Shown is West Tennessee’s first cheese factory, located on the left hand side of the Palmersville School driveway loop. The factory was built close to 1923, the Nashville Tennessean newspaper wrote that the factory would be on display at the Palmersville Fair during that same year.
During 1933 the Tennessean again published a story telling that Bates Pentecost, who was Pres of the milk organization, had announced of an upcoming expansion plan for the factory, we assume he was referring to the addition seen on the left of the building in this rare 1939 photograph found in Atlanta Ga at the National Archives.
It is unknown when the factory stopped producing cheese but it had been a great benefit for local farmers who sold milk to the factory for years to produce grade A cheese.
The cheese factory’s dilapidated building remained on the school loop until the 1970s, efforts to save it for historical purpose failed because of its poor condition.
(photo courtesy of the US National Archives)
Story By (and special thanks to): Robert G Reynolds, Palmersville, TN News