Greg Tucker, Rutherford for Real, Page 31
were built in mid-Depression (1934-35) by the Cannon family.
Photo by Don Wolfe.
The parents disagreed about the daughter’s fiance, so they demolished their house on East main, sold the backyard to a local farmer, and built the county’s first apartment building.
In the early 1900’s Thomas B. Cannon was learning the retail business as a clerk in a Nashville clothing store and later as a traveling sales rep for a clothing manufacturer. In 1908 he was back home in Murfreesboro courting the lovely and strong-willed Rosa Moore, and establishing Cannon Dry Goods on the north side of the Public Square.
A dry goods store in the 1900’s was an urban version of the rural general store without food items, and the forerunner of the department store. Cannon’s store sold piece goods, clothing, hardware, furniture, kitchen ware, firearms, fishing tackle, stationery, carriage accessories, horse tack, and countless other everyday items. A large part of the sales volume was menswear.
Cannon married Rosa on December 23, 1908, and they soon acquired a home in the first block of South Maney between the church on East Main and the Blankenship Grocery.
Daughter Juliet was born in 1912 and son Thomas Batts Cannon, IV followed in 1917.
By 1920, Cannon was a prosperous and influential member of the Murfreesboro business community. With a growing family and an expanding business income, Tom and Rosa decided in 1921 to buy the Whorton home and property on the northwest corner of the East Main and University Street intersection. This property had originally extended from Main to College Street across from the Union University property. In the 1870’s the property was the home of the Samuel Hodge family. In 1903 J.M. and Bettie Knight purchased the Hodge property and divided it into several tracts. Approximately one-half of the original property fronting East Main was sold to A.D. and Katie Whorton. (The northern half of the original property was eventually divided into two lots and developed as homes for the Earthman and Christie families. Webber Earthman, 117 University Street, had one of the area’s first automobile dealerships. The Christy family, 115 University Street, were half of the Christy-Huggins partnership that owned local icehouse, coal and soft drink businesses.)
The Whorton home was a large, two-story frame house with “modern” conveniences found only in the finer urban homes of that era. Cannon’s son (today a ninety-three-year-old resident of the Quality Care Nursing Home in Lebanon) remembers that he and his sister had their own rooms, and that he played in a “huge backyard” around an old cistern (underground tanks for capturing rainwater for domestic use were common in the early 20th Century.) Near the back of the property was an old carriage house and stable used as a garage for the family automobile.
Through most of the 1920’s Tom and Rosa Cannon enjoyed a measure of prominence and prosperity. The dry goods business expanded. Tom bought out several partners and put cousin Eph Lytle in charge of the profitable menswear section. The Cannons joined the Murfreesboro Country Club and Tom was a regular on the golf course in a foursome with Camillus Huggins, Sim Christy and Mayor Collier Crichlow. (With a large swimming pool and the first golf course in the county, the Murfreesboro Country Club was on the east of South Church Street where the Indian Hills Subdivision is now located.)
But as the 1920’s waned so did the business. In 1929 Cannon sold his retail business interests and accepted appointment as Clerk &Master for the Rutherford County Chancery Court. The Chancellor at that time was Thomas B. Lytle, Cannon’s uncle.
The deepening Depression had limited effect on the Cannons, but plans announced by daughter Juliet in 1933 put the family in turmoil. She advised of her plans to marry Riley W. Clark, Jr. Rosa adamantly opposed the matrimonial plans. Tom sided with his daughter.
Riley was the son of a real estate agent who at one time served as president of the Murfreesboro Chamber of Commerce. His mother, Katherine, was a Central High School teacher. The Clarks lived in the 100 block of Second Avenue near the eastern city boundary. At the time of the wedding announcement, Riley was a traveling salesman for Dawn Butter. He aspired, however, to own an auto-related business in Murfreesboro.
Unable to prevent the marriage of her 21-year-old daughter and now estranged from her husband of 25 years, Rosa imposed new living arrangements. The family vacated their East Main home and moved temporarily into rental housing owned by the Clarks near the Training School. Juliet with her father and new husband lived in one house; Rosa and son Tom occupied another.
With her husband’s acquiescence, Rosa sold the back yard of the family home to Charles Cason, a farmer from west of the city who wanted to build a house in town. Tom then sold his interest in the balance of the property, including the house, to Rosa, and the house was demolished. (Rosa saved and stored a quantity of lumber and fixtures from the demolished home.)
Once in full control of the property, Rosa commissioned C.K. Colley, a prominent Nashville architect, to design an English Tudor style apartment building. The facade of the approved design incorporated four shades of brick, white mortar, cypress wood, stucco, sawed stone ornamentation and natural stone insets. Footings were a foot-thick poured concrete with concrete firewalls separating the apartments from the common stairs and hallways. Each apartment had brass light fixtures, hardwood floors, modern tile bathroom, separate dining room, full kitchen, large living room and a “sun” room. A four-car garage was built in the same style over the old cistern.
The “Owners” and “Garden” apartments were on the ground floor; second floor apartments overlooked Main Street; the basement had designated tenant storage lockers and “janitor” facilities. (A third floor was originally left unfinished, but was later completed as a penthouse using material salvaged from the demolished home.) Son Tom remembers that his mother’s project was the first apartment building in the county. “There were a number of private homes used as boarding houses and several older hotels in the mid-30’s,” remembers Cannon. “But ours was the first apartment building built from the ground up.”
The new structure attracted considerable attention and Rosa decided to involve the public in naming the apartments. She announced in the newspaper that a $5 prize (not an insignificant amount in 1935) would be given to the person suggesting the best name. The prize-winning name, selected by Rosa from several dozen suggestions, was “Gladstone.”
According to her son, Rosa thought “Gladstone” had a classy English sound consistent with the style of her new structure.
When initially occupied in 1935, Rosa and her son lived in one of the upstairs units. Daughter Juliet with her husband and father took the owners apartment on the ground floor. (Riley’s new business was Clark’s Tire Service on West College.)
“My mother had at least succeeded in keeping the family together under one roof,” noted son Tom.
Mildred Hord Hicks and Louise C. McCord were among the first Gladstone tenants. For many years, the “Garden Apartment” was occupied by Crichlow teacher Anna Lou Ragland and Mrs. W.E. Ragland. MTSC teacher Elizabeth Schardt and Coca-Cola heir Jesse Huggins were also long-term tenants.
On Saturday, December 2, 1939, according to a Daily News Journal account, Chancery Clerk &Master T.B. Cannon “was said by witnesses to have gone to his office in the courthouse early Saturday morning, supposedly to get a pistol which he kept there. He went directly from there to the Stones River Club where he seated himself in a chair, drew out the pistol and fired a bullet into his throat. The bullet penetrated his brain … (According to his widow) ill health was blamed for his act.”
The Riley/Juliet marriage apparently ended during the 1940’s. According to the 1947 city directory, Riley moved back with his parents at 105 Second Ave.
Juliet lived apart from her family on Clark Boulevard for several years before leaving the area. Rosa Cannon died in 1973 and the Gladstone was sold in 1975 to settle her estate. Son Tom, a confirmed bachelor, remained as a tenant until 1985. “That corner was my home for 65 years.”