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

Did Caltrans just kill the G26 cutout US Route shields?

The US Route System was formally created by the American Association of State Highway Officials during November 1926. Through the history of the system the only state to which has elected to maintain cutout US Route shields has been California. The G26 series cutout US Route shields have become a favorite in the road enthusiast hobby and are generally considered to be much more visually pleasing than the standard Federal Highway Administration variant. However, the G26 shield series appears to have been killed off on January 18, 2026, when Caltrans updated their Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices. This blog will examine the history of the US Route shield specifications in California and what is happening with the 2026 changes. The blog cover photo is facing towards the terminus of California State Route 136 and at a G26-2 specification US Route 395 shield. In the background Mount Whitney can be seen in the Sierra Nevada range. ...

May 2023 Ontario Trip (Part 3 of 3)

Over the years, I have made plenty of trips to Ontario, crisscrossing the southern, central and eastern parts of the province. Living in Upstate New York, it's pretty easy to visit our neighbor to the north, or is that our neighbor to the west? Ottawa is one of my favorite cities to visit anywhere in the world, plus I've discovered the charm of Kingston, the waterfalls of Hamilton (which is on the same Niagara Escarpment that brings us Niagara Falls), the sheer beauty of the Bruce Peninsula, and more. But I hadn't explored much of Cottage Country. So I decided to change that, and what better time to go than over Memorial Day weekend, when the daylight is long and I have an extra day to explore. On the third and final day of my trip, I started in Huntsville and made my way through Muskoka District and Haliburton County, passing by many lakes along the way. I stopped in towns such as Dorset, Haliburton and Bancroft before making a beeline down to Belleville and then over th...

Ghost Town Tuesday; Nichols, FL

A couple years ago I spent a lot of spare time exploring phosphate mining ghost towns in the Bone Valley of Polk County, Florida. One ghost town in particular called Nichols on Polk County Route 676 west of Mulberry caught my eye due to a relative lack of documentation on ghosttowns.com. Nichols was created in 1905 during the early phosphate mining boom in the Bone Valley region. For the time Nichols was unusual since it had company housing in the Nichols Mine site and private residences outside the gate. Nichols is only about two miles west of Mulberry which probably made it a somewhat reasonable commute even by the wonky standards of the early 20th Century. Most of the Bone Valley region was relatively remote which made commuting or homesteading impractical which is why there are so many ghost towns in the area. The company housing section of Nichols was phased out and abandoned by 1950. The Nichols town site is largely abandoned and could "possibl...

Gribblenation

Search This Blog