by Rhonda Kemp
I grew up in a small rural town in middle Tennessee where the only restaurants were hamburger joints, barbecue shops, or a catfish fry. So it was a real treat to be invited to participate in a Mother/Daughter lunch road trip. Most of the time we headed south to Huntsville, but in the late 1970s we began to make the drive to another Southern town that was trying to capitalize on its history instead of bulldozing it under for a strip mall. That little town has since become my hometown of Franklin. Back then, the hot spot in Franklin for Southern ladies out for the day was Miss Daisy’s Tea Room at Carter’s Court. Her location seemed perfect as it was directly across the street from the historic Carter House. But as time went by, the Carter’s Court location couldn’t hold its own against the “strip mall” atmosphere of its neighbors. Miss Daisy moved out, and the Columbia Pike historic trail slumped further into its aura of orphaned neighborhood. In 1986 when my husband told me we were headed to settle in Franklin, all I could envision was that tribute to 1960s expansion that is Columbia Pike. I wept.
Fortunately, as early as the 1980s the Downtown Franklin Association, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, and the Heritage Foundation recognized the need to preserve the historic flavor of Franklin and to provide the foundations that would draw businesses, locals, and visitors back to the historic heart of town. These far-sighted individuals sought the advice of many historians and economists, including the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Richard Moe and economic policy advisor Carter Wilkie. A major component in their battle against unrestricted urbanization and the accompanying loss of individuality and history is the project we now know as the Streetscape Project.
According to Streetscape documents presented to the aldermen, “as recently as 1990, Franklin’s historic downtown district had a 35% vacancy rate, and its deteriorated condition was having an adverse impact on the value of adjacent neighborhoods. Economic development in the core area of the city was at a standstill due to the negative image stemming from the deteriorated condition of the downtown district.” Now, in 2009 we who call Franklin home see a beautiful, welcoming downtown coming into existence, one that invites locals and visitors to park their cars and walk on the brick sidewalks under the soft shade of the trees. For Streetscape brought level sidewalks, shade trees, smooth streets, curbs, and gutters, level paths for ingress and egress from the streets – in short, Streetscape provided a Yellow-Brick Road of continuity that leads locals and visitors into the heart of Franklin. Those very sidewalks, smoothly surfaced streets and openings, sheltering trees and walls offer a tacit, “You are safe and welcome here in this part of Franklin.”
Yet, imagine my disappointment when I read Mindy Tate’s article in the local paper that, after all the work in the immediate downtown area, the very corridor that left such a blighted impression on my mind 30 years ago is to be shunned by the aldermen once again. Even though the Streetscape project for Columbia Pike stands ready to commence, I read that the aldermen are considering “delaying” this facet of the Streetscape Project in favor of the Hillsboro Road arm of the project, even though absolutely none of the preparatory work has been done for that phase of Streetscape. All preparations have been completed for the Columbia Pike phase, and the project is immediately ready to bid. The Columbia Pike project could be completed while the paperwork is being organized for the Hillsboro Road facet. The estimated cost for these infrastructural improvements to the roads, the curbs and gutters, the uniformity of ingress/egress, the addition of safe sidewalks, and the remaining elements of Columbia Pike Streetscape is somewhere around $4 million – that is, for 2009. Can you imagine how that figure will balloon if the project is cast aside for the 10 years it will take to complete the Hillsboro Road facet of Streetscape? Alderman Ann Petersen is quoted in the Williamson Herald as noting, “I … realize we are spending $4 million on something that has an appraised value of $10 million.” A wise economics professor once told my class, “Never handle any project more than once. The additional costs of laying it aside and returning to it will be cost prohibitive.” Alderman Petersen must understand this economic truth.
When friends and family come to visit me, they always ask me to show them our historic sights. I usually devote a couple of hours to a Battle of Franklin overview. We go to Winstead Hill and look over the land that once felt the footfall of tens of thousands of men on that bloody November day. Then, I drive them over to Carnton and subsequently follow the back roads along Lewisburg Pike over to the Carter House, strategically avoiding Columbia Pike as long as possible. Inevitably, these visitors ask why Columbia Pike languishes in its state while the other corridors into Franklin have benefited from infrastructural improvements. They ask what’s so wrong with this neighborhood that it is cast aside.
Next Tuesday, May 26, the Board of Aldermen will meet to vote to stay the course and proceed with the Columbia Pike facet of Streetscape or to cast Columbia Pike aside. I entreat the aldermen to extend the Yellow Brick Road (of sidewalks, of curbs and gutters, of trees and level roads) down the historic corridor of Columbia Pike. Connect the historic downtown with the Carter House. Imbue economic confidence into the infrastructure of this thoroughfare. Continue the thoughtful vision of the aldermen of the past. Give this neighborhood the infrastructure it needs to become a viable facet of Downtown Franklin.
