Appears on Tucker Carlson with outcry
This week, musician turned activist Kid Rock appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight to gain national attention about recent demolition activity around Hank Williams’ historic country home, Tennessee’s Beechwood Hall.
“I’m sick of seeing history torn to the ground,” Rock says. “There’s nothing more important in country music, if not American music, than Hank Williams, one of the greatest songwriters of all time. We hope to get this resolved in a good manner.”
Carlson opined, “Tearing down Hank Williams’ house, an Antebellum house, would constitute not just an assault on the soul of country music, a distinctly American art form, it would be an attack on the country itself. Maybe we’ve had enough.”
A group of concerned Franklin, TN citizens who have “had enough” has united in a grassroots movement to save Beechwood Hall with an online petition. One of the most significant historic homes in Tennessee, Beechwood Hall was built in 1856 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is in imminent danger of being destroyed, according to the Save Historic Beechwood organization.
“The new owners purchased Beechwood Hall and 268 acres on June 30, 2021. As a condition of the agreement, they promised the seller and the community they would preserve and restore Beechwood Hall,” petition organizers state. “Since the new owner’s purchase, the house has been slowly dismantled and the front and back doors are being left wide open. Carefully selected ‘experts’ have been deployed to create a perception that the property is ‘too far gone’ to be restored. This is an absolutely false narrative and the conditions to support this narrative have been created within the past few months.”
The Heritage Foundation of Williamson County, a non-profit preservation organization, says they are doing the best they can to make sure the home doesn’t get further damaged.
“Our preservation team has recently been to the site,” they share on Instagram. “We were able to offer best practices that were implemented to secure Beechwood Hall from further damage from elements, animals, and more – protecting the home now is a vital first step to long-term preservation. Working with many leading partners in architecture and preservation, our next step is to deliver a comprehensive preservation plan to the owners in the coming weeks. The full might of our resources and many talented partners is being put into this plan, which we have been working diligently on for weeks.”
The alliance of preservationists formed quickly after seeing “before and after” images of the iconic home, with demolition already in progress. In addition to the pre-Civil War significance of Beechwood Hall, the home also holds important Tennessee and American music history, having once been owned by country music legend Hank Williams, Sr. and country music superstars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.
Franklin, TN is known nationally and internationally as a community with rich American history, including Carnton and Carter House, and the “Civil War Battle of Franklin” battlefields.
The group formed to deal with this crisis includes support from American Picker star Mike Wolfe and veteran historic preservationist Mary Pearce, former head of the county’s Heritage Foundation.
