Battle of Franklin Trust, the organization which manages Rippavilla (5700 Main Street, Spring Hill), Carter House (1140 Columbia Avenue, Franklin) and Carnton Plantation (1345 Eastern Flank Circle, Franklin), has announced these historic sites will no longer host concerts and weddings.
The change is in effect immediately.
The last event in Carnton Plantation’s summer concert series, which was scheduled for Sunday, July 31, has been canceled. The announcement was made on social media and no makeup date has been announced.
A statement has been released regarding events at the sites.
In the 1980s and 1990s, as historic sites took advantage of growing numbers of history-minded tourists, many began to offer various events such as weddings, concerts, and other social functions. Some sites also had holiday functions, teas, parties, and ghost tours. Most everyone involved with such things did so because it helped to generate revenue and there was some tangible marketing value. However, as the saying goes, time changes everything.
For many years Carnton was just such a site. Over 20 years ago Carnton’s day-to-day tourism attendance was barely 10% of what it is today. In recent years we have scaled back events, and now we are ready to take the next step. Events have simply become a less necessary part of who we are, and that includes Carter House and Rippavilla. Our focus must shift almost solely to the 100,000+ visitors who come out every year. Our focus must be on the future and how to respectfully manage these important historic sites.
Effective immediately we will no longer be booking weddings at any of the sites that we manage. 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.
Find more information here.
