Natchez Trace Landscape Named to Tennessee's Endangered Properties List

FRANKLIN, TN — The bucolic surroundings of the Natchez Trace Parkway in northwest Williamson County are among the state's most threatened historic properties, according to a report issued Wednesday.

The Tennessee Preservation Trust revealed its annual "Ten in Tenn." list of the state's endangered historic properties and the "Natchez Trace rural landscape" was the only Middle Tennessee site selected.

Specifically, the Trust designated a tract bordered on the west by the Natchez Trace Parkway, the east by the Harpeth River, the south by Highway 96 West by the Harpeth River and the north at Old Natchez Trace and Sneed Road by the Harpeth River as threatened, particularly by encroaching development.

The Natchez Trace itself made the list in 2007 and a four-mile stretch of Old Natchez Trace in 2014.

The other nine selections this year are:

• The Aretha Franklin birthplace on Lucy Avenue in Memphis, which is deteriorating and in danger of demolition.
• The Cleveland Masonic Female Institute, built in 1854 and serving as a girls' school until the Civil War, reverting to a school after the war and then becoming apartments. Now privately owned, it is deteriorating.
• Memphis' Mid-South Coliseum, built in 1963 and shuttered in 2006. The 10,085-seat venue was one of the The Beatles' few stops on the group's first American tour, was the home of the various Memphis American Basketball Association franchises and is important in the history of professional wrestling as the long-time home of the United States Wrestling Association and its predecessor territories. Perhaps the most famous match there, ironically, was the empty arena match between Jerry Lawler and Terry Funk in 1981.
• The Polk Building, part of the now-closed Western State Hospital campus in Bolivar. Originally the Western State Hospital for the Insane, the building has been vacant since 1999.
• The Clayborn Temple, or Second Presbyterian, in Memphis is deteriorating but structurally sound and was the site of Martin Luther King Jr.'s organizing speech during the sanitation workers strike in the Bluff City in 1968.
• The Dave Miller Farmstead on Roan Mountain is an example of Appalachian farmsteading, with buildings dating to the 1870s.
• The Fleming Houston House in Collierville, built in 1884, is under threat of demolition, as the bank which owns the property wants to build a residential development on the property.
• Oak Hill Cemetery in Johnson City opened in 1870 but struggles with upkeep due to lack of resources.
• Stonecipher Kelly House in Frozen Head State Park near Wartburg was built in 1814. Many area families can trace their lineage to residents of the home, which the park plans to refurbish as a living-history museum.

The announcement was held at Franklin's Hiram Masonic Hall, which was on the list last year but moved to "Saved" status.

Image via Flickr user Brent Moore, used under Creative Commons.