The congregation of St. Paul Baptist Church was founded in a house in 1879 on the corner of Jackson and Concord. In 1960, the congregation moved to this location on McElmore Avenue. The church outgrew this facility and moved to a new location on East Holmes Road in 2007.
At first glance, this multi-story art installation looks like an electrical substation, but it’s the creation of Billy Tripp. The work began in 1989 after a local auto parts store burned down, and he had an idea on how to use the leftover beams.
In an article on the Haywood County Tennessee website, Tripp shares, ‘As I got started, I developed different themes; firstly, an outdoor church, I’m not religious, but I like things that are holy or special. And I’m going to be buried there, so [the Mindfield] is like my grave marker.’ He states it also about grief. He lost both of his parents, and there are memorials to them embedded in the structure. Ultimately, the installation, considered the largest piece of artwork in the state of Tennessee, is a conversation with Tripp himself.
Tripp plans to add to the Mindfield until he passes away. He has gotten permission from the city of Brownsville to be buried here. The Kohler Foundation will be taking care of the structure after his death.
If you visit, you can only see the structure from the parking lot.
Pocahontas School in Hardeman County, Tennessee, is a four-teacher type school. Built in 1924 using Rosenwald funds, the school educated Black schoolchildren until the late 1960s. Despite the passing of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, schools in Hardeman County did not desegregate until more than ten years later.
The school was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.
This website is two and a half years old, but I have been photographing for several years, which means I made many posts this year that are not of images I took in 2023. This post highlights the most popular images that I took (or shared) and made posts of in 2023. It is a mixture of images I have taken or posts I have created out of public domain images. Click on the header above each photo to see the full post.
The photos I took in Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida didn’t gain traction like those in Georgia and South Carolina, most likely due to the sheer volume of photos I have taken in Georgia and South Carolina, which has created a larger following. I did want to share one of my favorites from a trip to Reliance, Tennessee.
Higdon Hotel was built in 1878 by Harriet Dodson. By 1883, the place was purchased by the Higdon family. The Higdons expanded it to host the railroad bosses who were overseeing the building of the railroad through Reliance.
Once the railroad was done, it became a resort hotel for people vacationing in the area. When the railroad no longer was the main method of transportation, the hotel went out of business.
In the 1970s, the hotel was purchased by seven friends who worked to stabilize the building with the hopes of reopening it again. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to complete the work.
Reference: WBIR in Knoxville
The town of Reliance became a rail town when the Louisville and Nashville Railroad purchased the right of way in 1888. In 1891, the railroad watchmen’s house was built. Originally, the house was a simple two-story house. The one-story addition was added at a later time.
The first watchman was named Mr. Pickle, according to the National Register application. Unfortunately, I can’t determine who that was. There are Pickels and Pickelsimers who live in the greater area, but there are zero listed for the 1900 census.
