Cumberland Homesteads is a community located in Cumberland County, Tennessee, United States. Established by the New Deal-era Division of Subsistence Homesteads in 1934, the community was envisioned by federal planners as a model of

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-contro ...

living for the region's distressed farmers, coal miners, and factory workers. While the cooperative experiment failed and the federal government withdrew from the project in the 1940s, the Homesteads community nevertheless survived. In 1988, several hundred of the community's original houses and other buildings, which are characterized by the native "crab orchard" sandstone used in their construction, were added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

as a historic district. By the early 1930s, decades of poor farming practices had rendered many of the small farms in East Tennessee untenable, and the Great Depression had left thousands of coal miners and other industrial workers unemployed. In January 1934, the Division of Subsistence Homesteads chose Cumberland County as a site for one of its "stranded" agricultural communities, in which families were resettled on small farms and would work in community-owned businesses. Most of the cooperative ventures failed, however, and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

the government divested itself of the project. The community's general layout still appears much as it did in the late 1930s.Elizabeth Straw
Cumberland Homesteads
''Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture'', 2002. Retrieved: 30 March 2010.

Location

Cumberland Homesteads is located in a hilly area atop the Cumberland Plateau, just south of Crossville. Byrd Creek, a tributary of the

Obed River Obed River is a stream draining a part of the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee. It, and particularly its tributaries, are important streams for whitewater enthusiasts. The Obed River rises in Cumberland County, Tennessee, just south of Crossvi ...

, flows through and drains much of the community.

Cumberland Mountain State Park Cumberland Mountain State Park is a state park in Cumberland County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The park consists of situated around Byrd Lake, a man-made lake created by the impoundment of Byrd Creek in the 1930s. The park ...

, which was developed simultaneously in the 1930s as a recreational area, is located in Cumberland Homesteads. U.S. Route 127 connects the Homestead area with Crossville and

Interstate 40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west Interstate Highway running through the south-central portion of the United States. At a length of , it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and I-80. From west to ea ...

to the north and the

Sequatchie Valley Sequatchie Valley is a relatively long and narrow valley in the U.S. state of Tennessee and, in some definitions, Alabama. It is generally considered to be part of the Cumberland Plateau region of the Appalachian Mountains; it was probably formed ...

to the south. State Route 68 (Grassy Cove Road) connects the area to

Grassy Cove Grassy Cove is an enclosed valley in Cumberland County, Tennessee, United States. The valley is notable for its karst formations, which have been designated a National Natural Landmark. Grassy Cove is also home to a small unincorporated community ...

and Spring City to the east. The Cumberland Homesteads Historic District, which covers over , includes properties on Chestnut Lane, Coon Hollow Lane, County Seat Road, Crab Apple Lane, Crab Orchard Road, Deep Draw Road, Grassy Cove Road (State Route 68), Highland Lane, Huckleberry Road, Old Mail Road, Open Range Road, Pigeon Ridge Road ( State Route 419), Saw Mill Road, Turkey Oak Road, and Valley Road, as well as over a dozen structures in

Conception

The passage of the

National Industrial Recovery Act The National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (NIRA) was a US labor law and consumer law passed by the 73rd US Congress to authorize the president to regulate industry for fair wages and prices that would stimulate economic recovery. It also ...

in 1933 created the Division of Subsistence Homesteads and gave the Roosevelt Administration $25,000,000 to purchase land for the creation of small farming communities for the nation's displaced workers. Cumberland County farm agent Robert Lyons led a local committee that drew up a proposal for a homestead community, which it submitted to the Division of Subsistence Homesteads in December 1933. Lyons had likely been influenced by earlier Plateau-area "back to the land" experiments, such as the Clifty Consolidated Coal Company's 1917 program that helped Fentress County miners purchase small farms,James Collins Moore, ''An Analysis of the New Deal Subsistence Homesteads Program in Cumberland County, Tennessee: A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School, Tennessee Technological University'' (Cookeville, Tenn.: 1967), pp. 1-5. as well as relief efforts provided by local

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...

.Edna Gossage Blue, "The Man Stanton," ''Looking Back: Cumberland Homesteads Golden Anniversary Album'' (Crossville, Tenn.: E.J.P. Vaden, 1984), p. 6. Due in part to the influence of

Tennessee Valley Authority The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolin ...

chairman and cooperative living proponent Arthur Morgan, the Division of Subsistence Homesteads accepted the Cumberland County proposal in January 1934. The Civil Works Administration immediately hired several hundred locals to prepare the newly acquired land, providing wages that effectively ended the Great Depression in Cumberland County.

(TVA) architect William Macy Stanton, who designed a number of buildings in TVA's planned city of Norris, drew up basic designs for houses and other buildings at the Homesteads. The

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

built recreational buildings and a small lake for the community at what is now Cumberland Mountain State Park. By late 1934, the community's first stone houses had been completed.Emma Jean Pedigo Vaden, ''Looking Back: Cumberland Homesteads Golden Anniversary Album'' (Crossville, Tenn.: E.J.P. Vaden, 1984), pp. 11-19.

Intention and Applicants

Overall,

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

came up with the project with grandiose expectations. FDR not only wanted the homes to be comfortable for the tenants, but the community to be utopian like. The Division focused on three types of settlements— communities of part-time farmers near wage-earning employment, communities of farmers resettled from unproductive land, and communities of "stranded" industrial workers, namely miners and loggers. The latter type, which eventually included Cumberland Homesteads, drew the most criticism, as many believed such communities would never be self-supporting. Kelly Cox, Director of the Cumberland Homestead Tower Association believes the project was successful because of the dire situation. According to her, the people were desperate for opportunity to work and create a living for themselves. Over of land south of Crossville were purchased from the Missouri Land Company, and Cumberland Homesteads, Inc., was created to administer the project. Of the initial 233 families selected for the Cumberland Homesteads project, 30% were distressed farmers, 30% were unemployed miners, 30% were unemployed textile workers, and 10% were struggling professionals (including teachers, nurses, and a doctor).Moore, thesis, pp. 6-9.

Success of Project

A community-owned store (the "Trading Post") and

cannery Canning is a method of food preservation in which food is processed and sealed in an airtight container ( jars like Mason jars, and steel and tin cans). Canning provides a shelf life that typically ranges from one to five years, although ...

were established in 1934, but both struggled with inexperienced management. Wage-paying industries never relocated to the Homesteads as the government had hoped, and attempts by homesteaders to establish a coal mine and sorghum mill failed. Throughout the 1930s, the Homesteads project was overseen by a succession of agencies with differing philosophies, leaving the project without a clear purpose. By 1945, the federal government had extricated itself from the Homesteads project after allowing the remaining homesteaders to purchase their farms. Although the original purpose of the Homesteads project failed, the community survived, and over half the farms remained in the hands of original homesteaders through the 1950s.Moore, thesis, pp. 13-26.

Interviews with Local Historians

Today th
Cumberland Homestead Tower Association
works hard to preserve the rich history of the Cumberland Homestead project. Three individuals who work in the Tower Association were interviewed and were clear in the opportunity that the project provided. Charles Tollett, an Association volunteer, was adamant that the Homesteads were not another Government handout, but an opportunity for Tennessee citizens to work hard for a place to live. From the beginning when the land was cleared and homes were built, the community held a pivotal role. Kelly Cox the Museum Director shared that some eventual tenants were working while two thirds of their credit hours would go towards purchasing a home.

Building designs

When establishing the community, its creators were clear in their intention to build with resources local to the area according to Tollett. Buildings at Cumberland Homesteads were constructed using primarily a locally quarried sandstone known as "crab orchard" stone, which is known for its durability and reddish hue in late afternoon sunlight. The most notable building in Cumberland Homesteads is the Homesteads Tower, a cross-shaped building centered around an eight-story octagonal water tower. This building originally housed the Homesteads offices and provided water to the community. Today it is home to the Cumberland Homestead Tower Association which preserves the history of the program. The elementary school and high school, located behind the Homesteads Tower, consists of unique pod-style designs, with detached classrooms and workshops connected by covered walkways. Both school complexes are now part of Homestead Elementary School. The cannery and hosiery mill have both been modified to the extent that they are not considered contributing properties to the historic district, although their respective water towers are considered contributing structures.

Homestead Today

Most of the original 251 houses are still standing. Fifteen distinct housing designs have been identified, with eleven of the designs found multiple times, as they followed basic patterns provided by William Macy Stanton. Stanton's designs include rectangular houses, L-shaped houses, and T-shaped houses, most of which are 1.5 stories with

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

roofs and one or two chimneys. Most houses originally had covered-porch entrances and

batten A batten is most commonly a strip of solid material, historically wood but can also be of plastic, metal, or fiberglass. Battens are variously used in construction, sailing, and other fields. In the lighting industry, battens refer to linea ...

doors. Typical interiors consisted of pine paneling with built-in bookcases. Attics contained water storage tanks, and most houses were wired in anticipation of TVA providing electrical power. Most farmsteads included a barn (with either gable or

gambrel A gambrel or gambrel roof is a usually symmetrical two-sided roof with two slopes on each side. (The usual architectural term in eighteenth-century England and North America was "Dutch roof".) The upper slope is positioned at a shallow angle, ...

-roof design), a

smokehouse A smokehouse (North American) or smokery (British) is a building where meat or fish is cured with smoke. The finished product might be stored in the building, sometimes for a year or more.

, a chicken house, and toolsheds. The Cumberland Homesteads Historic District includes several structures at Cumberland Mountain State Park, including Byrd Creek Dam, Millhouse Lodge (originally a

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...

designed by Quakers), several rustic cabins, and a stone water tower. Byrd Creek Dam is the largest masonry structure ever built by the Civilian Conservation Corps.Carroll Van West
Cumberland Mountain State Park
''Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture'', 2002. Retrieved: 1 April 2010. Two stone arch bridges, one along Deep Draw Road and one along Old Mail Road, are listed as contributing structures within the district.

References

External links

{{Commons category, Cumberland Homesteads
Cumberland Homesteads Tower Museum
Buildings and structures in Cumberland County, Tennessee Geography of Cumberland County, Tennessee New Deal subsistence homestead communities Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee National Register of Historic Places in Cumberland County, Tennessee New Deal in Tennessee