In the Beginning...

It was a bright, sunny and very cold January day when I made the trip to Sharps Chapel to visit with Dave and Tomica Whaley and see the restoration progress on their magnificent historic home. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, and known in the community as the Bate Ousley House, this 1835, Five Bay, Central Passage, Federal Style Home is one of Union County's historic jewels.

The fourth property in Union County to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places in March 2010, was the Hamilton-Tolliver Complex located 4-miles north of Maynardville. This place is near and dear to my heart because it has been owned and occupied by both sides of my family, the Hamiltons and the Tollivers. The complex is comprised of a saddle-bag style log house, store building, dairy, smokehouse, milk house, and site of the Norris Dam Brand Tomato Cannery. The property exhibits significance in the history of the area in both agriculture and commerce from 1825 to 1974.

Maynardville State Bank was chartered in 1922, the second bank to be chartered in Union County. The first was Luttrell Union County Bank in 1909. The Luttrell Bank was robbed shortly after it opened and its losses were significant enough that it was forced to close. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) had not been created yet and if a bank failed, for whatever reason, depositors lost their money.

The Booker Farm (circa 1750) located on Luttrell-Corryton Road in Union County was the second property in Union County to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Eighty-nine acres of the Booker Farm was registered along with a collection of historic buildings and landscape comprising a historic district that documented rural architecture and agriculture in Union County. It is the second oldest century farm in Union County and well represents the settlement patterns of this Appalachian Region. The farm lays divided by the Luttrell-Corryton road.

What is it about old places that draws a body? Creaking boards, slightly sunlit beams, narrow and steep stairs, and marshy little spring branches all seem to have a lure that we just can't resist. They give us that warm feeling like we belong there or was maybe once a part of these magical old places that represents our history. Old houses, old farms, old stores, and old school buildings reach out and grab us by the collar and just won't let go until we pay our due respects to them.