Historical Society to host presentation on Hotel Atwood

Located on the corner of Main Avenue and Court Street in downtown Dyersburg, the Hotel Atwood, as it was called when this photo was taken, served as a home for meetings, retail businesses, entertainment and rooms for travelers to our town.

State Gazette photo/ courtesy of the Dyer County Historical Society

The Dyer County Historical Society will offer another second Tuesday program for the public. The topic of this month’s program will be a building that was once a centerpiece of commerce in downtown Dyersburg. It was located on the corner of Main Avenue and Court Street and housed not only a hotel, but several storefront businesses as well.

That building was known by several names, including the Tucker House, the Hotel Virginia, the Hotel Atwood, Belmont Hotel and finally the Forked Deer Hotel before it burned in 1964. Nancy Speck and Danny Walden have collected several images along with the story of the various hotels that were important to the area during a time before the bypass, the interstate bridge, satellites and the Internet.

The program will be presented Tuesday, September 10 at 5 p.m. in the Professional Development Center. The Dyer County Museum, which is located inside the PDC, will be open during the 30-minute presentation.

The public is invited to attend and share their memories of this historic building.

For more information, contact Danny Walden, president of the Dyer County Historical Society, at: 731-676-8075 or via email at: dannywalden@icloud.com or dyerhistory.com.