A stop on the Trail of Tears and a church important to both the Black and white community in Wilson County are among the recipients of this year’s Historic Preservation Fund grants.
The program is bankrolled by the federal government and carried out by the state. This year, it granted more than $900,000 to preservation projects at Tennessee properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places. As is often the case, this year’s recipient list includes a number of cemeteries, historic homes and projects to restore or shore up significant stained glass windows.
Also included this time is an archeological survey of Cardmann Mountain in Warren County. In addition to serving as a campsite for Cherokee groups during their forced removal in the 1830s, the mountain is known to be rich in signs of earlier native civilizations, such as burial mounds and intentionally misshapen trees used as trail markers.
Another grant is earmarked for restoring the barrel vault ceiling of Pickett Chapel in Lebanon. It was built by enslaved workers for the city’s first white congregation of Methodists. Then, after the Civil War, the building was bought by newly freed men and served as a gathering place for Black worshippers for more than a century.
Other recipients include:
- Restoration of the stone steps at Cheekwood
- The effort to create a master plan for alleyways in Bell Buckle
- Preservation of the WPA-built water tower that first brought municipal water to Englewood in McMinn County
- Development of design guidelines for historic districts in Lebanon, Martin, and Sparta
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