Roof repair and replacement in Old Hickory.

DuPont built the village in the summer of 1918 to house workers at a wartime gunpowder plant. In the 1920s the company converted the plant to rayon, ran Old Hickory as a company town for about twenty years, and began selling the homes to employees in 1946. A National Register survey counted 316 buildings in the original Permanent Village, with 276 keeping their original design, and the Old Hickory Historic District covers the blocks bordered by Hadley Avenue, Jones Street, Eighth Street, Riverside Drive, and 15th Avenue.

Those houses came in named, repeated designs. Two story Haskell houses with gable roofs are the most common. Georgia houses are Dutch Colonial, with a gambrel roof and a shed dormer on the second story. One story Denver and Florence houses have hipped and gable roofs, and the manager homes along Riverside Drive include a jerkinhead roof on the Wellford and a flared eave on the Ketchum. Each shape needs its own plan for flashing, ventilation, and trim.

The setting adds its own demands. Riverside Drive homes look out over Old Hickory Lake and are open to wind coming across the water. On Hadley Avenue the power lines run behind the houses, so street trees have grown into a full canopy that drops leaves and limbs into gutters. Old Hickory addresses also reach past the village to Rayon City and a few spots in Wilson County. The village is near the outer edge of our usual drive from Murfreesboro, so call with your address and we will confirm a day.