Ardmore2021

Local Areas of Interest

Brown-Daly-Horne House (Colonial Bank) Giles County. Built in 1855 and purchased by Governor John C. Brown in 1869. Best example of Queen Anne style in Giles County and one of the finest in the state. Daly’s celebrated their 20th anni- versary in their new home in 1901. Owned by Oscar Horne family from 1918 to 1979. Church of the Messiah Giles County. The Episcopal Church was erected in 1887 through the liberality of Daniel C. Carter and Governor John C. Brown. The building was consecrated December 7 by Bishop Quientard “To the glory of God and the memory of Miss Daisy Brown and Mrs. Marie Brown McMillion, deceased daughters of Governor Brown.” Most of the furniture and ornaments are memorials. First Presbyterian Church Giles County. On the National Historic Register. Victorian Gothic, two uneven towers, lancet windows with stained glass border. One of the most architecturally creative churches in Middle Tennessee for the 1880s, this building was erected in 1882 and is the second building to stand on this site. The church, formally established July 12, 1828 with the Reverend James Hall Brooks as first pastor, existed as early as 1811. The church bell was part of the first building. First United Methodist Church The present church was begun in 1895 and cost $30,000. The Reverend W. R. Peebles preached the first sermon in the building in 1901. In 1934, fire did much damage to the interior. The restored church included a new organ console, a gift of David Blow in memory of his parents and three stained glass windows in memory of Miss Sallie Shepard, W.R. Craig and Ruth Clair Ensor. Giles County Courthouse Public Square. Erected in 1909, the neoclassical building is marked by tall Corinthian columns. Solid brass door pulls are incised “Giles.” Inside a balcony encircles the third floor and sixteen caryatids (female faces) hold up the arched vault of the rotunda with stained glass skylight. In the cupola, the 1858 bell still strikes the hours.

On Fort Hill, west of the city, still intact, are some of the original fortifications which the Union Army placed there when it occupied Pulaski early in the Civil War. Sam Davis, the “Boy Hero” of the Civil War, was hung as a spy in Pulaski on November 27, 1863. A Civil War museum on East Hill at the place of execution, a statue on the south side of the public square, a city park and an avenue all bearing his name are memorials to this young hero. A small park area, twelve miles south of Pulaski on Highway 11 in Minor Hill, where the capture occurred has a mar- ble marker recounting the event. Old First Street Cemetery was the City Cemetery from 1817 to 1888. The City of Pulaski, with a Federal grant from HUD, has converted this cemetery into a historic park, now called “Old Graveyard Memorial Park.” Completed in 1968, it serves as a demonstration on a national level of what can be done with abandoned cemeteries to reclaim the more than half million acres of land now in cemeteries in the U.S. John Crowe Ransom, philosopher, educator, journalist, and unofficial poet laureate of the twentieth century South, was born in Pulaski in 1887. Donald Davidson, noted educator and poet, was born in Campbellsville, near Pulaski, in 1893. Ransom and Davidson were members of “The Fugitives,” many of whom became among the best known and most important men in twentieth-century letters. Joe W. Henry (1916-1980) practiced law in Pulaski from 1941-1974. He was Adjutant General of the State of Tennessee from 1953-1959 and retired with the rank of Major General. Mr. Henry was a member of the Supreme Court of the State of Tennessee from 1974-1980 and served as Chief Justice for the period 1977-1979. A native of Pulaski, Julia F. Smith Gibbons was appointed as the first female trial judge in Tennessee, and her appointment as a federal judge made her the second youngest federal judge in the United States. Situated on U.S. Highway 64 (east-west), 31 and 31-A (north-south), on Tennessee 11, it is within 10 miles of interchanges onto I-65. Pulaski is 70 miles south of Nashville, 130 miles west of Chattanooga, 190 miles east of Memphis, and 40 miles north of the Marshall Space Flight complex at Huntsville, Alabama.

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