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A Walk With The Presidents
HERITAGE & HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY
SUN FILE PHOTO /THE GREENEVILLE SUN The Andrew Johnson National Historic Site and Cemetery is one of the historic sites that make Greene County special.
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Walking Tours Showcase Downtown Greeneville’s History
Historic landmarks throughout downtown Greeneville connect its past with its present and future.
Although Greeneville is now thriving in the 21st century, reminders evidence that Andrew Johnson, 17th president of the United States, called the area his home more than 150 years ago.
Visiting these historic places can make the past come alive.
“A Walk With The President” is a tour brochure provided for those interested in walking or driving on a self-guided tour that allows you to see the sites that were once very familiar to President Johnson.
The latest edition is available at the Greene County Partnership, 115 Academy St., or at the Andrew Johnson Visitor Center, where College and East Depot streets meet in downtown Greeneville.
“A Walk With The President” details the historic sites and provides a map for the tour.
Through an agreement between Main Street: Greeneville and the National Park Service, two professionally guided walking tours of historic points in downtown Greeneville are offered from April through October. The fi rst is a 90 minute walking tour which departs the lobby of the General Morgan Inn Monday-Saturday at 9:30 a.m.
Tours of the Dickson-Williams
Mansion are also available. They are available year-round except for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s, and depart from the General Morgan Inn daily at 1 p.m. January and February may have limited availability due to weather.
Call Main Street Tours at 423-639-7102 for more information or visit their website at
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www.mainstreetgreeneville.org. DIAL AND DISCOVER TOUR
The National Park Service is offering a new way to experience the Historic District in downtown Greeneville.
The Andrew Johnson OnCell Audio Tour is a self-guided tour that allows people to visit some of the major stops and hear the stories all with the convenience of their cellphones or smartphones.
The tour covers 10 historic sites, including the Dickson-Williams Mansion and the Andrew Johnson sites.
All one has to do is stop at the sites listed, call the audio tour number and hear all of the information about the particular place.
The tour takes about 20 minutes and can be either walked or driven.
The Andrew Johnson OnCell Audio Tour flier, which includes a list and map of the sites, along with the audio tour number and directions, is a free service and can be picked up at the Andrew Johnson Visitors Center. Website: https://anjo.oncell.com/ en/index.html
JOHNSON’S BACKGROUND
Born on Dec. 29, 1808, in Raleigh, North Carolina, Johnson was only 3 years old when his father died. His mother raised him and eventually apprenticed him to a tailor when he was 14. Abandoning his apprenticeship, Johnson moved to Greeneville in 1826, along with his mother, his brother and their stepfather.
Only a year later, Johnson married Eliza McCardle. Supported by his wife and customers, Johnson advanced his education and began developing the strongly constitutional philosophy that marked his politics.
Johnson operated his tailor shop in a clapboard building typical of the day, often debating local, state and national political issues with friends as he cut and stitched clothing.
Rising to the position of Greeneville alderman in 1829, Johnson moved forward from there in successive leadership roles at the local, state and national levels to hold the highest office in the land in 1865.
The places indicated in all-capital letters below are the tour sites listed in “A Walk With The President” and are numbered on the map in the brochure. Other historical sites not officially included as part of the tour — such as some of Greeneville’s older private homes — are occasionally mentioned, but not printed in all-capitals.
Preserved inside a brick structure, which also houses the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site Visitors Center, is the ANDREW JOHNSON TAILOR SHOP. This location is where the “Walk With The President” begins.
Visitors can see the tailor shop, along with a table made by Johnson’s brother, Tyler, and a stove that was used to heat small buildings of the day.
The sound of footsteps on the wooden floor, the noise of shears snipping cloth, and other sound effects are used to bring the tailor/president to life.
Some of the newer displays in the museum include the “Polk jewelry,” given to Martha Johnson, daughter of Andrew, by Sarah Childress Polk, wife of President James K. Polk, while Johnson was still a member of Congress, and Eliza Johnson’s sewing kit.
There is also a display case that features different artifacts every three months.
A short film provides visitors with an introduction to the site as well as to Johnson’s political and personal life.
Across College Street from the visitors center stands the ANDREW JOHNSON HOME (1838-1851), often referred to as “The 1830s Home.” Johnson and his family lived in this two-story brick house before moving to his more elegant home, called “The Homestead,” on South Main Street, which will be mentioned later.
Included with the decor of the 1830s house are historical displays about Johnson’s life up until the time of his presidency.
Across Depot Street from the Visitor Center, a bronze statue of Andrew Johnson gazes solemnly at the world.
Jim Gray, a noted East Tennessee artist and sculptor, executed the work, which was erected in 1995 as a gift to the community from the estate of the late Margaret Johnson Patterson Bartlett, great-granddaughter of Johnson.
Across College Street from the statue, a Johnson-related point of interest now stands. A former tobacco warehouse on the corner of the intersection was torn down, and the site is now home to the newest Johnson-related monument: a replica of the very modest North Carolina structure in which Johnson was born.
All four corners of the Depot Street/ College Street/Academy Street intersection, now officially designated by the town as Andrew Johnson Square, are occupied by memorials to the 17th president.
OLD HARMONY GRAVEYARD is next on the tour. This historic site is where many important former residents of the community were laid to rest.
The site is located directly behind Greeneville Town Hall.
The site was established as a cemetery in 1791 in connection with what was then Harmony Presbyterian Church.
That congregation evolved into today’s First Presbyterian Church, which will be visited later on the tour route.
Some of the Scots-Irish settlers of Greeneville are buried in Old Harmony Graveyard.
Other notables who rest in Old Harmony Graveyard include Mordecai Lincoln, Dr. Hezekiah Balch, Dr. Charles Coffin, Valentine Sevier, William Dickson, Dr. Alexander Williams and Blackstone McDannel.
Soldiers who were in every American war from the Revolution through the Civil War are buried there.
The next site is nearby GREENEVILLE TOWN HALL. This classical-style building, completed in 1967, stands on historic grounds.
The church that later became Greeneville’s First Presbyterian Church was on this site. At another time, the home of Judge Sam Milligan, a contemporary of Johnson, stood on the grounds.
A pioneering abolitionist newspaper, published by a Quaker named Benjamin Lundy during the 1822-1824 period, was located on or near this site.
The newspaper was called the Genius of
FILE PHOTO/THE GREENEVILLE SUN The towering grave marker on Monument Hill in Greeneville stands atop the graves of both President Andrew Johnson and his wife, Eliza McCardle Johnson.
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Universal Emancipation. While in Greeneville, Lundy also published a weekly paper, the Economist and Political Paper. After 1824, the Genius was moved to Baltimore.
Jeffers Funeral & Cremation Services, next door to town hall, occupies an 1893 Victorian house, initially the M.P. Reeve home.
From town hall, go across College Street to the Roby Fitzgerald Adult Center. Greeneville’s fi rst public school was operated out of this building.
Opening in the early 1890s, it eventually came to be known as Roby Fitzgerald School, named for Miss Roby Fitzgerald, a much-admired and loved principal and teacher who educated many Greeneville citizens within the school’s brick walls.
Today the building houses the Roby Fitzgerald Adult Center (a senior citizens’ facility), and the RSVP and ACCESS programs.
Next to the Roby Fitzgerald Adult Center is a small log cabin that is a representation of the CAPITOL OF THE LOST STATE OF FRANKLIN.
From 1785 to 1788, Greeneville was the capital of the short-lived “Lost State of Franklin.”
In 1796, this area became part of Tennessee when the state was established.
The structure represents the style of a building, shown in early photographs, that was reported to have been the actual capitol building of the “lost state.”
The original capitol stood on the site of the existing Greene County Courthouse.
Behind the representation of the Franklin capitol and adjacent to the Greeneville-Greene County Library is BICENTENNIAL PARK, developed in 1983 in celebration of Greeneville’s 200th birthday.
Near the park is the BIG SPRING, which runs through a picturesque stonelined moat under a quaint, arching footbridge. Many years ago, it was simply a wilderness spring that attracted game, Native Americans, and, fi nally, settlers who became the fi rst residents of Greeneville.
Samuel Doak, famed frontier preacher, is said to have preached at this spring.
For more than 150 years, the Big Spring served as the town’s major water supply.
Close by the Big Spring is one of Greeneville’s two VALENTINE SEVIER HOUSES.
Valentine Sevier, a nephew of John Sevier, Tennessee’s fi rst governor — who also was governor of Franklin and an early settler — built this house around 1820. It is a private residence now.
Heading up North Main Street at the Spencer Street intersection, one next encounters the HENEGAR TRIM HOUSE, which dates from immediately after the Civil War. A few doors up from the Henegar Trim House is the JAMES M. FOWLER HOUSE, built in the 1850s.
Dr. Fowler’s wedding coat was made by Andrew Johnson and is on display in the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site Visitor Center, which includes Johnson’s tailor shop.
The RIPLEY HOUSE (1868) and the EDMUND B. MILLER HOUSE (1856) are examples of Greek Revival architecture. During the Civil War, Miller, a Union supporter, may have been the individual who led Union troops to Greeneville, where their attack led to the death of Confederate Gen. John Hunt Morgan.
Other historic homes across North Main above Spencer are HARMONY HOUSE, a beautiful two-story brick home built in 1851, and ANTRIM, a combination of two restored, linked log structures originally built by Thomas Alexander at a different Greene County site, and brought to North Main. Antrim has for years been nestled among the trees at the rear and to the north side of Harmony House. The owners carefully disassembled the two log houses and relocated, combined and expanded them into their residence at a site about 20 feet closer to the front of the lot.
Confederate soldiers camped in the backyard during the Civil War. Harmony House was the home of Dr. W.A. Harmon, who was a teacher at Rhea Academy in the 1850s and was also a physician and a lawyer.
Heading back down Main Street into the
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downtown area, one soon encounters the property upon which once stood the ROBERT KERR HOUSE. Kerr was the man who provided land to Greene County for use as a county seat.
His provision of that land is believed to have been the key reason why Greeneville, and not some other Greene County community, became the county seat.
Kerr’s log house also served as a tavern and a meeting place for the Upper House of the State of Franklin legislature.
Greeneville’s First Baptist Church stands on the old Kerr property.
Just past the old Kerr property is the site where the
GREENEVILLE CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN
CHURCH, founded in 1841 with 30 charter members, stands at the corner of Main and Church streets. The structure is another example of Greek Revival architecture.
The church’s best known feature is a cannonball, which is representative of the one that slammed into the front wall on Sept. 4, 1864, the day Gen. John Hunt Morgan was killed nearby.
Just around the corner and across West Church Street stands ST. JAMES EPISCOPAL CHURCH, occupying a beautiful, traditional church building. Built in 1850 and designed by George M. Spencer, this white frame church’s interior features walnut woodwork and pews, a one-time slave gallery (now the choir loft), and the oldest organ in Tennessee.
A sign in the churchyard states, “The center of this block was once the garden of the Williams House (now known as the Dickson-Williams Mansion) where Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan of Morgan’s Raiders fame and his staff were billeted. Just after dawn, a detail of Brig. Gen. Alvan C. Gillem’s Federal forces slipped past Confederate outposts, surrounded the house, surprised and killed Morgan and captured his staff.”
At the intersection of Irish and Church streets, one will discover the restored
DICKSON-WILLIAMS
MANSION (referred to previously as “the Williams House”).
Once an East Tennessee showplace residence, the house was built by Greeneville’s fi rst postmaster, William Dickson, between 1815 and 1821 for his daughter, Catharine, as a future wedding present.
In 1823, when she was married, the fi ne brick home became the residence of Catharine Dickson and her husband, Dr. Alexander Williams.
Notables who were entertained there in the ensuing decades included Presidents James K. Polk and Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, Mrs. Francis Hodgson Burnett (author of Little Lord Fauntleroy) and Gen. Wade Hampton.
During the Civil War, as Greeneville changed hands,
