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For this sixth installment of the series about eight sites in Tullahoma listed on the National Register of Historic Places, we’re going to look at the Smotherman House at 211 West Blackwell Street. Built between 1932-34, this beautiful brick Georgian Revival home (a subtype of the Colonial Revival style) was added to the National Register in July 2018. It qualified under Criterion C: “Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction.” The Smotherman House is considered to be the best example of a Georgian Revival style residential structure extant in Tullahoma.

Though the home stands on its own merit, a short history of the Smothermans is in order. Per the National Register nomination, “Before coming to Tullahoma, Fletcher Smotherman was a director and vice-president of the Henry King & Company wholesale grocery company. It was headquartered in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and had branches in McMinnville, Carthage, and Tullahoma, Tennessee. Smotherman lived with his wife, Pauline, and their children in a 1926 Georgian Revival style home at 915 E. Main Street in Murfreesboro.

“In December 1927, the company sold its branches to three of its directors: Smotherman, Howard Henderson, and C.R. Womack. They created a new firm named Smotherman-Henderson-Womack and established its headquarters in Tullahoma. About February 1928 Fletcher Smotherman moved with his family […] to Tullahoma to run the headquarters alongside Howard Henderson. In 1931, the firm changed its name to Smotherman-Womack Wholesale Grocery Company when Howard Henderson retired.

“The Smotherman Family lived on Washington Street and briefly at the old King Hotel on Northeast Atlantic Street before their new house was completed. […] The Smothermans’ lot was originally five acres and extended further northwest to Campbell Avenue. A gravel road was eventually built through the property, which later became West Blackwell Street. At an unknown date, the lot was subdivided and the northeast sections were sold.

“Fletcher Smotherman was active in Tullahoma civic affairs. He was a member of the Tullahoma Board of Aldermen, as well as the Tullahoma Rotary Club, Knights of Pythias, Masonic Order, and the Board of Stewards of the Tullahoma Methodist Church. When he died unexpectedly in May 1937, he was also Mayor Pro Tem. His body lay in state in the Smotherman House’s dining room during visitation prior to his funeral.

“After Fletcher Smotherman’s death, Pauline Smotherman continued to live in the house and managed the Smotherman-Womack Wholesale Grocery Company as Vice-President. Her son, Paul Smotherman, became the company’s president in 1964. At an unknown date, he returned to the Smotherman House to live with his wife, Ann, who was an art teacher in the local school system and an independent artist. When Pauline died in November 1974, a few days after the grocery business was destroyed by a fire, her body also lay in state ‘in the home she loved’. The house remained in the Smotherman family until it was sold to a new owner in 2017.”

Nashville architect George David Waller designed the home along the lines of the Smothermans’ previous Murfreesboro home. The house’s construction is unusual in a couple of ways. It is made of several different sizes of lumber, including 2×10, 2×12, and 2×14 inches. It is also supported by steel I-beams, both horizontally in the basement and vertically in the center of the house.

Do you have some old Tullahoma photos and accompanying stories to share? You can contact me at alanmayes@lighttube.net.