by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

Listening to Meg Beasley and Mary O’Neill talk about the history of downtown Sewanee is like reading an enchanting novel where the main character is the place. A volunteer army of two, the women have embraced the task of telling the story of Sewanee’s downtown. “We want to get the first 150 years of the commercial district chronologically filled in,” Beasley said. “The University could not have survived, could not have flourished, had there not been a two-block commercial district.”

Archivist O’Neill previously researched and catalogued Sewanee’s historic houses, often drawing on the work of historians available in the library and archives. No such compendium exists for downtown Sewanee. Beasley and O’Neill often draw on Lease Office records and Sanborn and Tennessee Insurance fire insurance maps which indicate building materials (wood, stone, or brick) to assign claims values.

The maps show Taylor’s as a wood building in 1893 and a stone building in 1922. “Did it burn or was it torn down to build a grander structure?” Beasley asks, speculating. “The more we learn, the more questions we have.”

O’Neill recently acquired a student research paper and photos of Hoge and Miller’s General Store built in 1872. For a short time, the post office also operated out of the store. The interior photo showing counters and shelves strikes a nerve of familiarity—the building currently houses Shenanigans.

A former owner of Shenanigans provided O’Neill with the photos and documents. Ina May Myers recently gave O’Neill a photo of Jackson’s Garage Esso station—an exterior shot unmistakable as the current site of the Frame Gallery and Roots Salon. After World War II, according to O’Neill, in addition to Jackson’s, Sewanee had three other gas stations located at the current site of Region’s Bank; the site of University Realty, Tabitha’s, and Fine Arts music store; and across the street from the University Realty complex.

Gas-station price wars erupted over penny discrepancies, Beasley said. More intriguing still, Riley’s Livery Stable and blacksmith shop initially occupied the Sewanee Realty site. Eventually, the livery stable sold gas, as well. In 1911, when President William Howard Taft visited, Sewanee only had one automobile, which transported Taft from the railroad station to the Chapel. The rest of his entourage rode in horse drawn buggies.

And talking travel, until the late 1960s the Dixie Highway, the primary route from Chicago to Miami, turned left at the general store and passed in front of Taylor’s, following the current path of University Avenue. “Dr. McCrady wanted the bypass so all that traffic wouldn’t be going right through the center of campus,” Beasley said.

“We’re trying to engage others to assist with research,” O’Neill stressed. John Runkle has stepped forward to research the Frame Gallery property, with Pam Byerly tackling the old post office, Anne Metz researching the Blue Chair and Tavern, and Ty Wilkinson researching Locals.

O’Neill envisions a Sewanee Historic Downtown website featuring buildings and businesses and possibly a walking tour. Beasley hopes they have sufficient information for an archival exhibit by Winter semester 2023.

Beasley and O’Neill are eager to meet people with photos, letters, postcards and stories to share or those who want to embrace researching a particular building or location. Email Beasley at <megdb2@gmail.com> and O’Neill at <moneill@sewanee.edu>.

“People who know things aren’t going to be here forever,” Beasley said explaining why they took on the project. “If we don’t collect the information, it will get away.” Mourning the loss in the recent past of voices rich in Sewanee lore, she added, “In a way, we’re already too late.”