The First Tennessee Development District has released an updated Atlas of Historic Districts to assist communities and property owners with grant applications for the recently announced Historic Development Grant from Tennessee Economic and Community Development. The Atlas of Historic Districts can be accessed at www.ftdd.org/atlas.
The Atlas provides information about areas in the eight counties of northeastern Tennessee that are listed in the National Register of Historic Places as designated historic districts. For each of the region’s 39 historic districts, the Atlas includes a large scale, satellite photo-based map showing the district’s boundaries and a separate page which provides a narrative description, location information, the district’s period of significance, the year the district was added to the National Register, the district’s areas of significance, photos, and the National Park Service Reference Number. Maps and information are grouped by county.
“The Atlas lets anyone interested in the new grant opportunity know exactly where our region’s historic districts are located and whether a specific structure is within the boundaries of a district,” explains Gray Stothart, the FTDD Historic Preservation Planner. Stothart went on to say that “this Atlas shows National Register Historic Districts, not local historic districts, which is important because only structures within a National Register Historic District qualify for the grant funds now available.”
The TNECD Historic Development Grant, which was announced on May 17, will provide $4.8 million to projects that aim to renovate and preserve the state’s historic buildings. The program will encourage communities and private developers to invest in buildings that have contributed to a community’s history. These funds, paired with the information contained in the Atlas mean Northeast Tennessee communities and property owners have a leg up in completing applications to revitalize once idle structures throughout the region.
For questions related to the Atlas of Historic Districts or the Historic Development Grant, please contact Gray Stothart, gstothart@ftdd.org.