7 Things About Spring Hill You Might Not Know

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4. The Fire That Burned Downtown

A fire in 1938 nearly destroyed all of commercial Spring Hill.

From the Nashville Tennessean, on November 7, 1939:

“The entire east side of Spring Hill’s business section burned to the ground today in a blaze which for two hours, threatened the whole town of 600 residents and entailed a loss of more than $40,000 partly covered by insurance. Fire engines from Nashville, Columbia and Franklin aided Spring Hill’s volunteer fire department fighting the blaze.”

Mayor John Odil gave the out-of-town firefighters credit for saving the west side business section just across the Jackson Highway from the blazing buildings. Damage on the west side was slight. There were no fatalities. Bill Johnson, while fighting the blaze, was burned on the arm and received other minor injuries. The spectacular blaze attracted 5,000 spectators from all parts of Maury and Williamson counties and traffic on the Jackson Highway was routed around the burning town for several hours.”

It was a Sunday morning, and most of the residents of Spring Hill were on their way to church. The blaze began around 10:30 or 11 a.m.

From Annie Ruth Rutledge Harris, daughter of then Mayor Odil:

“Before the fire, Spring Hill was pretty nice. On the east side was Watson’s Cafe and Pool Room. Back of that was Winchester’s Meat Market and also a little creamery in or around that place. Looking north … from there was Roddy’s Ice House and Hargrove’s Grocery. There was a barbershop on that side also. Mr. Duncan had a grocery store, and there was Clem Campbell’s Garage.”

Much of those businesses on the east side were damaged. However, people worked together to pull as much inventory out of the stores as possible, sparing the west side.The origin of the fire appears unclear.