Three-for-One Special!

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Three of my favorite things are music, history, and railroads. I got them all in a fantastic three-for-one special today. And, as usual, it was one of those brown informational signs that sent me on my way to this treasure. This stop was the Clement Railroad Hotel Museum in Dickson, Tennessee (which is west of Nashville on the way to Memphis on Interstate 40). There I was treated to the history of the town, former Tennessee governor Frank Clement, the railroad in the area, Civil War, segregation, and music. Wow, what an overload!! The museum is housed in the old Halbrook Hotel, built in 1913 next to the railroad tracks that came through town. The railroad was an important part of Dickson history, as explained by a sign outside that detailed the Union occupation of the town during the Civil War and how they had to build railroad tracks to help keep the advancing Union armies supplied (while simultaneously cutting off supplies for the Confederates). At one point there were thirteen tracks going through town (now there’s only one, operated by CSX)! When the hotel was built it was very close to the tracks. (It reminded me of that joke in The Blues Brothers where Jake asked Elwood how often the elevated trains came by… “So often that you won’t notice it.” ) The history of hotels in that time period is fascinating in its own right. The rooms were tiny, outfitted with a table, chair, bed, and chamber pot. That cost fifty cents for a night (or a little over $16 today according to the Inflation Calculator website, an inflation increase of 3,158.2%). If you wanted a bath, that was an extra quarter…AND you had to lug your water up the stairs (no elevators then) to the washroom! (One of those historical economic websites says an average hourly wage in 1913 was 22c an hour, or $2.09 a day.) There was a switchboard on display to show how the “modern telephone” was utilized. The hotel was operated by a widow, Maybelle Goad. Her first husband, a lawyer, had died while giving closing arguments in a trial. She remarried Robert Clement. Their son, Frank, was born in their living quarters on the first floor of the hotel (they have the actual bed in which he was born, as well as his crib, on display!). Frank Clement became the youngest governor in the country in 1952 when, at age 32, he was elected Tennessee’s governor. His three non-consecutive terms were marked by advances in mental health, prison reform, and ending segregation. He was killed in a car wreck in 1969, shortly after announcing he would again run for the governor’s office. The music? Well, there was a pump organ (which our guide, Miss Sissy, invited anyone who knew how to play to do so…no one in our little five-person tour knew how to operate one) and a phonograph player (with a very thick 78 of “The John T. Scopes Trial” by Vernon Dalhart). But the thing that hit me was when Miss Sissy played a campaign song that Clement used in 1962. “Do you know who that is?” I asked. “It sounds like Cowboy Copas.” It turns out it WAS Cowboy Copas. (Can’t sneak Cope past these ears! ) Governor Clement was a friend to the common people and celebrities alike; and, given that Tennessee’s primary entertainment export was country music, he had many friends in the music business. Copas, it turns out, reworked his 1960 hit “Alabam” into “The Ballad of Frank G. Clement” as a campaign song about a year before the plane crash that killed Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins, and Patsy Cline. In a couple of the rooms that were once guest rooms they have a model train system set up. It was done completely by hand and is a recreation of Dickson, Tennessee. Old cars, old buildings, the one-time multiple tracks, and everything else about the history of the town was there in a display with a model train rolling through!! The man in charge, Steve, was great to talk to, and you cannot help but admire the daylights out of the detail put into recreating the town. The old building, the amazing artifacts, and a couple of hours absorbing history. What else could I ask for???? PHOTOS: (Top left) The Hotel Halbrook that houses the Clement Railroad Hotel Museum (Top right) Miss Sissy showing a suitcase from the 1910s, which looks much like a chest of drawers (yes, it had drawers in it that appeared to be made from cardboard, as well as a side for hanging clothes!) (Bottom left) The bed in which governor Frank G. Clement was born in 1920 (Bottom right) The beautiful original hardwood floor of the second story of the hotel in the area that was used as a parlor.