Mayor: Historic Bemis Mill to be demolished
SOUTH JACKSON, Tenn. — The numerous attempts to save the Bemis Mill have failed. Mayor Jerry Gist says the landmark will be demolished, but a memorial park will be built in its place. On Wednesday, dozens of south Jackson residents met with Mayor Gist, where he announced the mill’s fate. Guests were then invited to look at the plans for the new memorial park. “We ran out of time, ran out of developers wanting to buy the mill. So we developed option two. It will still provide us the opportunity to remember the mill, the families that worked there and that is in the form of a park at the mill site,” Mayor Gist said. Mill supporters, like Joel Jackson, call it a poor substitute for a piece of history. “I was kind of sick at my stomach when I first heard that because it was such a big part of our lives. It fed a lot of people, a lot of families over a period of 80 years,” Jackson said. Gist said the park will commemorate what the mill meant to the community. “A brick wall with towers on each end will be made up of brick from the mill. Benches made from wood inside the mill will be put around a splash pad, which will be the first in Jackson,” Gist said. Gist asked the owner of the mill to provide 20,000 bricks for construction, to donate two acres and build the park at no cost to the city. Jackson, the chairman of the Bemis Historical Society, said he hopes to get used to the idea. “We can’t keep what we had and I think it will preserve the site and memories that go with the site but it’s not the same,” Jackson said. The city will have to pay for part of the fountain and concrete. Once it’s finished, the city will maintain the park. Mayor Gist said the next step will be to get demolition permits. The plan to move forward with this process will be discussed at the city council meeting next week, where a timeline will be established.
