A

Last week, we introduced a special edition of The Tullahoma Guardian, probably from around early January 1941. You can access that article on the www.tullahomanews.com website, where the pages of the paper are shown in their original sepia ink color.

This week’s installment has a couple of pages, one of which features a dozen local businesses in small ads. The other page is completely devoted to the Lannom Manufacturing Company, though the name is misspelled as “Lannon” several places.

The building that Lannom Manufacturing occupied when these Guardian photos were made still stands on West Lincoln Street, though it has been vacant for many years and is not in very good condition presently. It was built in 1933.

In a sharp contrast to Tullahoma’s current business makeup, all twelve businesses on the other page were locally-owned small concerns. Unfortunately, none of the group is still in business. It is interesting that the publisher grouped all three competing drug stores together on this one page. They were also somewhat together in their physical locations between Jackson and Atlantic on Lincoln.

Hilyard Motor Co., the Dodge and Plymouth dealer, was located at the northwest corner of Lincoln and Jackson Streets, in the now vacant building that most recently housed Reminisce Antiques. Between the time of this paper and the mid-1950s, that building was home to three other different car dealerships. Speaking of antiques, Memories Antiques is now in the building that Rollins & Levan Furniture occupied at the time of this Guardian edition. It was operated by W.H. Hawkersmith, father of the reader who provided these images.

Do you have stories and photos of any of these old Tullahoma businesses that you would share? You can contact me at alanmayes@lighttube.net.