DSCC hosting presentation of Homestead National Historic District

This home is an example of one of the residences supported by The Homesteads community. [Click to enlarge]

Dyersburg State Community College will host a special program about the Cumberland Home-steads National Historic District, located near Crossville, at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17, in the Learning Resource Center on DSCC's Dyersburg campus.

Born under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, "The Homesteads" is an area about four miles south of Crossville created in the 1930s as one of the first subsistence homestead communities. FDR created these controversial stand-alone communities within the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 as a way to spur the economy and benefit idle and displaced coal miners, unemployed timber and sawmill workers, down-and-out factory and mill workers and small-time farmers bankrupted by the Great Depression.

Residents could only settle the Homesteads by government invitation. The first employment opportunities in the area included clearing the land and building the roads. As work progressed, sawmills and kilns were built to process the wood used in construction of the barns and homes. Exteriors were either hand-quarried Crab Orchard stone or field stone. Wells were drilled with a unique system to provide indoor kitchens and bathrooms. Wiring was installed during construction, but it was three years before TVA brought electricity to The Homesteads.

A presentation about The Homesteads, located just outside of Crossville, will be held at 7 p.m., on Tuesday, Nov. 17, in the Learning Resource Center on Dyersburg State Community College's Dyersburg campus. Guest speaker Imma Vaden will share the history and experience of being a third-generation resident of the unique historic district. [Click to enlarge]

A community grew, trades were learned and the area prospered. The community supported a trading post, cannery, loom house, mattress factory, hosiery mill, medical co-operative, coal mine and quarry.

After World War II ended the Depression, Homesteaders were allowed to purchase their homes through low-interest, long-term notes. Many current Homestead residents are descendants of the original settlers.

To commemorate The Homesteads 75th anniversary, Dyersburg residents will be treated to a presentation from guest speaker Imma Vaden, a resident of the district and a descendant of the original homestead settlers.

The program is sponsored by the Dyersburg-Dyer County Arts Council in cooperation with DSCC.