Maps 1940 style

In 1940 Smyrna was still small as the airport had not started to be built yet, and at the time we had several small neighbor communities. These communities are no longer there, but if you look closely at tree lines and check old maps, you can see the foot print left behind by the ghost.

The 1940 US census had the following map made to go along with it. This first image is the general area that is now Smyrna. So sparcly populated that each individual building could be marked on the map. Shocking when viewed from today.

Zooming in on the Smyrna area you can see how small it is. Sadly someone in the past circled the downtown, such as it was, so some details are lost. Note that under the large O on the left is where the intersection of Rock Spring road and Old Nashville highway is currently.

If you look the first map, on the right side you will see one of these neighbor communities called 'Jefferson'. Some use the name 'Old Jefferson' when talking about it. It was purchased entirely by the TVA/State and became part of the Percy Priest lake/Corp of Engineer land...and destroyed wholly.

If you look closely at the image below you can see where this town once was.  You can see where 'Old Jefferson Pike' enters from the left and crosses over to connect with the road now called Central Valley Road. Central Valley Road shots off to the South East. If you click on the image you can see where the tree line is that was part of the road heading south that connected to Florence Rd. 

That's it. All that remains of the community of Jefferson. The same community that some of our old Mayors were going to when they stole watermelons. I find it odd that a whole community can be erased. People here drive by it daily on the way to and from work and no one knows that the curve in the road used to go straight, or that where the trees along the river bank was a church once stood full of worshiping people.