Home & Garden
Franklin’s McLemore House brings new life to history with restoration BY MATT MASTERS
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GUIDE TO WILLIAMSON COUNTY
PHOTO: MATT MASTERS
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ranklin’s historic McLemore House is undergoing a monthslong renovation, its first in 20 years — in 1998 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The home was built by a former enslaved man, Harvey McLemore, in 1880, after he purchased the land from his former owner, Col. and later Judge Williams S. McLemore, in a historic moment that helped to spark a new community that has served a source of power and pride in Franklin. The house sits at the corner of 11th Avenue and Glass Street, its bright white wood siding and wooden porch and columns connect two brick chimneys at either end, and it has a new dark metal roof. A white picket fence lines the roadway on either side of the house, a flagpole in front of the porch’s swing, and, for the time being, pallets of bricks, an industrial dumpster and a backhoe sit beside the house — a sign of good things to come. This latest restoration effort is a collaboration between the African American Heritage Society of Williamson County and Ford Classic Homes, who coordinated and are working to update the existing Colonial Revival exterior architecture. In addition to the new roof, the one and a half story home has also received some new cypress bevel siding as well as a replace-
Harvey McLemore’s great, great granddaughter Laverne Holland stands inside of her old room inside of the McLemore House holding a framed 1921 photograph of the Forget Me Not Club, which includes an image of her aunt Maggie Matthews.
ment and restoration of all 10 windows in accordance with the historical period of the home. The home’s concrete front porch was also replaced with a wooden porch and columns, with grading and landscaping to be completed before work begins on the inside of the building. In addition to upgrades to the home’s electrical and plumbing systems, the McLemore House’s interior ground level floors will soon be replaced with repurposed historic pine flooring that was saved from the Ceramic and Craft Workshop that was previously located on the Spivey Tract property before it was acquired by the
Battle of Franklin Trust as part of a battlefield reclaiment initiative. This project, which is expected to be completed in early summer, is not just limited to those who love history, but also serves as a living connection between McLemore and his living descendants. One of those descendants is McLemore’s great, great granddaughter Laverne Holland, who lives just behind the McLemore House, in the spot where the family garden once grew. Holland also previously called the McLemore House home before the African American Heritage Society took control of the property in 1998.
It’s then when the McLemore House transitioned from a living home to a staple of living history, becoming the The McLemore House Museum following its first renovation. Holland has many memories of the home, including her aunt Maggie Matthews who lived in the home before Holland. At one point her aunt ran a salon out of the home after having trained in New York City. “My strongest memories are of my Aunt Mag living here,” Holland said. “She always had a bunch of flowers all around and club meetings, the Forget Me Not club meetings, and that rock over
