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Franklin Battlefield Preservation Efforts |
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Franklin Battlefield Preservation Efforts |
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These stories were forwarded to the Round Table by member Dr. Michael Brown.
02/02/2007 - Nashville Tennessean (TN)
Franklin mayor wants former country club land to be focal point FRANKLIN — National Park Service officials could soon begin a study to determine whether Williamson County's Civil War sites are deserving of national park status. Franklin Mayor Tom Miller and a park service spokesman both confirmed that an agreement to conduct a study of countywide historic sites is being finalized between federal and city officials. Once that agreement is in place, the study could begin within the next few months. "It will begin probably — I'm going to hedge — before summer," Miller said earlier this week. "It may even be before that. … It's done. They are going to do it." Launching the study would be a crucial step in local officials' plans to lure more history-minded tourists to Williamson County while preserving local history. The study, which won congressional support in late 2005, would include all of Williamson County's Civil War sites including those found in Brentwood, Spring Hill, Thompson's Station and Triune. "It appears that everybody is optimistic that is going to be finalized pretty soon," said Bill Reynolds, a park service spokesman. Costs and a timeline for what is likely a multi-year study have yet to be determined, Reynolds said. Earlier reports put the study's price tag at $300,000. Franklin officials, such as Miller, are among the study's strongest advocates, as he and others want to make the city's 110-acre property off Lewisburg Pike into the hub for any proposed countywide Civil War park. Last year, city officials finalized the $5 million purchase of the former Country Club of Franklin, which they intend to re-create as a battlefield park to memorialize the Battle of Franklin. Miller said that the city's earlier studies about the battlefield park helped move the project higher up in terms of importance. Details still to come... Miller recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with National Park Service officials to apprise them of the city's plans for the battlefield park. Those plans took a more definite shape this week after city aldermen gave initial approval to a plan to develop the golf course into the battlefield park. Aldermen will vote again Feb. 13 on approving that plan's further development. Meantime, Reynolds outlined how the study might progress, including:
By Kevin Walters, Staff Writer
01/29/2007 - Nashville Tennessean FRANKLIN — Consultants will present plans tonight to the public for a Civil War battlefield park off Lewisburg Pike at the former Country Club of Franklin. The plans suggest potential sites for a battlefield visitors center: on the site of the former golf course clubhouse, on property owned by nearby Carnton Plantation or at a location near the plantation's historic barns. Some city aldermen and nearby residents — including former members of the country club — have been sharply critical in the past about the project's cost and impact on nearby neighborhoods. Cost won't be something that likely comes up at tonight's informational session with architects from West Chester, Pa.-based John Milner Associates. The price tag will be discussed at later sessions. Instead, tonight's session will be used to discuss creating the overall vision for the park and for architects to collect feedback. "I want a park that doesn't just appeal to tourists," said Alderman Pam Lewis, chairwoman of the city's parks committee. "At the end of the day the citizens of Franklin and Williamson County are the ones who will be served by this park on a day-to-day basis. I want it to be basic and user-friendly and dovetail in with the existing community." The 110-acre park will commemorate the 1864 Battle of Franklin. As of late Friday, Lewis said she had not seen the plans yet but planned to study them over the weekend. Plans under review. Here's a brief overview of the architects' proposals: • After demolishing the former clubhouse, a new interpretative center could be built on its location. Vehicle traffic would be limited to the west side of the site. • The interpretative center could be built on the nearby Carnton Plantation property and provide easy access to the Fleming Center that Carnton officials want to build. However, there would be no restrooms on the park property for park visitors to use. • A center could be built on the site of former Carnton barns and provide close proximity to Carnton. Aside from the $2.5 million officials approved last year to spend on the park, Franklin has agreed to provide John Milner Associates Inc. $110,000 for its work on the project. Private sources raised an additional $2.5 million for the park. Lewis believes that the park will drive the creation of new revenue through historic tourism. "We don't have to create history, we've got it," Lewis said. "All we have to do is present it."
Franklin Reclaims Part of Battlefield 12/01/2005 - Nashville Tennessean (TN)
http://www.gallatinnewsexaminer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051201/NEWS02/512010405/1309/MTCN04 FRANKLIN - When the metal arm of the trackhoe piloted by Franklin Mayor Tom Miller plunged through the roof of what had long been a Pizza Hut yesterday, it scattered roofing shingles, lumber and bricks to loud approval from a crowd of about 200. In that moment, decades of frustration for many came to an end. The land where the pizza restaurant once stood, bought by the city for $300,000 earlier this year, will be converted to a park to memorialize the soldiers who fought and died there during the Nov. 30, 1864, Battle of Franklin. The occasion served as a display of political might on the part of preservationists on Franklin's Board of Mayor and Aldermen. For some, including many in the national preservationist community, the gesture serves as a sign that Franklin is changing its image as a city that had forsaken its Civil War heritage. "There's no question there's a number of preservationists on our board, but I think there is a groundswell not just in Franklin but throughout the country of people wanting to preserve the past, and you're seeing that brought out in Franklin," Miller said afterward, With TV crews perched, a surreal scene unfolded that mixed celebration with commemoration while a crowd that included Civil War re-enactors, local and state politicians such as Rep. Lincoln Davis and sightseers clutching digital cameras gawked as the restaurant was smashed by Miller and others in a ceremony complete with speeches, sledgehammers and, afterward, brie and refreshments. Jim Lighthizer, president of the national group Civil War Preservation Trust, recalled how years ago he told a group of Franklin preservationists that if they wanted to exact change they had to get involved politically. "What we have is nothing short of a miracle," he said yesterday. The city's purchase of the Pizza Hut property, along with the nearby Country Club of Franklin for the same reason, has drawn criticism from some people who have said leaders need to worry about basic infrastructure such as roads before they delve into amenities such as more parks. Still others have questioned the accuracy of some preservationists and historians' statements about where the fighting took place, though the vast majority of that criticism has surrounded the country club property - not the Pizza Hut. Overnight, a graffiti artist decorated the Pizza Hut building with the Latin motto, "Deo Vindice," translated as "God will Vindicate," which was on the Great Seal of the Confederacy. But the old restaurant, its signature red roof removed earlier, was viewed as an atrocity to many like local historian Ed Bearss. Bearss, 82, chief historian emeritus for the National Park Service, World War II veteran and participant in Ken Burns' Civil War miniseries, asked people to think about Pizza Huts being built on a long list of battle sites, including Omaha Beach or Mount Surabachi, among others. The demolition of this restaurant was "a long step to what is soon going to be bulldozed a blight on the soldiers who fell here," Bearss said. If a groundswell developed here in Franklin, it came to national attention in April when National Geographic writer Adam Goodheart wrote a story for the magazine about the erosion of the nation's battlefields. Part of the pictorial was a shot of the Pizza Hut side-by-side with photos of the six Confederate generals who were killed during the Battle of Franklin. One of them, Gen. Patrick Cleburne, is believed to have been shot near where the restaurant stood. The Franklin portion of the article received the most attention, Goodheart said in a phone interview. What's happened in Franklin is unique and is an example of a larger change occurring in communities, he said. "The battlefields are part of the national consciousness, and what we think of when we think of America are these landscapes," Goodheart said. "I think people realize that America is slipping away from us day by day, and they're starting to wake up to the magnitude of the problem." J.T. Thompson, president of the Battle of Nashville Preservation Society, believes that after years of neglect "the planets are lining up" for preservation here after years when preservation was ignored. He is trying to raise $55,000 toward the purchase of historic site Shy's Hill in Nashville. "It's once in a blue moon that people start to get it," he said. The Battle of Franklin happened 141 years ago yesterday, which also happened to be Franklin resident and preservationist Tommy Murdic's 52nd birthday. An African-American, Murdic said there is support for the project among black residents in Franklin. Did the demolition of the restaurant add something extra for his birthday? "But of course," Murdic said, beaming. "Being born right down at Doctor Johnson's hospital on November 30, 1953, this thing has come full circle. That date was meant for some reason. Today, 52 years later, it's falling together." * |
The following is an excerpt from an article dated October 17, 2004 and found in the Tennessean.com. One of the letters, quoted below, is by Round Table member Dr. Michael Brown. There is a chance to preserve parts of the Franklin battlefield, near Nashville, TN. Michael wanted to increase awareness of these efforts. He is also a member of Save the Franklin Battlefield, Inc.. Historic Opinions: Readers sound off on the price of preservation in Franklin Franklin's Board of Mayor and Aldermen last week made a commitment to spend up to $2.5 million in matching funds to buy Country Club of Franklin off Lewisburg Avenue for development as a battlefield park. City officials say this commitment is not legally binding, and they could change their minds for a variety of reasons, including if the purchase is not completed by Nov. 30, 2005. Your Voices asked you to answer the question, ''Is Franklin's past its future?'' Here's what you had to say: Acting on a second chance I am writing you to express my support for the $2.5 million matching grant to buy the Country Club of Franklin site along Lewisburg Pike. This site, located adjacent to the historic Carnton Plantation, played an important role in the most tumultuous day in Franklin history during the Civil War. By purchasing this property from the hands of a developer, entrepreneur Roderick Heller III has given the city of Franklin an unprecedented opportunity - an opportunity to turn back time and reclaim a critical part of Franklin battlefield. I have visited the Franklin area several times, and all because of the rich Civil War- related history of the area. In fact, I was just there recently as I visited the Franklin and Spring Hill areas during the 140th anniversary events and reenactments of the Battles of Franklin, Spring Hill/Columbia and Nashville. Although I have enjoyed my previous visits, it is very disappointing that so little of the original battlefield of Franklin is preserved. I would be much more apt to visit and stay longer in Franklin if more of the original battlefield was preserved and set up for interpretation with markers, monuments and the like so it would be more visitor-friendly and more enjoyable. That is why I was very excited to see that the Franklin city Budget Committee has recommended approval of the $2.5 million matching grant that would help preserve a very important part of the original Franklin battlefield. The Budget Committee recognized, as I do, that this grant is an investment in Franklin's future. The battlefield park, once opened to the public, will attract thousands of tourists eager to spend their money in the city. As a small example, the 140th anniversary events and reenactments held recently just south of Spring Hill attracted over 200,000 spectators during a three-day weekend alone. There were an additional 12,000-plus reenactors and over 100 ''sutlers'' or business people as well. This alone should help prove how valuable a battlefield/history-related park area would be to the city and future of Franklin. When people look for somewhere to travel, they don't want to go visit a country club or another shopping mall. They want to visit parks like Chickamauga/Chattanooga National Military Park, which I have here in my hometown of Chattanooga. Franklin has a rich Civil War history like my hometown, where a major and important battle was fought, which interests and intrigues so many history buffs and enthusiasts. After years of neglect, Franklin has been given a second chance to save part of its unique heritage. I urge you to vote for the $2.5 million matching grant and give Franklin the battlefield park that it deserves. Thank you, and I pray you will make the right decision for the future of Franklin and our state of Tennessee.
Dr. Michael Brown |