This gorgeous white home is in Columbia, Tennessee. But it’s not just any home. It’s a funeral home. Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home has been in business since 1856 founded by A. Barr and eventually partnering with John Oakes. He formed a partnership with an experienced undertaker named Robert Nichols in 1900, hence the name Oakes & Nichols. It hasn’t always been located here. They began operating out of a location on South Garden Street. They were the first in the area to offer motor-driven funeral coaches, ambulances, and air-conditioning of facilities. They then bought this home from the estate of Senator Edward Carmack in 1949. Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home has operated here ever since. Interestingly enough, the house was a built in 1856, the same year that the funeral business began!
I had to find out more about the senator behind the estate and here’s what I found! Edward Ward Carmack was born in 1858 and by the 1870s was a practicing lawyer in Columbia. He was outspoken and eventually landed in the US Senate and served there from 1901-1907. Among his other endeavors, he was a journalist and wrote for several newspapers including the Columbia Harold, the Nashville American, and the Tennessean. He used this platform to air his opinions and this ultimately led to his demise. In 1908, He was talking with his neighbor in Nashville when he was shot by the angered advisor of Carmack’s politcal opponent. A statue of Carmack was erected on Capital Hill by his supporters after his death. It’s still there today!
