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TheMan268 — See Beautiful Rock City

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Published: 2012-08-17 21:40:24 +0000 UTC; Views: 1004; Favourites: 41; Downloads: 57
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Description This is a Rock City Barn. It is located on US 411 east of the intersection with Rt 338 by 2.1 miles. It is in Sevier County Tennessee U.S.A.
Since 1935, Rock City Barns have stood as genuine highway Americana, their bold white-on-black signs compelling both snowbirds and Sunday drivers to a spot near Chattanooga, Tennessee, where they could “See Rock City”.
In 2012, Rock City marked the 77th anniversary since the barns first appeared as advertising icons, fewer than 100 remain out of a rural network that once numbered near 900. Clark Byers painted the barns for three decades and became a legend in his own right by braving bulls, slippery roofs and lightning bolts. When he retired in 1969, he had painted some 900 barns in 19 states. He died in 2004. His successor, Jerry Cannon, has handled the brushwork on the barns Rock City still maintains.
Today, spotting one of these ever-recognizable structures not only gives tourists a look at a historic landmark, but takes them on a nostalgic jaunt back to a time when motorists drove blacktop lanes in search of family fun.
Here is a link to a site with the remaining Rock City Barns. I used this to find the ones I photographed. www.ohiobarns.com/otherbarns/r…




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Comments: 5

Marty4110 [2013-05-19 06:13:28 +0000 UTC]

Thank you for all the good history - about the sign-painter, etc. Years ago I was amused to hear the great Johnny Cash tell how as an adolescent he and his buds used to buy those wax-lip thingies, so popular in the '40's and '50's, and go up to Rock City. Rock City is the earliest of three major tourist attractions on Lookout Mountain. (The other two are Ruby Falls, deep underground in the caverns, and the third is the "Incline Railway", which dates from 1895). (Lookout Mountain was famous enough that Martin Luther King mentioned it in his "I Have a Dream" speech). Very rare to see these barns nowadays - last one I remember was returning to Chattanooga from Cherokee, NC, in late 2010. Babe Ruth, who played baseball at Engel Stadium in Chattanooga, visited the falls (pictures of him are inside the main building). AND, incidentally, a portion of the current film about Jackie Robinson, titled "42" was filmed at Engel Stadium. Sorry, I got carried away.

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Corvidae65 [2012-09-02 00:19:49 +0000 UTC]

Booze cruise to Rock City!!!

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CapnDeek373 [2012-08-18 14:57:35 +0000 UTC]

I've seen Rock City!

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TheMan268 In reply to CapnDeek373 [2012-08-18 19:17:04 +0000 UTC]

Me too, when I was a child of about 10 years old.

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CapnDeek373 In reply to TheMan268 [2012-08-19 15:29:52 +0000 UTC]

I was probably even younger than that!

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