Giles County has some of the most beautiful rolling hills in the state. Old farmhouses like this one, built in 1893, aren’t hard to come by on these backroads.
The county was formed in 1809 at the urging of then General Andrew Jackson. He suggested the name “Giles” after Congressman William Branch Giles who supported the statehood of Tennessee in 1796. Three Tennessee governors were natives to Giles County including Aaron Venable Brown who was also a law partner to James K. Polk.
While Giles County is often known as the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan, something most people don’t know is that it was also the birthplace of noted African American architect Moses McKissack. Moses and his younger brother Calvin founded the oldest minority-owned architecture and construction company in the United States! This firm founded in 1905, still active today to this day, has designed several well-known buildings including the Carnegie Library at Fisk University in Nashville and renovations of JFK International Airport in New York.
If you love architecture like I do, Giles has over 100 properties on the National Register of Historic Places so there’s definitely no shortage here! You can find a bit of everything in Giles County, but I especially like the antiques. There’s an old junking store right off Hwy 64 Bypass and on a good day, you can stop by and it’ll be open. It’s located in an old log cabin and everything is dusty and rusty, but those are the best finds! Next door, the Five Points Market (500 Five Points Road, Pulaski) has food if you get hungry while you shop.
On your way down the Hwy 64 Bypass, be sure to look for this old farmhouse tucked into the rolling hills. 
