WALLS WERE carefully stripped away, panel by panel, as a small crew deconstructed an old, battered home on land that Clark Bussell had purchased to expand his landscaping business. A gentleman had offered to take it apart and remove it from the property if Bussell would let him keep the lumber. This sounded like a great deal to Bussell, as he just wanted it taken down. But as the man and his crew worked, something strange appeared: deep within the walls, they began to uncover the faded logs of a historical, long-forgotten cabin.
“I owned a landscaping business that I operated from my home,” Bussell said. “As the business grew, I began looking for a property in Tullahoma to build a shop to operate the business from. When I purchased the home, it was in poor condition and obviously beyond repair. It needed to be demolished. My original thought was to have it bulldozed, but I was glad I did not make that decision.”
If he had not offered the wood to the gentleman, it would have been demolished before they knew the piece of history hidden beneath.
“The log cabin had been covered up and built over, so there was no indication the cabin existed. At first, I thought it was just the middle bedroom of the house,” Bussell said.
Photography by Ashleigh Newnes
Decades of additions and renovations had concealed an entire log cabin, perfectly preserved and waiting to tell its story. Bussell learned that the Ganoe family, who had lived in the house from 1898 to 1975, had always referred to that room as “the log room,” but no one still living understood the significance of that designation. For 77 years, they had unknowingly been the guardians of what Middle Tennessee State University experts would later determine to possibly be the oldest surviving structure in Tullahoma — a Civil War-era log cabin dating back to the 1850s-1880s.
Word of the discovery spread quickly. The Nashville Banner ran a feature story about Bussell and his discovery, and Tullahoma News covered the local excitement. Curious visitors began making daily pilgrimages to see this once-buried treasure. Private collectors made substantial offers to purchase the cabin, and the Coffee County Museum expressed serious interest in acquiring it for their collection, but Clark Bussell had a different vision.
“My only wish was for the cabin to be displayed where it could be enjoyed by the public; I wanted it to be a place that no individual owned, because if it was privately owned, they could control who would be allowed to see it,” Bussell said.
Growing up in Tullahoma from age 5, when his father took a job at Arnold Engineering Development Complex, Bussell has deep roots in the community. His grandfather once operated a fruit market in town, and Bussell watched his hometown evolve throughout the decades. He understood the importance of preserving this past for future generations.
“I grew up in Tullahoma, and I care deeply about this town. I am happy that I was able to give something that is such a large piece of Tullahoma history back to the community for all to enjoy,” Bussell said.
Working with Tommy Allen of the Historic Preservation Society of Tullahoma, Bussell made a decision that speaks to the heart of community spirit: he sold the cabin to the preservation society for $1, with the agreement that it would be moved to a location where the public could access and appreciate this piece of their shared heritage.
The restoration project was a large community effort. Volunteers numbered each log before dismantling the structure, then reconstructed it beside the Tullahoma Civic Center, only two blocks from its original location. Locals donated materials to add a porch and limestone chimney, and countless hours of labor went into restoring the interior to its 19th-century appearance.
For Bussell, the project took on a profoundly personal meaning when he dedicated the cabin to the memory of his daughter, Stacey, who had tragically died in a car accident at just 18 years old. A plum tree planted outside the cabin bears a plaque honoring her memory, transforming the preservation project into both a generous historical gift to the community and a lasting memorial to Stacey.
Today, the cabin has fulfilled Bussell’s dreams of allowing others to enjoy and learn from its existence. School classes on field trips often gather inside the authentic log walls for immersive history lessons; local families visit to connect with their hometown heritage. The building has even hosted a period-costume wedding, bringing some old-world romance and charm to the cabin. Frequent visitors and events like these give resurrected life to those old walls.
“I feel it is important to embrace our history. While we cannot live in the past, we can learn from it and respect it. Without it, there would be no present,” Bussell said.
In preserving this piece of our past, Clark Bussell has ensured that future generations in Tullahoma will have a tangible connection to the ancestors who came before us, who first shaped the hometown we hold dear today. GN
