Piney Flats Village Becomes County’s 2nd Historic District

PINEY FLATS, Tenn. – Jim and Mary Ann Hager have spent the past 14 months trying to protect a cluster of 120-year-old buildings that sits quietly between a Sullivan County industrial park and one of the county’s fastest-growing commercial corridors.

They gained a major victory Monday when the Sullivan County Commissioners unanimously approved plans to make their community – known as the Piney Flats Village – the county’s second historic district. The decision essentially protects the village’s historic character for generations to come.

“This little village dates back to 1888,” Mary Ann Hager said Monday as she and her husband stood in front of their 122-year-old Main Street home. “We want to maintain its integrity.”

Most of the homes in the Piney Flats Village Historic District trace their history to 1888, when John Wolfe opened the Wolfe Brothers Furniture Factory beside the railroad tracks connecting Bristol and Johnson City, Tenn.

The people who arrived to work at the factory built a number of Colonial Revival and Victorian homes. They also built general stores, churches and the original Mary Hughes School, which Mary Ann Hager said was later destroyed by fire. That’s the history the Hagers were trying to protect when they bought their home from Mary Ann Hager’s relatives 10 years ago. They had been living in a Columbus, Ohio, historic district but decided to retire to Piney Flats. They also wanted to restore the house, which is called the Hughes home after its original owner and was built in 1887, Mary Ann Hager said.
“We’ve tried to keep everything as close to its original condition as we can,” Jim Hager said Monday.

They kept the original woodwork, plaster walls and wavy glass windows. Although they did install three bathrooms and air conditioning, Jim Hager said. But during the past two years, the Hagers said, they noticed something troubling. Two of the historic houses on their block fell into disrepair and were torn down, Mary Ann Hager said.

“At that point, I thought, which house was next,” she said.

Worried too about the proximity of the growing Piney Flats Crossroads and the Tri-County Industrial Park, the couple contacted the county planning staff who suggested historic district status.

So the Hagers got busy. First, they put together a list of buildings that played part in the village’s history. The list of 17 structures included 14 homes, the factory, the 70-year-old Mitchell Carr and the 95-year-old Piney Flats Methodist Church. They wrote guidelines for the district. Then, they convinced their neighbors.

Using their experience in Columbus, the Hagers said living in a historic district inspires a sense of pride, and increases property values, something Jim Hager said was a major selling point for his neighbors.

When it came time to distribute a petition, Jim Hager said, he and his wife got signatures from 90 percent of the district’s landowners. Support that strong blew away the planning commission, which in April unanimously approved their request. County Planning Director Ambre Torbett said downtown Blountville is the county’s only other historic zoning district, though there are protected areas in Johnson City and Kingsport.

As for the Hagers, well, they aren’t planning to reset on their laurels. They’re working on plaques that property owners can put on their homes and outbuildings denoting each structure’s significance. They’re continuing a newsletter highlighting the neighborhood’s history. They said they might even work with tourism agencies to give tours of their community to the public.

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Also Monday:
* County Commissioners Terry Harkleroad and Bill Kilgore withdrew a resolution voicing the commission’s support for an elected rather than appointed director of schools. The proposal drew criticism from members of the Sullivan County, Bristol and Kingsport boards of education who argued doing so would politicize the school system’s day-to-day operations and could prevent them from finding the best person for the job.
* Commissioners voted 6-16 against a proposal by Commissioner John McKamey of Piney Flats that would have created a property tax freeze for low-income senior citizens. Under the program, people over age 65 who had a limited income would not have to pay any more taxes than they currently pay regardless of whether the county commission raised the tax rate. While they supported the proposal in theory, many commissioners felt it was unnecessary and their job is to keep taxes low for all county residents, not one particular group, said Commissioner Bart Long of Bristol.
* County commissioners unanimously approved a resolution sponsored by Long that asks the city of Bristol to take steps aimed at slowing drivers on Holston Avenue. Long said this road, which parallels U.S. 11E and goes by a school, is plagued with speeders and has a number of city residents concerned about what might happen if nothing was done to slow drivers down.