Fourth grade tours of historic downtown Crossville underway

Main Street in Crossville will have some extra congestion on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the month of September while Cumberland County schools fourth graders will be touring historic downtown and learning about area's history.

 Drives are asked to use extra caution when the children are present.  Each group has a leader with a sign to stop traffic when the the children are crossing roads. 

Fourth grade students from North Elementary School tour Main Street Crossville.

Tours start at the Art Circle Public Library and other stops on the tour are numerous including the county archives, the courthouse, the palace theatre, the depot and more.  They hear stories about the history of the business district along the way, view the mural at Fifth Street and get to go in the caboose at the depot vist the military museum and the military monument.  

Students learn a bit about the rail road that once was an important part of Crossville.

Fourth graders visit the oldest commercial building on Main Street, currently the home of Plateau Properties and was originally built in the late 1800's as the offices of a coal company 

This is the 9th year that DCI has hosted the tours for the students.

DCI's Frances Carson talked to the Crossville city council 

about the 4th grade tours during the August council meeting.

A little bit of Crossville history, memories of long gone stores.

Memories of old Crossville retail stores.  (Click the photos and they will enlarge.)

Graybeal and Sons key chain

Thurnam's Men's Store leather fingernail clipper holder

Florsheim Shoes logo on the front of the nail clipper holder

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You'll find interesting collectibles at the VORP Thrift Store

Garrison Park Grandstand, brief history and photos of current condition

While there are some efforts to try and save the old grandstand at Garrison park, the structure is not in very good shape with leaks and mold problems, and the city says there are plenty of baseball fields at Centennial Park that are in better shape.

Crossville recreation director Tammie French said that the park would become a community park that would provide activities and play for children in the area and for adults, a walking trail.  The second phase of the project will include a multi purpose field that would allow football and soccer games as well.  French pointed out that the city currently has no football fields in its inventory. 

In 1947, the start of the city of Crossville’s recreation department included approval by the Crossville city commission to approve the financing of the construction of Garrison Park Grandstands. The dream of grandstands had been in the works back into the 1920's when a fund raiser was held at the Mecca. It is not know what happened to any funding raised, but until almost 1950 there was just a baseball field at Garrison Park.

The property at Garrison Park was most likely acquired when the city got the land for the construction of City School on Fourth Street. The city kept ownership of the park when they gave the city school to the county to operate.

From it's construction until the time the Crossville Blues semi-pro baseball team was disbanded in the early 1950's it was their home field. It was a big part of the warm weather entertainment of that time. After the semi-pro team disbanded, the field and grandstands were used for a variety of local teams to play baseball including the Cumberland Co. High School team and it was operated by the city recreation department.

The field was named after Bill Garrison, a local resident who went north to make his fortune in Chicago. He was also known as “Dollar Bill” for the story that he left Crossville with only a dollar in his pocket. When he returned he built the Will-Nell building where Highland Federal is today and the Palace Theatre. He also owned the house on 70-E that was also known as the Oaklawn Country Club.

The story is that he donated money towards the construction and that is the reason the park was named after him. If the city's current plans goes through, the park would remain known as Garrison Park.    

Below are some photos of the current state of the grandstands.  We were able to get access to the space under the grandstands and there are leaks and mold problems currently.

This photo shows an area under the grandstand that is leaking badly.  

This is below both the roof and the concrete seats.

Ladies Restroom

Door frame rusting out

Under the grandstand

Bricks, rust and water under the grandstand

Water coming in causes the white scaling

Concrete damage and rust

The photos below are exterior damage.  It appears that the brick exterior may be of a later date then the original construction.  

CROSSVILLE FLASHBACK! Fifteen Years Ago, the Crossville city council celebrated its 100th birthday

(Editor's note: We will be sharing stories from the past from time to time in our new feature Crossville Flashback.)

City Council Celebrates Centennial!

The Crossville City Council celebrated its one-hundredth birthday Tuesday July 10, exactly 100 years from the very first meeting of Crossville’s board of alderman held July 10, 1901.

In celebration, Crossville Mayor J. H. Graham blew out the candles on a large birthday cake and those attending the meeting got a chance to enjoy punch and a piece of the cake with council members and city staff.

L-R Frances Carson, Centennial Committee; councilman Boyd Wyatt; mayor J. H. Graham; councilman Gene Turner; city clerk Sally Oglesby

In recognition of the milestone occasion, Mayor Graham said, “We are growing and we want to perpetuate smart growth. We will continue to work for more jobs and better paying jobs.”

Crossville Centennial coordinator Frances Carson reported that recent Centennial events were very well received and Graham said that he had heard from some of the sponsors who wanted to repeat some of the events next year.

“We’ve had some wonderful Centennial moments over the last two weeks,” said Carson. Graham thanked Carson for her work on the celebration and she received a standing ovation from the meeting.

Carson introduced Everett Wyatt and his daughter Judy Chancey. Chancey sang Wyatt’s Crossville song “To You, Crossville” while Wyatt played the 12 string guitar.

During the Crossville city council's Centennial meeting, Everett Wyatt, left and his daughter Judy Chancey sing Everett's song "To You, Crossville" for the council and audience. 

Council also passed a resolution renaming the Crossville Recreational Park and its new expansion as Crossville Centennial Park. The resolution also calls for the 10 ball fields to be named for past and present city council members.

Mayor Graham said he would rather see someone like L.A. Fox’s name on a field than his own. Councilman Gene Turner said there were many who could be honored, but he felt the simplest thing was to name the fields for council members. The resolution passed with Mayor Graham opposed. Councilman Hill was absent from the meeting.

Leisure Services director Steve Hill told councilmen that the park would be very busy for the next several weeks with district games and the Angels State tournament. The some 75 teams will be attending next weekends USSSA tournament. So many teams are playing this weekend that they will also use the county’s fields at the Community Complex. The following weekend, another 75 teams will take part in an ASA Boys World event. Then Hill added that the park got a short breather and would host the Dixie Belles World Series.

Council approved $35,854 in change orders for the Centennial Park. Almost $150,000 remains the project’s contingency fund.

Council also approved the low bidder to construct another 1 million gallon water storage tank just off of Interstate Drive at the Cotton Patch property. The bid of Caldwell Tanks, Inc of Louisville Kentucky for construction of the new tank was $1,061,200. The tank design will be similar to the one nearing completion at the Homesteads.