Cumberland Homesteads
Encyclopedia
Cumberland Homesteads is a community located in Cumberland County, Tennessee, USA. Established by the New Deal
-era Division of Subsistence Homesteads in 1934, the community was envisioned by federal planners as a model of cooperative
living for the region's distressed farmers, coal miners, and factory workers. While the cooperative experiment failed and the federal government withdrew from the project in the 1940s, the Homesteads community nevertheless survived. In 1988, several hundred of the community's original houses and other buildings, which are characterized by the native "crab orchard" sandstone used in their construction, were added to the National Register of Historic Places
as a historic district.
By the early 1930s, decades of poor farming practices had rendered many of the small farms in East Tennessee
untenable, and the Great Depression
had left thousands of coal miners and other industrial workers unemployed. In January 1934, the Division of Subsistence Homesteads chose Cumberland County as a site for one of its "stranded" agricultural communities, in which families were resettled on small farms and would work in community-owned businesses. Most of the cooperative ventures failed, however, and after World War II
the government divested itself of the project. The community's general layout still appears much as it did in the late 1930s.
, just south of Crossville
. Byrd Creek, a tributary of the Obed River
, flows through and drains much of the community. Cumberland Mountain State Park
, which was developed simultaneously in the 1930s as a recreational area, is located in Cumberland Homesteads.
U.S. Route 127
connects the Homestead area with Crossville and I-40
to the north and the Sequatchie Valley
to the south. State Highway 68 (Grassy Cove Road) connects the area to Grassy Cove
and Spring City
to the east. The Cumberland Homesteads Historic District, which covers over 10000 acres (40.5 km²), includes properties on Chestnut Lane, Coon Hollow Lane, County Seat Road, Crab Apple Lane, Crab Orchard Road, Deep Draw Road, Grassy Cove Road (TN-68), Highland Lane, Huckleberry Road, Old Mail Road, Open Range Road, Pigeon Ridge Road (TN-419), Saw Mill Road, Turkey Oak Road, and Valley Road, as well as over a dozen structures in Cumberland Mountain State Park.
in 1933 created the Division of Subsistence Homesteads and gave the Roosevelt Administration $25,000,000 to purchase land for the creation of small farming communities for the nation's displaced workers. The Division focused on three types of settlements— communities of part-time farmers near wage-earning employment, communities of farmers resettled from unproductive land, and communities of "stranded" industrial workers, namely miners and loggers. The latter type, which eventually included Cumberland Homesteads, drew the most criticism, as many believed such communities would never be self-supporting.
Cumberland County farm agent Robert Lyons led a local committee that drew up a proposal for a homestead community, which it submitted to the Division of Subsistence Hometeads in December 1933. Lyons had likely been influenced by earlier Plateau-area "back to the land" experiments, such as the Clifty Consolidated Coal Company's 1917 program that helped Fentress County miners purchase small farms, as well as relief efforts provided by local Quakers. Due in part to the influence of Tennessee Valley Authority
chairman and cooperative living proponent Arthur Morgan
, the Division of Subsistence Homesteads accepted the Cumberland County proposal in January 1934. Over 20000 acres (80.9 km²) of land south of Crossville were purchased from the Missouri Land Company, and Cumberland Homesteads, Inc., was created to administer the project.
The Civil Works Administration
immediately hired several hundred locals to prepare the newly-acquired land, providing wages that effectively ended the Depression in Cumberland County. Of the initial 233 families selected for the Cumberland Homesteads project, 30% were distressed farmers, 30% were unemployed miners, 30% were unemployed textile workers, and 10% were struggling professionals (including teachers, nurses, and a doctor). TVA architect William Macy Stanton, who designed a number of buildings in TVA's planned city of Norris
, drew up basic designs for houses and other buildings at the Homesteads. The Civilian Conservation Corps
built recreational buildings and a small lake for the community at what is now Cumberland Mountain State Park. By late 1934, the community's first stone houses had been completed.
A community-owned store (the "Trading Post") and cannery were established in 1934, but both struggled with inexperienced management. Wage-paying industries never relocated to the Homesteads as the government had hoped, and attempts by homesteaders to establish a coal mine and sorghum
mill failed. Throughout the 1930s, the Homesteads project was overseen by a succession of agencies with differing philosophies, leaving the project without a clear purpose. By 1945, the federal government had extricated itself from the Homesteads project after allowing the remaining homesteaders to purchase their farms. Although the original purpose of the Homesteads project failed, the community survived, and over half the farms remained in the hands of original homesteaders through the 1950s.
Most of the original 251 houses are still standing. Fifteen distinct housing designs have been identified, with eleven of the designs found multiple times, as they followed basic patterns provided by William Macy Stanton. Stanton's designs include rectangular houses, L-shaped houses, and T-shaped houses, most of which are 1.5 stories with gable
roofs and one or two chimneys. Most houses originally had covered-porch entrances and batten
doors. Typical interiors consisted of pine paneling with built-in bookcases. Attics contained water storage tanks, and most houses were wired in anticipation of TVA providing electrical power. Most farmsteads included a barn (with either gable or gambrel
-roof design), a smokehouse
, a chicken house, and toolsheds.
The Cumberland Homesteads Historic District includes several structures at Cumberland Mountain State Park, including Byrd Creek Dam, Millhouse Lodge (originally a gristmill
designed by Quakers), several rustic cabins, and a stone water tower. Byrd Creek Dam is the largest masonry structure ever built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Two stone arch bridges, one along Deep Draw Road and one along Old Mail Road, are listed as contributing structures within the district.
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
-era Division of Subsistence Homesteads in 1934, the community was envisioned by federal planners as a model of cooperative
Cooperative
A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...
living for the region's distressed farmers, coal miners, and factory workers. While the cooperative experiment failed and the federal government withdrew from the project in the 1940s, the Homesteads community nevertheless survived. In 1988, several hundred of the community's original houses and other buildings, which are characterized by the native "crab orchard" sandstone used in their construction, were added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
as a historic district.
By the early 1930s, decades of poor farming practices had rendered many of the small farms in East Tennessee
East Tennessee
East Tennessee is a name given to approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee, one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. East Tennessee consists of 33 counties, 30 located within the Eastern Time Zone and three counties in the Central Time Zone, namely...
untenable, and the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
had left thousands of coal miners and other industrial workers unemployed. In January 1934, the Division of Subsistence Homesteads chose Cumberland County as a site for one of its "stranded" agricultural communities, in which families were resettled on small farms and would work in community-owned businesses. Most of the cooperative ventures failed, however, and after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
the government divested itself of the project. The community's general layout still appears much as it did in the late 1930s.
Location
Cumberland Homesteads is located in a hilly area atop the Cumberland PlateauCumberland Plateau
The Cumberland Plateau is the southern part of the Appalachian Plateau. It includes much of eastern Kentucky and western West Virginia, part of Tennessee, and a small portion of northern Alabama and northwest Georgia . The terms "Allegheny Plateau" and the "Cumberland Plateau" both refer to the...
, just south of Crossville
Crossville, Tennessee
Crossville is a city in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 10,795 at the 2010 Census.-Geography:Crossville is located at...
. Byrd Creek, a tributary of the Obed River
Obed River
Obed River is a stream draining a part of the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee. It, and particularly its tributaries, are important streams for whitewater enthusiasts....
, flows through and drains much of the community. Cumberland Mountain State Park
Cumberland Mountain State Park
Cumberland Mountain State Park is a state park in Cumberland County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The park consists of situated around Byrd Lake, a man-made lake created by the impoundment of Byrd Creek in the 1930s...
, which was developed simultaneously in the 1930s as a recreational area, is located in Cumberland Homesteads.
U.S. Route 127
U.S. Route 127
U.S. Route 127 is a long north–south United States highway in the eastern half of the United States. The southern terminus of the route is at U.S. Route 27 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The northern terminus is at Interstate 75 near Grayling, Michigan...
connects the Homestead area with Crossville and I-40
Interstate 40
Interstate 40 is the third-longest major east–west Interstate Highway in the United States, after I-90 and I-80. Its western end is at Interstate 15 in Barstow, California; its eastern end is at a concurrency of U.S. Route 117 and North Carolina Highway 132 in Wilmington, North Carolina...
to the north and the Sequatchie Valley
Sequatchie Valley
Sequatchie Valley is a relatively long and narrow valley in the U.S. state of Tennessee and, in some definitions, Alabama. It is generally considered to be part of the Cumberland Plateau region of the Appalachian Mountains; it was probably formed by erosion of a compression anticline, rather than...
to the south. State Highway 68 (Grassy Cove Road) connects the area to Grassy Cove
Grassy Cove
Grassy Cove is an enclosed valley in Cumberland County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The valley is notable for its karst formations, which have been designated a National Natural Landmark...
and Spring City
Spring City, Tennessee
Spring City is a town in Rhea County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 2,025 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Spring City is located at ....
to the east. The Cumberland Homesteads Historic District, which covers over 10000 acres (40.5 km²), includes properties on Chestnut Lane, Coon Hollow Lane, County Seat Road, Crab Apple Lane, Crab Orchard Road, Deep Draw Road, Grassy Cove Road (TN-68), Highland Lane, Huckleberry Road, Old Mail Road, Open Range Road, Pigeon Ridge Road (TN-419), Saw Mill Road, Turkey Oak Road, and Valley Road, as well as over a dozen structures in Cumberland Mountain State Park.
History
The passage of the National Industrial Recovery ActNational Industrial Recovery Act
The National Industrial Recovery Act , officially known as the Act of June 16, 1933 The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), officially known as the Act of June 16, 1933 The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), officially known as the Act of June 16, 1933 (Ch. 90, 48 Stat. 195, formerly...
in 1933 created the Division of Subsistence Homesteads and gave the Roosevelt Administration $25,000,000 to purchase land for the creation of small farming communities for the nation's displaced workers. The Division focused on three types of settlements— communities of part-time farmers near wage-earning employment, communities of farmers resettled from unproductive land, and communities of "stranded" industrial workers, namely miners and loggers. The latter type, which eventually included Cumberland Homesteads, drew the most criticism, as many believed such communities would never be self-supporting.
Cumberland County farm agent Robert Lyons led a local committee that drew up a proposal for a homestead community, which it submitted to the Division of Subsistence Hometeads in December 1933. Lyons had likely been influenced by earlier Plateau-area "back to the land" experiments, such as the Clifty Consolidated Coal Company's 1917 program that helped Fentress County miners purchase small farms, as well as relief efforts provided by local Quakers. Due in part to the influence of Tennessee Valley Authority
Tennessee Valley Authority
The Tennessee Valley Authority is a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter in May 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected...
chairman and cooperative living proponent Arthur Morgan
Arthur Ernest Morgan
Arthur Ernest Morgan was a civil engineer, U.S. administrator, and educator. He was the design engineer for the Miami Conservancy District flood control system and oversaw construction. He served as the president of Antioch College between 1920 and 1936...
, the Division of Subsistence Homesteads accepted the Cumberland County proposal in January 1934. Over 20000 acres (80.9 km²) of land south of Crossville were purchased from the Missouri Land Company, and Cumberland Homesteads, Inc., was created to administer the project.
The Civil Works Administration
Civil Works Administration
The Civil Works Administration was established by the New Deal during the Great Depression to create manual labor jobs for millions of unemployed. The jobs were merely temporary, for the duration of the hard winter. Harry L. Hopkins was put in charge of the organization. President Franklin D...
immediately hired several hundred locals to prepare the newly-acquired land, providing wages that effectively ended the Depression in Cumberland County. Of the initial 233 families selected for the Cumberland Homesteads project, 30% were distressed farmers, 30% were unemployed miners, 30% were unemployed textile workers, and 10% were struggling professionals (including teachers, nurses, and a doctor). TVA architect William Macy Stanton, who designed a number of buildings in TVA's planned city of Norris
Norris, Tennessee
Norris is a city in Anderson County, Tennessee, United States. Its population was 1,446 at the 2000 census. It is included in the Knoxville, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
, drew up basic designs for houses and other buildings at the Homesteads. The Civilian Conservation Corps
Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, ages 18–25. A part of the New Deal of President Franklin D...
built recreational buildings and a small lake for the community at what is now Cumberland Mountain State Park. By late 1934, the community's first stone houses had been completed.
A community-owned store (the "Trading Post") and cannery were established in 1934, but both struggled with inexperienced management. Wage-paying industries never relocated to the Homesteads as the government had hoped, and attempts by homesteaders to establish a coal mine and sorghum
Sorghum
Sorghum is a genus of numerous species of grasses, one of which is raised for grain and many of which are used as fodder plants either cultivated or as part of pasture. The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide. Species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of all continents...
mill failed. Throughout the 1930s, the Homesteads project was overseen by a succession of agencies with differing philosophies, leaving the project without a clear purpose. By 1945, the federal government had extricated itself from the Homesteads project after allowing the remaining homesteaders to purchase their farms. Although the original purpose of the Homesteads project failed, the community survived, and over half the farms remained in the hands of original homesteaders through the 1950s.
Building designs
Buildings at Cumberland Homesteads were constructed using primarily a locally-quarried sandstone known as "crab orchard" stone, which is known for its durability and reddish hue in late afternoon sunlight. The most notable building in Cumberland Homesteads is the Homesteads Tower, a cross-shaped building centered around an eight-story octagonal water tower. This building originally housed the Homesteads offices, and is now home to the Homesteads Tower Museum. The elementary school and high school, located behind the Homesteads Tower, consist of unique pod-style designs, with detached classrooms and workshops connected by covered walkways. Both school complexes are now part of Homestead Elementary School. The cannery and hosiery mill have both been modified to the extent that they are not considered contributing properties to the historic district, although their respective water towers are considered contributing structures.Most of the original 251 houses are still standing. Fifteen distinct housing designs have been identified, with eleven of the designs found multiple times, as they followed basic patterns provided by William Macy Stanton. Stanton's designs include rectangular houses, L-shaped houses, and T-shaped houses, most of which are 1.5 stories with gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
roofs and one or two chimneys. Most houses originally had covered-porch entrances and batten
Batten
A batten is a thin strip of solid material, typically made from wood, plastic or metal. Battens are used in building construction and various other fields as both structural and purely cosmetic elements...
doors. Typical interiors consisted of pine paneling with built-in bookcases. Attics contained water storage tanks, and most houses were wired in anticipation of TVA providing electrical power. Most farmsteads included a barn (with either gable or gambrel
Gambrel
A gambrel is a usually-symmetrical two-sided roof with two slopes on each side. The upper slope is positioned at a shallow angle, while the lower slope is steep. This design provides the advantages of a sloped roof while maximizing headroom on the building's upper level...
-roof design), a smokehouse
Smokehouse
A smokehouse is a building where meat or fish is cured with smoke. The finished product might be stored in the building, sometimes for a year or more.-History:...
, a chicken house, and toolsheds.
The Cumberland Homesteads Historic District includes several structures at Cumberland Mountain State Park, including Byrd Creek Dam, Millhouse Lodge (originally a gristmill
Gristmill
The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...
designed by Quakers), several rustic cabins, and a stone water tower. Byrd Creek Dam is the largest masonry structure ever built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Two stone arch bridges, one along Deep Draw Road and one along Old Mail Road, are listed as contributing structures within the district.