The Battle of Franklin Trust recently announced that it is putting an end to weddings and events at three historic plantation sites it manages in Williamson County – the Carnton home, Carter House, and Rippavilla.
The Battle of Franklin Trust is a 501(c)(3) corporation with a mission of preserving, understanding, and interpreting the story of a people forever impacted by the American Civil War. The group announced on its website that weddings and events will no longer be scheduled at any of the three historical sites.
“Effective immediately we will no longer be booking weddings at any of the sites that we manage,” the group’s website states. “The weddings that we currently have on our schedule will be the last. Our summer concert series will also be retired as well as Bootlegger’s Bash.”
A concert that had been scheduled at Carnton on July 31st was canceled and tickets have been refunded with no makeup date, the website also notes.
Looking forward, the group states on its website that “the focus must shift almost solely to the 100,000+ visitors who come out every year” and must be “on the future and how to respectfully manage” the three historic sites.
“Things have changed quite a lot in the past decade. The changes over the past 30-40 years are profound,” the group further states on its website. “Sites like Carnton, Carter House, and Rippavilla have an important role to play in the future. Great social upheaval and slavery led to the American Civil War, the war itself inflicted a terrible human cost, and we have charted a course for over a century and a half since then trying to come to grips with what happened. Great social upheaval in our time, over the past and the future, has created a reckoning at historic sites. It has also created tremendous opportunities.”
Aside from the cancellations, the group stated it will continue to hold its Legacy Dinner, commemorations of the Battles of Spring Hill and Franklin, and Descendants Reunion program going forward.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “Rippa Villa” by The Battle of Franklin Trust.
