Days Gone By

Christopher Kinder

WARWICK LECTURE SERIES

Williamson County certainly has no shortage of amazing and interesting, as well as historic, architecture and homes. Rick Warwick, county historian, has been researching and talking about the abundance of interesting homes in the county for years. Now we have the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County’s Warwick Lecture Series, named for county historian Rick Warwick. The Foundation held its third event in the lecture series in September and will host the final lecture for the year, on November 10th .

The September event featured Christopher Kinder, Historic Preservation Specialist with the Tennessee Historical Commission, who set about to explore Middle Tennessee’s Mid-Century Modern architecture. The event was virtual, as well as free and open to the public via livestreaming.

“In the last decade or so there has been a strong push by preservationists to recognize the significance of Mid-Century Modern architecture,” Christopher said. “There are numerous styles, almost too many to name, that stretch from the years just before World War II to the late 1960s. This includes everything from International style, to late Streamline Modern style, to the multiple variations of Ranch style houses.” This style of architecture represents a strong move away from the classical revival styles that dominated the 19th and early 20th centuries incorporating an emphasized focus on vertical and horizontal lines.

“There are several homes in Williamson County that are beautiful examples of Mid-Century residential architecture,” he said. “The focus is often asymmetrical rooflines and absolutely no classical architecture characteristics. It’s about the lines and big windows that let in a lot of natural light.” Christopher added that to many people, something isn’t ‘historic’ if it comes from an era, they have been a part of. Nostalgia and historic, he said, don’t often correlate. But that line of thinking needs to change. “I really hope to show how nostalgia helps us look at things historically,” he said. “Mid-Century architecture represents a really exciting and interesting period of American history and we should recognize those places and preserve them.”

The Warwick Lecture Series is a local history or preservation-focused program produced quarterly by the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County. The November lecture, the final event for the 2020 series, will be a virtual event. The guest speaker will be Dr. Mary Evins who will speak on the Legacies of the Women’s Suffrage Movement, as we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. Dr. Evins is a research professor with the Center for Historic Preservation at Middle Tennessee State University and also teaches history in the MTSU History Department and University Honors College. You can go to williamsonheritage.org/events for event updates on speaker and other programming information and to register.

Since 1967, the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County has been dedicated to preserving Williamson County’s architectural, geographic and cultural heritage as well as promoting the ongoing revitalization of downtown Franklin in the context of historic preservation. For more information about the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County, visit williamsonheritage.org.

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