Overton County’s Archives Will Have A New Home

The Overton County Archives will be housed in a new facility by late summer.

County Executive Ben Danner said they’ll move from the County Clerk’s basement to the new county services building.

“It’s in the bottom of this old hospital building and they’re basically out of room, and we’ve got some dampness issues in this building. In the new building, there’s a solid concrete room about 2,400 square foot that will house the archives all in one big space,” Danner said.

Danner said the new facility is located near Joe L. Evins Community Center.

Overton County has been collecting items for the archives for over 20 years, Danner said.

“They’ve got stuff [dating] back to the 1700’s. They’ve got some stuff with Andrew Jackson’s signature on some of the old land records,” Danner said. “And a lot of the stuff from the clerk’s office where they used to have all the marriage licences, and a lot of the old records from the register of deeds office are down in the archives there too.”

The County Clerk, Veteran’s, Register of Deeds, County Assessor, Trustee, and County Executive office will also move in the building.

Danner said having all county offices in one area will be more convenient for citizens.

“The Joe L. Evins Community Center, we renovated it and we have a whole lot of people rent that and come in,” Danner said. “And next door the old jail is the county museum, and we have a whole lot of people come in and look in the museum. And having the archives right there in our new building, right in front of that, will help when people come in they have everything centralized.”

Construction began last April and should finish by this August.