See Beautiful Rock City TO-DAY

ometimes the way a Rock City barn is painted these days is a little different than the way Clark Byers used to do it, and this barn is an example. Of note with this barn is the way that the word "today" was most recently painted in block letters, but it used to have a painted script.

SEE BEAUTIFUL

ROCK CITY

TO-DAY

This small tobacco barn is in Sevier County, TN, just west of Sevierville on Chapman Highway. This stretch of the highway is U.S 411 and U.S. 441 and the barn is located at the intersection of Garner Hollow Ln. Behind me when I took this photo is a small hill that many people choose to climb to get a higher vantage of this barn. If you look closely at the O in ROCK, someone has unfortunately added a bit of graffiti. The Barn was built in 1961 on farmland that has belonged to the Delozier family for over 60 years.

Here is a closer look at how the word TODAY used to appear, in a cursive slanted script. This photo is a closeup, and TODAY appears below the TY in CITY and to the right of the doorway blocked with wood. At one time, it must have been painted over in black, but the original white is barely showing through. Click the photo to enlarge.



Why is there a hyphen in the word TO-DAY? It has to make you wonder whether it was a simple oversight, the painter had space to fill, or perhaps for emphasis. The old Today had the TO connected cursively and the DAY also connected. (in other words, there was a small gap between the O and the D)In addition to the hidden "today," the original message had a slanted "Near" on the far left and a slanted "Chattanooga" over the word "Tenn." the the TO-DAY is now. Only the old today was cursive. It's not evident in either of these photos, but the CHA in the old Chattanooga is barely visible, also.

This is in the Jenkins Book on page 66. You can also see this same picture on the Rock City Website HERE.
On OhioBarns.com, this is RCB 42-78-03.
In the Capps book, chapter 36.
See it on a map HERE.
LAT 35o51'35.60" N / LON 83o43'27.11" W