Gone For Ever
| Surviving feast and famine, fire and flood the Civil
War, World War I and II, the great depression and everything else for
176 years, the old Eaton House at Eaton Crossroads is no more. Like so
many other of Loudon County's landmarks the historical house succumbed
to the crushing onslaught of unbridled development. With no fan fair and
no notice, it only took the demolition team a couple of hours to
obliterate one of the oldest structures in Loudon County. In fact the
old house was forty years older than Loudon County it's self.
The home was built in 1830 by Dr. Robert P. Eaton, a prominent physician of the time. Dr. Eaton had a small medical office just in front of the house. The house was located at the confluence of several major roads. The Lenoir to Kingston Road, Williams Ferry Road, The old Walton Road sometimes known as Broadway Of America now Hwy 70, and Hines Valley Road. The intersection quickly became known as Eaton Crossroads. The name now associated with the entire community and the school. The old home was very much the heritage of the community. Alas, nothing is sacred to the greed of the developers. Money is always the bottom line. The property is currently owned LBW Properties. A Weigel family company. The Weigel family purchased the property in 1998. Even though there has been a sign on the property all this time proclaiming, "Weigels Farm Store Coming Soon" the property has sat dormant for eight years. Shortly after the property was purchased by Weigels, requests were made by community members and local government to preserve the old home. No agreements were ever reached. Some would call it progress. I would disagree. It makes me very sad. |