Lance's photos: May 2007

"In my Tennessee mountain home...."

This is the old downtown historic district. We are, reportedly, the only city in the world to have overhead sidewalks such as these. They were designed by a French man and have stood the test of time. I believe they were erected around the turn of the century - the last one! The buildings are now under development and being turned into condos. The bottom section will remain LOCAL retail stores.

The old Parks Belk store. This siding is made of malacite and green marble and is irreplaceable!

I just love all of the signs on the walls. There was a developer who wanted to get rid of them but, luckily, the city stepped in and said no!

I put gas in my car today and this was the gas tank. HELLO OLD SCHOOL!

This area of the state is well known for good soil and farming. These following shots show you that.

Cool old railroad tracks

This is my favorite park. It is called Panther Creek State park and use to be the home of black panthers(leopards). They have been gone for sometime but it is abundant with deer and some small bears.

For some reason I wanted to take photos of the hay. So ...... I did!

The house in the next few pictures has a long and ghastly history. It belonged to a section of the founders of our fair city, the disinherited ones. Anyway, the story goes that one winter in the late 1800's, the family got trapped in the house because of a blizzard. The partriarc of the family went stir crazy and got cabin fever and was sequestered to the basement. The family began to run out of food and he got crazier. One night he got out of the basement and started kidnapping them one by one. He had built little cages for them all and killed them and ate them. When they finally found them, they were all gone and he was missing a foot and a hand. Believe it or not!

The house was struck by lightning and burned to the ground that spring. Only the chimenys remained and that is basically all that is left today.

On halloween people try to sneak into it but the police guard it now.

It is still on the registry of important places in our town.

Ok, I am weird,but I love graveyards. They are one of my favorite things to photograph. They have such history and intrigue. This is the oldest graveyard in my town and I have posted pics of it before. The graves here are so interesting.

Take a closer look!