I'm the Franklin female College Institute that picture was taken in 1906 and you look back there and the steeple is gone then so there was another storm that came before nineteen six that took down this steeple but the congregation got together and put the steeple back a few years ago and it is really a landmark it's one of the first things you see coming down Franklin Road because it is so high the Methodist Church is equally as nice they there their storm took their steeple down as well and this is the grounds the campus of the old elementary school and today it is the Williamson County Archives and it is also the Veterans Memorial and it is rather a nice thing I don't know if anything else ought to be going there it seems to fit that spot very well originally now remember before West Main was built Natchez Street ran right through the center of that lot because if you go over on 9th Avenue at the end of Natchez street if you'll look straight ahead you can vision if you just continue going you'd come right out at Five Points but in in 1819 when they opened up West Main Street they closed the old Natchez Street and it wasn't reopened until after the Civil War and many of that they they started selling Lots off to the ex-slaves so that they would have a place to live and also be near to cook and wash and take care of the kids and that's the story [Applause] I will entertain any questions as long as they're not too detail yes ma'am he is yes no no you guys think you got the wrong they were done in two short house and she said that's the old Jim short house that at the end before that was when the Tennessee female college burned in 1885 and that and it was up on 4th and South margin and so the kid the girls went down to that that was the old Perkins house and they were stay with heads class there and so you got the right scoot it's just yeah any other questions well you know y'all have been a great attentive class you're much better than eighth graders I had yes sir well now sometimes you don't want to put stuff in print I can tell you that you've gotten denied if you go away you see until it only well thank you you know it is the stories that make but that's what's so nice about Franklin it's been here so long and stories have been handed down and I have been so fortunate that I came here early enough to catch some of the old-timers that were willing to tell me tales I have big ears and I absorbed a lot of stories and they're just a handful of people that really gave me an insight into what Franklin and Williamson County was all about yes ma'am yeah well there is Margie listen really does she does walks down Main Street and all around and she'll do special she does that for a business now many times I have over the years for like Sunday School classes or senior citizens group you can persuade me to give you a walk down Main Street or down West Main Street I don't mind but I will do that if I've got time yes he was a veterinarian he came here in 1939 and he was down I oddly enough I got a picture of his his building it was down on the corner of 1st and East right there before we get to the bridge and he came here in 1939 and met Bertha Mae and they married and and of course that's the rest of story yes the sanborns yes there they are insurance Maps I don't think they're doing that anymore but the early ones go back to at least like 1835 and but we don't have a complete set in Franklin I've only got fragments but I do have a good set Leonard Isaac's before he died I was helping him on his first book and giving him pictures and we I was coming cleaning up some of his stories and he he he brought me and he was in insurance all his life but when he first started out he was with mr. Hall who had an insurance company here and they had the old San burn man and then in 1959 they went back and took that 1928 map and pasted over it any new buildings and so I'm really you can see that I do have a full set of 1928 but if you want to come and look at and they also got a missed a lot of the archives and I think that you can get them online Frank Wilson County and our Franklin Tennessee and then Sandburg maps and go through those but there if you own property downtown and you want to know what the footprint of your house was like that's the best so I go you all did that when you worked on your Houston you I forgot to mention there that Mary Lou and then worked on the old short house did you buy that directly from mr. Whitfield somebody in between oh okay yeah mr. Willis County Jack Whitfield was notorious in town he was a big politician he's throwing the last of the Democrats but he he loved to play cards and so somebody come they played a trick on they they would play cards in Nashville and then he entertained at his house some of those guys and the governor sent down some of the patrolman one day and made a raid on his house it's kind of a joke so it's kind of see those old men carried out and put in a car funny well I've enjoyed this I hope to yes John I bet it looks like everyone's pretty much got one but if you don't have one they're $20 and this money is not my money I have an account at the historical I mean at the Heritage Foundation and what we do is over time we we have people have given us money we put it in that account and then when I do these printing then that money goes right back into that account so we can buy historical markers or help do certain things so that part I don't get any of that this that's somebody else's problem well thank you for coming and we'll do this again [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Williamson County Television

Views: 327

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: WCTV, WCS, WC-TV, wctvnet, Williamson, County, Schools, Government, Fun, www.WC-TV.net, 2018, Franklin, history, west main, street, civil war, battle of franklin, founders, victorian, tour, walking tour, talk, chat, question and answer, historian, verbal history

Id: dCFOB-WY0Tk

Length: 74min 48sec (4488 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 12 2018