Forgotten Friday-McFadden Farm, Murfreesboro

   When I first moved to Rutherford County in 2002, one of the first places we explored was the Stones River Battlefield. One of the tour stops is known as the McFadden's Ford. It was in this area on January 2, 1863, near the McFadden's family farm, that the Confederates attempted to cross the Stones River from the southeast to attack the Union forces entrenched on the hills. Cannons pounded and the Confederates were killed by the hundreds.
   Currently at this tour stop you will see a monument, cannons, a small family cemetery, and you can walk down to the river where fighting occurred. But when I first visited(with my non-digital camera) in 2002, there was an old abandoned farmhouse. I took only this one photo of it, thinking I would take more in the future. And then one day it was just gone. I asked a park ranger who said it was removed because it wasn't original to the site. And that is rather sad, because it was still clearly a quite old home.

Small Business Saturday

   Small businesses, slowly vanishing. Find them today and give them business. Where would our country today be without them.
   Will you visit a small business in your town today?

Why Do Places Become Abandoned?

   I am obsessed with "abandonment". I am not really sure why. One reason may have to do with my love of history. These places were once a place where people lived there lives. Of abandoned stores, they were a place of employment and where all the locals got their essentials. Perhaps they came to the store once a month, and maybe they even brought eggs from their farm to trade for flour and thread. Many stores were also the post office and a place to just hang out, talk to friends and neighbors, learn the town news.

Quick Trip down the Bristol-Memphis Highway

  A week or so ago, we took a "quick" trip to Sevierville to pick up Mom for something-er-other. I put "quick" in quotation marks because "quick" would mean the 3 hour ride along Interstate 40. But we actually had most of Sunday so we took Highway 70, the old Bristol-Memphis Highway, roughly from

Day 2: Galveston Island, Texas

There will be more day 2 coming, but we spent some quality time in Galveston and I want to post some of the better photos from there.

We watched sunrise on the beach and picked up a few shells along the way.

Drove by the new Pleasure Pier a few times.

We took the Bolivar Ferry back and forth, saw quite a few dolphins from the observation deck.

Stopped by the ruins of the supposed former home of pirate Jean Lafitte.

Bishops Palace, one of the many beautiful homes along the main road. Also one of the few survivors of the devastating 1900 hurricane that nearly leveled everything on the island.

Tune in tomorrow for more photos from Houston and surrounding area!

Along Kentucky Back Roads

Broadbent B&B Foods factory building near Cadiz. Reported to have been built in the 1940s by World War II Austrian prisoners of war from a nearby camp. Unique architecture. The company recently moved and the building is empty.

More from Kentucky after the jump...

Gone but not Forgotten

  I am quite obsessed with abandoned buildings. I'm not sure why, or really when it started. I find them eternally sad. When I see an abandoned home I can't help but wonder why and how it got that way. And at times I wish I was really rich so I could save some of the really beautiful old homes that are torn down in the name of "progress". I hate "progress". I don't like I belong in this time period. I know, it's weird and complicated.

  Anyway, here a few of the old homes that I have photographed that have since been completely removed from existence. Sadly.


This home was in downtown Smyrna, Tennessee. It was torn down recently to make more parking for a church across the street.


The Jenkins House was used as a hospital during the Battle of Stones River in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. It was torn down only a few months after I got photos of it in late 2005. They were going to put up a strip mall, but as of now the land still sits empty.


The McCulloch House, built in 1838, used as the headquarters by Union Lt General William J Hardee during the Battle of Stones River. It had been altered so many times over the years that it hardly resembled the Civil War landmark. In 2006 it was demolished so condos could be built.


Old home in Blackman, Tennessee, possibly a Batey family residence as there is a cemetery nearby. All that remains is an empty lot and a few outbuildings.


Morton House, Smyrna, Tennessee. Land was once owned by Revolutionary War veteran, James B Morton, 1758-1808. I don't know any more details about the home, such as when it was built. It did have an original log portion of the home that was reportedly saved and moved to a Tennessee State Park. This home however was demolished to make way for a new school. The cemetery that was into the woods beyond the house was relocated to the edge of the school property.

Bruceton Roundhouse

Old Bruceton, Tennessee roundhouse

Forgotten Friday

The Barn

I am back!

And I don't know where to start! It has been almost exactly a year since I posted last and I've had a somewhat busy year. Could have been better, but gas prices and a crappy car being what they are, well I can't change those things right now.

This time last year I posted about the town of Cairo, Illinois that I had just visited. And within a month or so the town was all over the news with the possibility of flooding due to historic floods along the Mississippi River. I suppose the town was spared eventually, at the cost of others. That's how it goes.

I am not sure how I will continue here though. If I should continue the daily themes I had set up or if I should just start randomly posting some of my favorite photos that I've taken and posted on Flickr. I may just do that for now until I can gauge a response(LOL if there is ANY!).

So here is today's photo, taken from a recent trip to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, to visit family and see just how things have changed in seven years after Hurricane Katrina-it was quite sad.