WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT
BRENTWOOD
In the 1920s, Brentwood rebounded. Gradually many of the plantation homes were bought and restored. With the construction of Interstate 65 in the 1960s, Brentwood grew and prospered, and by the 1990s the area was prospering again. Today, more than 42,000 people call the city home.
HISTORY
GOVERNMENT
The City of Brentwood was incorporated on April 15, 1969, but its history goes back much farther. The first known residents of Brentwood were prehistoric Native Americans from the Mississippian-period who built mounds with ceremonial buildings. Such early villages have been found in the Meadowlake subdivision, at the library site on Concord Road, and at Primm Historic Park where the largest of the mounds is still visible today. By the 1400s the groups had seemingly disappeared. 12
Brentwood’s first European settlers - planters and farmers – arrived in the late 1700s. Much of the land was granted to Revolutionary War soldiers by the State of North Carolina, before Tennessee had been carved out. Situated halfway between Nashville and Franklin, the area prospered and by the Civil War, the area was one of the richest in the state. During the war, many of the large plantation homes served as hospitals for Confederate and Union forces. The war, however, left its scar on the economy, and many homes and plantations fell to ruin.
The city operates under the Council/Manager form of government. The seven-member Board of Commissioners (informally, the City Commission) enacts laws known as ordinances and sets policies and takes other formal actions through resolutions. The Commission adopts the Capital Improvements Program and Annual Budget each year. Non-partisan city elections are held in May every two years, with the at-large commissioners serving staggered four-year-terms. The May 7, 2016 election will see four members seated.
GUIDE TO WILLIAMSON COUNTY
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