Franklin, TN / Eastern Flank Interp Development

[Remember1864]

FRANKLIN -- Gov. Bill Haslam this morning announced a $500,000 state transportation enhancement grant to be used by the City of Franklin for a loop road in the Eastern Flank of the Battle of Franklin Park.

It is one of 27 transportation grants statewide.
The money would pay for construction an access road from Lewisburg Pike to the 110-acre Civil War park. Access now is gained through a residential area.
The grant would pay for visitors center parking, a trail network, landscaping and other amenities.


“Tennessee’s Civil War battlefields are wonderful educational destinations, and they attract thousands of visitors to the state each year,” Haslam said.
Haslam made the announcement at the park along with State Transportation Commissioner John Schroer, former mayor of Franklin.


Design work on the road must be accomplished first. Officials were unclear on when the work would begin late this or early next.

(Source: The Tennessean Newspaper 20JULY2011)

[Hardees Guard Private]

Re: Franklin, TN / Eastern Flank Interp Development

Good to hear look forward to seeing that area cleaned up.

[dixieflyer]

Re: Franklin, TN / Eastern Flank Interp Development

That is great news. Looking forward to seeing how this works out.

[bAcK88]

Re: Franklin, TN / Eastern Flank Interp Development

Fantastic news!

[coastaltrash]

Re: Franklin, TN / Eastern Flank Interp Development

Oh, Backus you remember where Franklin is? Thought you forgot about us.

[ohpkirk]

Re: Franklin, TN / Eastern Flank Interp Development

Just like how Landrum forgot about the West.

[Qrat53]

Re: Franklin, TN / Eastern Flank Interp Development

Great news... Keep the development moving forward..

[JimConley]

Re: Franklin, TN / Eastern Flank Interp Development

Just out today: http://www.tennessean.com/article/20...CFRONTPAGE%7Cp

Federal, state money helps save Franklin battlefield

FRANKLIN — Decades ago, Franklin’s Civil War heritage was covered in asphalt and concrete. Slowly but surely — and with millions in federal, state and local money spent — that’s changed.

While state and local donations have been key, since 2006 the national Civil War Trust has helped pour more than $3 million in federal grants into helping buy land where the Battle of Franklin exploded on Nov. 30, 1864.

The latest donation from the nation’s largest battlefield preservation group is a $103,000 federal grant to buy nearly 5 acres of the Franklin battlefield off Adams Street, where in 2001 a group of homeowners banded together to buy the property to save it from development.

With donations from its 55,000 members and federal grants, the Civil War Trust has been integral to local preservationists’ plans to re-create the battlefield. That drive is partly to commemorate the lives of soldiers but also to bring tourists to Franklin in time for the Civil War’s 150th anniversary.

Local support and national backing have helped raise Franklin’s standing.

“When it comes to Civil War battlefields, Franklin is, hands down, the (national) leader in reclaiming historic landscapes,” said Jim Campi, the trust’s director of policy and communication. “I think most people were generally very pessimistic that much Civil War battlefield land could be saved in Franklin. The community leaders and preservationists came together ... and proved everybody wrong.”

But does federal financial support hide a lack of support for battlefield reclamation among local residents?

In the years after the Battle of Franklin, people built homes, businesses and roads on the site of the heaviest fighting rather than a park or cemetery to mark the day’s devastation, which included more than 8,000 casualties.

“I think the battle was downplayed for a number of years because it was such a devastating event on a small community,” said Franklin resident Jim Roberts, one of the co-owners of the Loring’s Advance Tract. The land is named after Confederate Gen. William Loring, whose division attacked an entrenchment of federal troops during the Battle of Franklin on the site behind where the Adams Street homes stand today.

Preservationists contend that city support — which is about $3 million — and private fundraising by local groups is keeping pace with funding from other sources.

Most recently, Gov. Bill Haslam announced a $500,000 enhancement grant to help pay for Franklin to build a new road off Lewisburg Pike into the city’s Eastern Flank of the Battle of Franklin Park. Franklin is going to commit more than $360,000 toward that road project as well.

With help from the Civil War Trust and private donations, Franklin bought the 110-acre former golf club off Carnton Lane. The city paired $2.5 million with the trust’s funding to buy the club for $5 million from businessman Rod Heller in 2005.

The park once won national attention but lost momentum during the economic downturn. Mayor Ken Moore said he’s hopeful private donations will start coming in within a year’s time to help jump-start the project.

Nationally, the more than $3 million the Civil War Trust has spent in Franklin pales when compared with other efforts. In Virginia, the trust has raised $18 million in grants for purchases since 1999, records show.

Battle stories are part of town's fabric

In the case of the Loring’s property, the owners eventually will sell the land to the trust for $200,000.

Franklin resident Jim Roberts was one of five homeowners along Adams Street who bought the 4.9-acre parcel behind their homes back in 2001 from singer Nanci Griffith. They didn’t buy the land because of concerns about losing a part of the city’s history. Instead, Roberts feared developers might buy the land, build more houses and bring more traffic to his leafy neighborhood.

“It was for the protection of the property surrounding us,” Roberts said.

The trust would use a $103,000 federal grant through the American Battlefield Protection Program and eventually own the land that the group is selling for $200,000. Private donations will help cover the remainder of the cost and will be collected from local and national members of Save the Franklin Battlefield, said group President Michael Walker.

Walker said he believes matching donations will be found because of people’s affection for the stories behind the battle, which has often been called the five bloodiest hours of the Civil War.

“I think (the Battle of Franklin) touches a lot of people,” Walker said. “It’s not the generals so much as it is the officers and the personal experiences.”

Saving land is just one piece of puzzle

In the months ahead, preservationists are negotiating to buy a Domino’s Pizza takeout restaurant and strip mall at 1221-1225 Columbia Ave. near the site of a former Pizza Hut that was torn down by city officials to make way for a battlefield park.

The trust is seeking donations to help raise $870,000 needed by nonprofit Franklin’s Charge to buy the Domino’s space and re-create a 7-acre site where a cotton gin stood when the fighting occurred.

Last year, the Civil War Trust secured a grant of $492,000 to help Franklin’s Charge pay down a $950,000 loan on a house next door to the Domino’s Pizza called the Holt House, which has been torn down. Separately, a $99,500 grant was secured through the American Battlefield Protection Program to buy another house behind the restaurant.

No deal has been finalized on the sale of the Domino’s Pizza property, said Ernie Bacon, longtime Franklin’s Charge member involved in the project.

Commitment to the battlefield reclamation projections starts with buying the land but continues with long-lasting local support, Campi said.

“Saving the land isn’t the end-all and be-all of the process,” Campi said. “Interpreting it and opening to the public, marketing it and getting visitors are all key parts of this process. All of that work is being done locally.”

Contact Kevin Walters at 615-771-5472
kewalters@tennessean.com or on Twitter @frkwriter.

I made a small donation yesterday towards the effort to save a quarter acre near the Cotton Gin (http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields...n/cottongin10/).

Glad to see the tide turning in Franklin! Great area to visit!

[Michael Comer]

Re: Franklin, TN / Eastern Flank Interp Development

Just a heads up - 2014 as close to the date of the battle as we can do it, I am working on planning a march commemorating the Missouri Brigade and their contribution to the AOT and their role at Franklin. They were so decimated at Franklin that they were left behind when Hood moved on to Nashville. They are continually lost in the history of things it seems and this will hopefully be educational for those that take part and those that may come out to see. Might be someting for folks to keep in the back of their mind for down the road. Any proceeds would be given to wherever they are needed the most in the preservation attempts there.

[coastaltrash]

Re: Franklin, TN / Eastern Flank Interp Development

Not to take away from anyone in the Confederate Assault, but Brown and Cleburne's Divisions have been the center of so much talk about the battle, that few even understand the Brigades with the highest casualty ratings were actually from Cockrell's Brigade and to the east into Loring's Division.

[Michael Comer]

Re: Franklin, TN / Eastern Flank Interp Development

Exactly Patrick, and I think those guys needs somebody to remember them.

[biggumbo]

Re: Franklin, TN / Eastern Flank Interp Development

Gentlemen, I am fully in support of every effort to support the Franklin reclamation, both monetarily and through particpation in multiple Living History events, but I have to take exception with this quote that blatantly distorts to scope of the CWPT's efforts:
"Nationally, the more than $3 million the Civil War Trust has spent in Franklin pales when compared with other efforts. In Virginia, the trust has raised $18 million in grants for purchases since 1999, records show."
Frankly, yes, much more has been directed to the sites in the entire Commonewealth of Virginia than the single site at Franklin, because, well, it's the ENTIRE state vs. ONE site. Let's also consider that each of their efforts are for a specific battlefield, and totally dependent on individual donations, so the matter is really whether the individual feels the motivation to donate to a specific effort or not. I know this is going way farther into the details than needed, but this type of distortation of facts used for what appear to be a totally unnecesary, cheap and tawdry emotional reaction by the press just piss me off, regardless of subject matter.

Now, back to matters, I love the idea of a portrayal of Cockrell's Brigade (especially after the Kepi!)