Rogersville, Tennessee - Memory Lane - Private 1950s Town

I heard a rumor that there was a "retro town" close by, and finally found out some info. A man [Otis Eldridge] built his own 1950s-styled town on his personal property. The proprietor only opens the "town", built on over 200 acres of land, to the public one day a year, the saturday of memorial day weekend, and hosts a classic car show. In the middle of nowhere, mountain farmland basically, we drove up to a crowd of well over 1,000 people. The property lies at the bottom of a valley -- it was like stepping back in time. The attention to detail was amazing! The 'town" has its own streets and gutter systems, a 1950's diner, a barber shop, a 40's era car dealership, an ice cream parlour, a 3-lane bowling alley, a scaled down drive-in movie theater, a church, a police department, a covered bridge, a swimming hole, and a garage/service station.

His personal collection of no less than 100 cars includes an authentic "General Lee," a 1959 big fin Cadillac, taxi cabs, police cruisers, ice-cream trucks, and an authentic, coca-cola delivery truck, stocked with vintage bottled Cokes in their delivery crates).

When it got dark, we were treated to a showing of a cheesy 1970's film set in the 50's at the drive in. [Josh Krause, 06/02/2005]

[RA: Memory Lane appears to only open to the public on Memorial Day weekend and other special events. More info at www.randomrods.com.]