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NEELYS BEND

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    NEELYS BEND

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      Where Did Peeler Park Come From?

      Farmland, Segregated Swimming, and The Peeler Family

      The 273 acres of land for Peeler Park were acquired through acquisition of the Euston Nollie Peeler farm in 1963 and adjoining site of the Sun Valley Swim Club in 1969. In 2009, the park more than doubled in size through the addition of the adjoining 388 acre Taylor Farm from the estate of Ernest N. and Mary Alberta Taylor. Prior to becoming a Metro park, the 257-acre Peeler tract was actively farmed with a dairy herd and row crops. The Peeler home and dairy barns were located on the uplands and the row crops were farmed in the bottomlands. The pool was filled soon after acquisition, and the swim club buildings, long vacant, will be reused in the future for nature programming and maintenance operations.

      Peeler Park and Greenway today is part of Metro Nashville's Greenway system boasting 3.7 miles of paved walk and bikeways, 3.5 miles of unpaved hiking trails, and 8.3 miles of equestrian trails. The park has a boat launch ramp, truck and trailer parking, and a recreational aircraft airfield for remote-controlled planes. Peeler Park now covers 636 acres on the end of the Neelys Bend peninsula.

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      The Sun Valley Swim Club was one of the only swimming pools in Madison and served as a popular gathering place during the 1960s. It joined the trend of pools that emerged as private swim clubs when public swimming pools like Howard and Centennial Parks desegregated, allowing Black citizens to swim in public pools.

      E. N. Peeler Park is named after Euston Nollie Peeler. Peeler was born on November 1, 1896, in Aetna, Hickman, Tennessee, his father, Jacob Thomas Rosco Peeler, was 42 and his mother, Elizabeth Scott, was 20. He married Maggie Belle Foster on December 2, 1917, in Dickson, Tennessee. They were the parents of at least five sons and two daughters. He lived in Old Hickory, Davidson, Tennessee, United States in 1935 and Civil District 11, Davidson, Tennessee, United States in 1940. He died on May 20, 1986, in Tennessee at the age of 89, and was buried in Spring Hill Cemetery, Nashville.

      Attribution:

      Content written and/or curated by Brian Copeland

      Sources include the Greenways for Nashville website and The Bitter Southerner website

       

       

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