Shelbyville, Tennessee

Shelbyville is the seat of Bedford County, Tennessee. Home to over 22,000 residents, Shelbyville is also known as "The Walking Horse Capital of the World."

The Tennessee Walking Horse originated in the area beginning in the late 1700s and has since developed into a trail and also show horse known for its smooth easy-going gait. The Tennessee Walking Horse was named the Tennessee official state horse in 2000. Shelbyville host the annual Tennessee Walking Horse Celebration, known as "The Celebration", every August.

Bedford County Courthouse

The center of Downtown Shelbyville is the Bedford County Courthouse. Built in 1935, it is the fifth courthouse to be located within Shelbyville's Public Square. This courthouse replaced one that was destroyed by fire a year earlier when a lynch mob - angry over a declared mistrial and moving of a young African-American suspect to another county for his safety - set the courthouse ablaze.

The classical revival design is also the centerpiece of the Shelbyville Courthouse Square Historic District. Established in 1982, the district highlights the 1810 layout of the courthouse square and some of the buildings that surround it. The design - a central courthouse block - consisting of four streets - and surrounded by square blocks of approximately the same size. This design called the "Shelbyville Square" or "Shelbyville Plan" was emulated in the layout of many county seats in the Mid-West and South in the 19th Century.

Shelbyville also has a unique history with pens and pencils. Known as the Pencil City, Shelbyville once had six different pencil manufacturing companies within the town. Pens and pencils are still made here today.

All photos taken by post author - March 2008.

How To Get There:

Comments

Paper Highways: The Unbuilt New Orleans Bypass (Proposed I-410)

There are many examples around the United States of proposed freeway corridors in urban areas that never saw the light of day for one reason or another. They all fall somewhere in between the little-known and the infamous and from the mundane to the spectacular. One of the more obscure and interesting examples of such a project is the short-lived idea to construct a southern beltway for the New Orleans metropolitan area in the 1960s and 70s. Greater New Orleans and its surrounding area grew rapidly in the years after World War II, as suburban sprawl encroached on the historically rural downriver parishes around the city. In response to the development of the region’s Westbank and the emergence of communities in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist Parishes as viable suburban communities during this period, regional planners began to consider concepts for new infrastructure projects to serve this growing population. The idea for a circular freeway around the southern perimeter of t

Hernando de Soto Bridge (Memphis, TN)

The newest of the bridges that span the lower Mississippi River at Memphis, the Hernando de Soto Bridge was completed in 1973 and carries Interstate 40 between downtown Memphis and West Memphis, AR. The bridge’s signature M-shaped superstructure makes it an instantly recognizable landmark in the city and one of the most visually unique bridges on the Mississippi River. As early as 1953, Memphis city planners recommended the construction of a second highway bridge across the Mississippi River to connect the city with West Memphis, AR. The Memphis & Arkansas Bridge had been completed only four years earlier a couple miles downriver from downtown, however it was expected that long-term growth in the metro area would warrant the construction of an additional bridge, the fourth crossing of the Mississippi River to be built at Memphis, in the not-too-distant future. Unlike the previous three Mississippi River bridges to be built the city, the location chosen for this bridge was about two

Huey P. Long Bridge (New Orleans, LA)

Located on the lower Mississippi River a few miles west of New Orleans, the Huey P. Long Bridge is an enormous steel truss bridge that carries both road and rail traffic on an old-time structure that is a fascinating example of a bridge that has evolved in recent years to meet the traffic and safety demands of modern times. While officially located in suburban Jefferson Parish near the unincorporated community of Bridge City, this bridge’s location is most often associated with New Orleans, given that it’s the largest and most recognizable incorporated population center in the nearby vicinity. For this reason, this blog article considers the bridge’s location to be in New Orleans, even though this isn’t 100% geographically correct. Completed in 1935 as the first bridge across the Mississippi River in Louisiana and the first to be built in the New Orleans area, this bridge is one of two bridges on the Mississippi named for Huey P. Long, a Louisiana politician who served as the 40th Gove

Gribblenation

Search This Blog