The Tennessee Historical Commission added four Tennessee properties to the National Register of Historic Places.
Two of them are in East Tennessee: a 20th century school and a 19th century church.
“Tennessee’s unique heritage is exemplified by these recent National Register nominations. Ranging from a historic rural school to two Davidson county houses closely associated with iconic country music stars, the listed properties depict the diversity of the state’s history,” said Executive Director and State Historic Preservation Officer Patrick McIntyre.
Oak Grove School in Sharps Chapel – Union County is important for its design and for its role in education in the community of Sharps Chapel, according to the Tennessee Historic Commission. The school was built in 1934-1935 using the 1924 plan book from the Julius Rosenwald Fund, which provided plans and money to build schools for African Americans in the South. Oak Grove
School was not an African American school but it used the Rosenwald plan book because the schools were so well-designed. Works Progress Administration workers helped build the Oak Grove School. Reading, writing, math, geography and Tennessee history were taught at the school until it closed in 1965 when school consolidation of rural schools into the Sharps Chapel School occurred. Beginning in 2011 former students began restoration of the building and today it is used for community events and as a book station/small library.
Whitwell Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Whitwell – Marion County was built around 1892, although the exact date of construction is still disputed in the community, according to the Tennessee Historical Commission. Whitwell Cumberland Presbyterian Church retains its historic design and is a
good example of rural church design around the turn of the century. The church still has a small congregation and it shares a pastor with two other Cumberland Presbyterian churches.
The other two sites are houses associated with country music.
Hank Snow House in Madison – Davidson County is brick ranch house the country star bought in 1950 not long after his first county music number one hit “I’m Movin’ On” was released in August of that year
. The record was number one on the Billboard country charts for 21 weeks and it stayed on the charts for 44 weeks. Canadian Snow – as Hank, the Yodeling Ranger – first went on the radio in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1933 and joined the Midnight Jamboree in Wheeling, West Virginia in 1945. RCA released Snow’s recordings in the US in 1949 and the January of the next year he became a member of the Grand Ole Opry. After years of traveling music circuit, Snow and his family settled in the house that would become his office, talent agency, and recording studio for himself and others. Calling his home Rainbow Ranch, around 1953, Snow built a recording studio in his house and in 1970 he added a new, modern recording studio to the house. The house is now available for weekly or monthly rentals.
Smith-Carter House in Madison – Davidson County was built in 1925. The house is important because of its association with June Carter. Grand Ole Opry star Carl Smith bought the house shortly before he married fellow Opry star, June Carter (1929-2003) in 1952. After their divorce, Carter kept the house and lived there until she married Johnny Cash in 1968. She started her career singing with The Carter
Family and then with Mother Maybelle and The Carter Singers. Carter sang, played the autoharp and was the comedic part of the family show. Carter and her frequent collaborator Merle Kilgore penned a number of songs at the house, including “Ring of Fire.” Johnny Cash recorded the song and it became number one on Billboard’s Hot County in July 1963. Carter also collaborated with Cash and in 1968 they were married and she changed her name to June Carter Cash. Maybelle Carter lived here until her death in 1978.
