The Daily News-Journal from Murfreesboro, Tennessee • Page B4

B4 THE DAILY NEWS JOURNAL SUNDAY, SEPT. 9, 2012 FOCUS El KUANS' AJt.M INISTIS AT IONS Sill Ml Competition sent VA north of city Mr. P. La TH tj i ll': Li rsf i-i 0 I it adv Lse iiem "sc; i i. r.

'n i the r.cs Veterans' i i ra on ts in i. 1 a Located in or in The U.S. Veterans Administration (VA) spent four years looking for the ideal site for a new VA facility in Middle Tennessee. They found it three miles south of Mur-freesboro. Before the announcement, however, there were complications involving influential people.

The VA chose another site. In March 1932 it was first reported that the VA was considering a new hospital to be located in Middle Tennessee. The Rutherford Courier (March 31, 1932) advised that "Murfreesboro is vitally interested in this hospital proposition. The Chamber of Commerce, local post of the American Legion and other local organizations have been working on it for a long time." A committee of local citizens was organized by the Chamber of Commerce to lead the effort to persuade the VA to locate the new hospital in Rutherford County. James R.

Jetton was named chairman of the committee. The membership included P.A. Lyon, E.W. Carmack, W.R. Bell, R.Y.

Martin, S.F. Houston, B.B. Kerr, John E. Richardson, John Wise- T. i HES ha i rsan GREG TUCKER man, M.E.

Bragg, E.C. Cannon, Dudley Fletcher, N.C. BeesleyJ.B. Black, TomHord, Cecil Elrod, W.E. Mullins, Mark Wo-mack, Alvis Huddleston and A.L.

Todd. Todd, one of the most successful businessmen and politicians of that period, and Jetton were close allies. Jetton had been the "front man" and promoter in 1927 for the Hotel Association while Todd worked behind the scenes to obtain financing and various government approvals. This earlier collaboration had resulted in construction of the James K. Polk Hotel which Jetton managed and in which Todd was a major investor.

(The hotel on East Main, where SunTrust Bank now stands, was demolished in 1977.) Todd and Jetton played similar roles on the Hospital Committee. In early 1936 General Frank Hines, VA adminis- trator, and C.A. Whyte, VA engineer, visited potential sites in Nashville, Columbia, Tullahoma and Murfreesboro. All of the sites had been heavily promoted by rival groups from the respective cities. The decision was made to use the site of the Murfreesboro Country Club owned by R.Y.

Martin on the east side of the Shelby ville turnpike (now the Indian Hills golf course and subdivision on South Church Street). The financially-troubled country club was a victim of the Depression. Martin, a prosperous wholesale distributor for Gulf Oil and real estate developer, owned the country club land and improvements. He was prominent in the local and state Democratic Party and served in the 71st General Assembly. He was also a member of the Hospital Committee.

But on Nov. 18, 1936, when plans for the new 350-bed, 400-employee hospital, were announced, the VA did not identify a specific site. The formal announcement said only that the new facility would be "located in or in the vicinity of Murfreesboro." In a subsequent news release it was explained that "two sites are under consideration" for the new neuro-psychiatric hospital. (The initial construction was expected to cost $1,625,000 for the 350-bed capacity, but the site selection would anticipate expansion to 1,000 beds.) Murfreesboro Mayor W.A. Miles immediately appointed a citizens' committee to plan a citywide holiday and celebration.

On Nov. 30, however, the local newspaper headlined: "No Celebration of Hospital Here in Near Future, Jetton-Todd Group Override Mayor's Meeting of Citizens." According to a report in The Daily News Journal, the mayor's meeting with his committee was interrupted when "Andrew L. Todd appeared with seven or eight of his close friends and proceeded to vote to abolish everything the citizens had decided." E.W. Carmack, publisher of the Journal, complained that a group constituted by the mayor should not be "overridden and overturned" in such a manner. Soon there was an even louder cry of "foul" when it was discovered that Jetton and Dr.

P.A. Lyon (the local college president) had made a "secret" trip to Washington to persuade VA officials to defer the final site selection in order to consider the merits of property owned by Todd. During the years following World War II, with the profits of his various land development and insurance ventures, Todd purchased and consolidated 800 acres between the Manchester and Brady-ville Pikes and established Toddington Farms. It is unclear why Todd decided in 1936, late in the VA site selection process, to offer his farm, but having come to this decision, he aggressively pursued the prospect. The bitter rivalry that ensued between the Martin and Todd factions prompted VA officials to expand their consideration.

At least seven other possible sites were identified. One of the more promising possibilities was the farm owned by Knox Hutchinson, president of the fledgling Middle Tennessee Electric on the Shelbyville turnpike opposite the Martin property. Perhaps to avoid having to choose between the Martin and Todd properties, VA officials quietly offered Hutchinson $33,000 for his land. "My father had owned the property for only a year, and was pursuing his dream of developing a modern and innovative model farm and home for his young family," remembers Norman Hutchinson, youngest of three Hutchinson sons. The Hutchinson farm was not for sale.

Speculation continued to give an edge to the Martin property because it already had a swimming pool, golf course and nearby railroad siding. Apparently, recreational facilities for patients and staff were an important consideration, and a dam on the Stones River Middle Fork could form a convenient lake adjacent to the hospital for recreational fishing and boating. Additionally, the Martin property was thought to be somewhat more accessible for construction and operation. Todd countered with mh' SW VVUj plans for a lake on his property, and began negotiating with the city to reroute Highway 41 down the Brady ville Pike so that the existing roadway could be widened as a boulevard into the proposed hospital campus on the Todd farm. Choosing not to choose between the Martin and Todd interests, and walking away from the original choice, the VA announced in the spring of 1937 that six privately-owned tracts about four and a half miles north of Murfreesboro would be purchased and consolidated as the new hospital site.

The $60,000 price would be distributed among six owners A.L. Carnahan, John Posey, J.E. McCrary, John Sullivan, and "the Batey brothers" (D.F.andJ.L.). Lying between the Lebanon Highway, the East Fork of Stones River, and Compton Road, the site included 602 acres, four springs, three ponds and the famous Black Cat Cave. The VA took possession on Jan.

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