News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cookeville’s newest historical zoning will help preserve homes and structures built during the early 1900s.
Historic Zoning Commission Chairperson Alma Anderson says the new East 8th Street Historic District offers a window into the past.
“It preserves the nature of a neighborhood,” Anderson says. “That means you have a continuity and you can’t have someone come in there and slap up something modern when everything was built in the 1940s. It’s just a way to keep the charm of the older buildings.”
Anderson says the zoning allows the new district to be listed on the National Historic Registry despite strict standards.
“We preserve the facade and the outside, not necessarily the inside,” Anderson says. “What we wanted to do as the Historic Zoning Commission was to allow it and make it attractive for people to do it.”
Anderson compared historical buildings in the United States to those in Europe and says historical districts like these will help preserve structures for many generations.
“These Europeans must think we’re youngsters in that we don’t have buildings and things that are 500 years old,” Anderson says. “I’m all about preserving our history in any way we can.”
Cookeville’s City Council voted Thursday to approve the historical zoning on second and final reading. The zoning will officially go into effect later this month.
