Adams, Tennessee is a tiny town in NW Tennessee not far from the Kentucky state line. If you’ve ever heard of Adams, it’s probably because of the Bell Witch legend, which is an allegedly true story that occurred in Adams in 1817, 203-years ago at the time of this video.
This video is a quick walk-around the abandoned old downtown area of Adams, which is a few miles from the old Bell family homestead where the bewitching occurred.
Update: New 2020 video
I have revisited Adams and made an updated video of the abandoned downtown. You can find the older video on my YouTube channel if you’re interested.
I’ve researched its history and photographed downtown Adams several times, and although I don’t know much about these decaying and abandoned buildings, here’s what I have learned:
The old United Methodist Church
This old Methodist church is in a very bad state of disrepair. I once posted a photo of this on my Facebook page, and someone commented they had been married there (I think she said it was in the 1980s). The first time I shot this building, a very upset Mockingbird on top of the building was giving me a very shrill warning to stay away from her property.
The J.E. Winters Co. Dry Goods Building
This is a two-story red brick commercial building completed in October 1897 (See the date on the Masonic stone in the video). The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville featured a news item regarding this business in November, 1899: “A stave factory, conducted by J. M. Wilder, will be in operation at Adams in a few days. J. E. Winters, a leading dry goods merchant of the town, has taken the contract to furnish the white oak timber, a large quantity of which has already been hauled to the lumber yard.”
Robertson and Co. and abandoned storefronts
Addendum: the history of these buildings was supplied in a comment by Chris (read his comment at bottom). I have pasted his exact quote regarding these structures here.
“The Robertson & Co. and adjacent buildings were built between the spring of 1913 and 1915 by J .B. Sugg and E. W. Robertson after the buildings previously occupying the site were destroyed in a fire. The building on the left was a hardware store operated by Robertson and Sugg. The middle store was a drugstore called the Sory Drug Company, owned by Dr. Thomas Sory. The building on the right was the post office; Sugg was the also the local postmaster.”
I heard from the mother of the young man who tagged the Kerouac quote onto the wide brick side of the Robertson and Co. building. She thanked me for photographing and preserving his work, since he has apparently passed away at a very young age. That white spray paint quote seems to be one of the most photographed parts of downtown Adams, along with the Methodist Church.
Here is the quote attributed to Jack Kerouac: “In Autumn Geronimo Weeps — No Pony with a Blanket.”
Keith – The Robertson & Co. and adjacent buildings were built between the spring of 1913 and 1915 by J .B. Sugg and E. W. Robertson after the buildings previously occupying the site were destroyed in a fire. The building on the left was a hardware store operated by Robertson and Sugg. The middle store was a drugstore called the Sory Drug Company, owned by Dr. Thomas Sory. The building on the right was the post office; Sugg was the also the local postmaster.
Hey Chris – thanks very much for the additional information! That’s fantastic detail.
I’d like to bump this thread. I’ve been doing research on Ancestry and have just been linked to Edwin Waller Robertson. Born and later died in Sumner county 1870-1949. I stumbled upon this building just by chance one day as I was living in Clarksville at the time and I’d heard of Adams and the Bell Witch but had never visited so I took a drive one day and noticed the building. I didn’t give it much thought as it might have been named for the county or some other Robertson unrelated to me, but upon dna and Ancestry family tree work I’ve been able to link myself to the co-proprietor of this building. If anyone has any other info please feel free to contact me. I would love to contribute or do anything I can do to save this valuable piece of family and local history.
Was it easy to shoot there — meaning did you have anybody bothering or asking why you were there?
No one has ever approached me there, and it’s a public street. But I go during the day time. If people keep vandalizing the buildings, it’ll draw much more scrutiny from locals or law enforcement.