[348]DRIVING GUIDE/MAP TO RUTHERFORD COUNTY’S

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 18, 2008
CONTACT: Center for Historic Preservation, 615-898-2947

NEW DRIVING GUIDE/MAP TO RUTHERFORD COUNTY’S
LOG ARCHITECURE FREE & NOW AVAILABLE TO PUBLIC
MTSU Preservation Specialist Gavin Creates Illustrated Brochure

(MURFREESBORO, Tenn.)—A Traveler’s Guide to Rutherford County’s Log Architecture is the title of a new driving-tour brochure produced by the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area, a statewide program administered by the MTSU Center for Historic Preservation.
Michael Thomas Gavin, preservation specialist with the Heritage Area and author of Building with Wood, Brick, and Stone: Vernacular Architecture in Tennessee, 1770-1900 (University of Tennessee Press, 2004), developed the free brochure, which contains a concise explanation of the origin and evolution of log buildings, accompanied by a brief driving tour of log homes across the county.
The illustrated brochure contains a map and photographs from local properties, including the Sam Davis birthplace house and slave dwellings at the Sam Davis Home in Smyrna, Cannonsburgh in Murfreesboro, and the Akin House in Bicentennial Park in La Vergne.
“The brochure is intended to direct people to publicly accessible sites where they can examine and learn more about historic log buildings,” remarked Gavin, who also authored a Restoration Guide for Historic Log Houses, a 20-page pamphlet recently published by the TCWNHA and the CHP.
Free copies of the brochure—as well as the pamphlet—are available at the Downtown Heritage Center of Murfreesboro and Rutherford County at 225 W. College Street; at the Sam Davis Home in Smyrna; La Vergne City Hall; Cannonsburgh in Murfreesboro; and the Heritage Area headquarters, 1417 E. Main St., and the Center for Historic Preservation office at 1416 E. Main St. in Murfreesboro.
For more information about the brochure, please contact the CHP by calling 615-898-2947.


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• ATTENTION, MEDIA: To request an interview with Gavin or a jpeg of the historic Sam Davis birthplace in Smyrna, a location that is on the driving trail, please e-mail your request to Lisa L. Rollins in the Office of News and Public Affairs at lrollins@mtsu.edu.