Greg Tucker, Daily News Journal, March 22, 2015
This 1907 map details the creeks, streets, businesses and residences in a part of Murfreesboro that later came to be known as the Bottoms.
William T. Christy served several terms as a city alderman in the mid-1800s. S.B. Christy was a founder of both the First Methodist and St. Mark’s United Methodist Churches in Murfreesboro. Addie Collins Christy was instrumental in establishing the first Catholic congregation in Rutherford County. Jonathan and C.B. Huggins served as city aldermen during the 19th century, and W.S. Huggins was a founding trustee of Soule College in Murfreesboro.
W.B. Earthman & Co. operated a sprawling lumber yard and planing mill at the intersection of West Castle and South Front Streets. (The office building for this enterprise today serves as the office and front counter for Hooper Supply Co.) Believed to be one of the state’s wealthiest individuals, W. B. Earthman was president of the First National Bank of Murfreesboro and had other banking interests in neighboring counties.
The Williams Bros. Saw & Planing Mill and lumber yards bounded the Bottoms to the north. A concrete block manufacturer and the seed and grain warehouses operated by the J. R. Hale & Sons Company stood on the west along the spur track and Lytle Creek.
South Walnut Street bordered the Bottoms on the east where two poultry and egg producers, two cotton gins (the Rather & Maney Gin and the J. H. Elliott Gin), and the J. T. Rather & Co. grain and cotton warehouse were located. The livestock pens were at the South Walnut and Hilliard Street intersection where the spur track crossed the beginning of the Salem Turnpike.
Town Creek flowed under three wooden bridges on Walnut, Sevier and Front streets, and crossed the block between the two poultry plants. The creek served as the waste water drainage system for the area which was particularly convenient for the chicken and egg processors. The residences, a mix of duplexes and single units, clustered around the South Front and West State streets, surrounded by the business establishments.
For several decades the creek banks were sufficient to contain the water flow and the area prospered. In time, however, the intense residential and commercial activity wore down the land while upstream agricultural activity increased runoff. As a result, the low-lying creek bottoms would often flood. Persistent standing water and mud holes were common across the area.
Beginning with the bankruptcy of the W. B. Earthman Co. in 1907, amid claims of bank fraud (see Tucker, “Rutherford…for Real,” pages 27-8), the employment base in the Bottoms began to shrink. As the businesses closed or relocated, the residential properties became low-end rentals with absentee landlords.
At a 1949 Murfreesboro public hearing on the need for federal funding for “slum clearance,” local ambulance personnel testified about “houses filled with mud” in the Bottoms. When funding was finally approved in 1950, it included money for construction of 150 “low-income” units for persons relocated from the Bottoms and other “renewed” neighborhoods.