THE PRESERVATION OF PUBLIC SPACE IN UNCERTAIN TIMES: THE HICKMAN COUNTY COURTHOUSE, 1925-2020

Abstract

This thesis explores the challenges faced by rural county seats across the South as consumer and travel preferences have changed throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century. I used the case study approach, selecting Hickman County, a rural county in Middle Tennessee, as an example of the extremes that local government officials will take to ensure the continued vitality of their downtown spaces. Hickman County Commission’s decision to sell its historic courthouse in the fall and winter of 2019-2020 was extreme step, one documented in only a few other places in the nation. Built in 1925-1926 the courthouse had defined public space in the county seat of Centerville for almost 100 years. Hickman County had a generation of preservation successes, from successful efforts to save rural schools to recent commercial rehabilitation of buildings on the town square. Yet, demographic changes, the estimated costs of the project, and a countywide tendency to identify more strongly with neighborhood and community, meant that the courthouse largely lost its constituency for preservation.