Keeping a Bit of History Alive

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In the 1950s, Mama Sue and Daddy Leland (my Daddy’s mama and daddy) built a three-bedroom ranch house outside of Ashland City, Tennessee. It was 1950s state-of-the-art in every detail on the main floor. The floors were hardwood, the kitchen cabinets were knotty pine, the dining room light fixture was wrought iron. The big main bathroom was ceramic tile. The tile was pink for two reasons. One, it was the 1950s. Two, it belonged to Mama Sue! Tomorrow I am sharing a post I wrote back in 2014 about Mama Sue and her pink obsession. I’ll save my picture of Mama Sue in her kitchen for tomorrow, but here are three other very 1950s photos.

Mother at Mama Sue and Daddy Leland’s pink breakfast table

Daddy Leland

Me, Daddy, and my Aunt Emily, just a year and a half older than I

For some reason that I never heard, the basement steps were not 1950s state-of-the-art. They had once been the staircase in the old hotel in Ashland City. Somehow Daddy Leland had gotten them after the hotel was demolished. I never knew anything else about those sturdy old steps except that they had once been in the hotel.

My grandparents’ home stood on the corner of Tennessee Highway 49 and Old Clarksville Highway (which was only a country road when they built the house). By the time our family was ready to sell the beloved homeplace, it was surrounded with commercial buildings on the other three corners, and a large public school stood behind it.

When the property sold, we expected that the house would be torn down, and it was. When that happened, I contacted the buyer and asked him to save part of the staircase so that I could give it to the Cheatham County Historical and Genealogical Association Museum. However, when I contacted the museum, I learned that they didn’t have room for it.

Now for my story’s twists and turns . . .

We live two hours from Ashland City, so when the new owner let me know that he had the pieces of the stairs for me, I asked the lady who bought my family’s’ house in Ashland City (around the same time we sold my grandparents’ home) if she would let me store the pieces in Mother’s former basement. The lady had rented the house from Mother while Mother lived with us and we sold it to her after Mother passed away, so we knew her a little bit. She kindly agreed.

There the story simmered for about four years until last April when Ray and I visited the Cheatham County Historical and Genealogical Association Museum. There we saw this beautiful table that had once been in the old hotel.

On the table were table settings of the hotel’s beautiful china.

I was excited to see a drawing of the hotel, something I didn’t remember seeing previously.

The description stated that the home was originally the home of Ashland City mayor Enoch Dozier. It became the Lenox Hotel in the 1920s. I learned that the law office of Daddy Leland’s brother whom we called Uncle Jack was in the hotel at one time.

I told the volunteer that I might be able to donate a portion of the hotel’s staircase. He was very interested. After Ray and I left the museum, we headed over to my family’s former home. I really didn’t know if the same lady still lived there and also didn’t know if she had held onto the pieces. Awkwardly, I went to the front door and knocked. The lady we knew came to the door and the answer to my inquiry was that yes, she did still have the pieces but they were buried behind a freezer. Since Ray didn’t have his strength back, the lady and I dug out the pieces. They were filthy and the pink paint (I told you that Mama Sue liked pink!) was peeling, but there they were—actual staircase pieces from the old hotel. We put them in our car, and I called the volunteer who happily met us in a parking lot and took them into the care of the local historical society. He told me that the historical society had someone who refinishes furniture.

Newel post and one baluster from the hotel staircase

The refinishing volunteer called me several weeks ago to get my ideas about how the pieces might be displayed. I suggested that perhaps he could build one step to show how the pieces might have looked when the hotel was in operation. On Tuesday he surprised me with this wonderful picture, taken in a museum storage room where the museum’s new artifact waits to go on display.

He did a fantastic job. I can’t wait to see them in the museum with a description, including the names of my grandparents, beside it.

All things from this world will someday pass away, but for now, I am thankful for the relics from the past that remind us of the people and stories that came before us. Preserving them is a way to honor those people and a way to learn lessons for our here and now and for our future.

Honor your father and mother
(which is the first commandment with a promise),
so that it may be well with you,
and that you may live long on the earth.
Ephesians 6:2-3

 

 

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