During this era, preservation efforts tended to focus on individual buildings (often reutilized as museums), historic landscapes such as battlefields, and natural resources for use as public parks. Citizens formed private nonprofit organizations to lobby the state and federal governments for preservation. At the local level, cities such as New Orleans and Savannah established precedent-setting historic preservation commissions and conservation zoning. In Tennessee, the historic preservation movement during this period resulted in the creation of the Tennessee Historical Commission in 1919 and efforts to preserve state-owned historic sites such as the Meriwether Lewis Monument and Gravesite near Hohenwald, as well as the acquisition of historic sites such as the James K. Polk Home in nearby Columbia. In 1925, President Calvin Coolidge established the Meriwether Lewis National Monument under the management of the nearby Shiloh National Military Park at Savannah. NATIONAL MILITARY PARK: 1901–1926 In 1890, Congress authorized the creation of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park as the first national military park in the U.S. Dedicated in 1895, the 9,523-acre park included the Chickamauga Battlefield in northwest Georgia and the Lookout Mountain Battlefield in southeast Tennessee and served as a model for many subsequent parks. This includes the designation of the 9,324-acre Shiloh National Military Park established in 1894 near Savannah, Tennessee; the 709-acre Stones River National Military Park, established in 1927 in nearby Murfreesboro; and the 1,319-acre Fort Donelson National Military Park established in 1928 at Dover. Efforts to preserve the Stones River Battlefield had been initiated by a private group in 1896.26 Following the lead of Chattanooga, Shiloh, and Murfreesboro in the 1890s, residents of Franklin initiated efforts to create a national military park in 26 Jones and Brackett 2019:26. Franklin in 1900 when U.S. Rep. Nicholas N. Cox (1837–1912), a Confederate veteran from Franklin, introduced a legislation for $100,000 to purchase 150 acres of the battlefield. Although the legislation was unsuccessful, U.S. Rep. Lemuel Phillips Padgett (1855–1922) of Columbia, Tennessee, introduced five bills from 1901–1911 to Congress for establishing a federally managed military park in Franklin. None of these bills were successful. The Franklin chapter of the UDC continued to lobby for a military park and in 1909 formed a National Park Committee led by Tennie Pinkerton Dozier, a founding member of the Franklin UDC. The Committee worked to influence the powerful Congressional Committee on Military Affairs (CMA). Dozier and other members of the UDC, such as Susie Gentry, convinced city and county politicians to issue resolutions and petitions in support. The committee also created plat maps showing the most significant battlefield landmarks. The committee secured support from state officials who traveled to Washington, D.C., to advocate the legislation. However, the bill failed to pass through the CMA.27 In 1914, U.S. Rep. Padgett introduced a bill in Congress to provide a $30,000 appropriation to construct a memorial arch over the Columbia Pike near the Carter House in Franklin to commemorate the Battle of Franklin. The reconciliation arch, which would commemorate both Federal and Confederate soldiers, would be constructed on land donated by residents.28 Simultaneously, U.S. Rep. Isaac R. Sherwood of Ohio, a general in the U.S. Army who fought in Franklin, introduced yet another bill to establish a national military park at Franklin at a cost of $150,000. Confederate and Union veterans meeting in Franklin in 1914 as part of a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Franklin voiced strong support for the legislation. However, both bills failed to move out of the CMA.29 27Bailey 2015:80–85, 96–102; Crutchfield and Holladay 1999:266-267; Flack 2020; NPS SRS 2006: 11, 73. 28 Baily 2015:84–85; Cottrell 1914:9. 29 Bailey 2015: 85; NPS SRS 2006:74; newspaper article 1914. 66 FRANKLIN, TN | PRESERVATION PLAN
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