Thoughts on a Main St. house

There is a home I drive past most days on my way to pick up Hardy from preschool. It is currently for sale, and has been since not long after we moved to down (so for approximately two years).

It is a bargain at a mere $1.2 million dollars, and I can't quite fathom why Justin and I have not scooped it up! In all seriousness, I feel it is overpriced by at least $600,000.

I feel a certain sadness for this empty house whenever I pass it. It's like the forgotten old woman in the nursing home who was once vibrant and full of life, the center of her world. Now no one stops and visit and listen to tales of adventures (both true and imagined) long past.


I think about the things this house has witnessed over the years since it was built in 1907. The same year it was built, the Tennessee College for Women opened its doors across the street, with 199 pupils. The college was run by the Southern Baptist Convention, and the property the College was erected on had held some sort of educational institution on its lot for the past 60 years. The College held its first May Day celebration in 1910. Imagine a lawn full of girls in white dresses, dancing under poles wrapped in ribbons and flowers. It is an image from a bygone era. Being a graduate of a university that was established exclusively for women, I wonder if the College had the same goofy traditions as we did. Was there a Kissing Rock on its ground, an Old Maids Gate? What type of social life developed there? The old house probably saw lots of women studying diligently on its lawn, hurrying to classes, wrapped up in dreams until the demise of the College in 1946.


The lot has also been the home of Central High School, which is now Central Middle School, since 1946. Imagine all the teenagers this home has seen hurry past her, hoping fervently they were not late to class or had not forgotten their homework. I can almost make out the students walking from school to the Square after school, going to one of the various soda shops or ice cream parlors which once called the Square home.



The lot has witnessed countless parades - 4th of July parades and Christmas parades. I wonder if there were once Veteran's Day parades in this town, and if so, they would have passed in front of this grand old dame. The house watched General Douglas MacArthur parade past the house when he visited Murfreesboro with his wife (a native of our town) in 1951. The picture at the top is from the MacArthur parade in 1951. On an unrelated note, I am saddened to know that Mrs. MacArthur's family home was razed many years ago, and is now a parking lot at the hospital.

After being in the midst of so much bustling, of so much life being lived, it is almost inexpressibly sad to think of this house, standing alone, seemingly unwanted. Perhaps one day the right owner will come along to bring this house back into the midst of life again. Or as my economist husband would say, perhaps one day the current owner will realize the home is overpriced and lower the price.