For over 120 years the brick building located at 1200 Tower Square, now known to us as “Little Nashville”, has been referred to as the “Jones building” due to the fact the name “Jones” is prominently displayed on its front exterior. Attempts to figure out who Jones was has gone thwarted in the past but has now been answered.

Some of what is known about the building is that Marion’s first hardware store was started there in 1869 by Martin W. Robertson who bought the lot in 1868. Through the 1870’s Robertson bought up enough of the entire block for people to refer to it as the “Robertson Block.” It is also known that Robertson had a two-story brick building built in that location in 1874. Between 1886 and 1894 the building was either added onto or completely rebuilt into the building we know today.

Robertson sold the building to a well-to-do New York lumber dealer named Samuel A. Jones in June 1903 for $9,600. Obviously, Jones wasted no time in getting his name emblazoned on the building since it shows up in photos taken in 1904. Jones hailed from Norwich, New York and served as a New York state representative from 1915-1917. Jones then turned around and sold the building just under two years later to a local attorney named William H. Warder in May 1905 for $24,500.

Warder maintained his law offices on the second floor of the building until his death in 1936 after which his spinster daughter, Laura Belle Warder, took over the offices and oversight of the building until her death in 1972. Laura Belle, like her father, was also an attorney and served as Master in Chancery for the Williamson County court system. During the Warder ownership, the building was alternately called “the Warder building.”

After Laura Belle’s death, the building was sold in 1973 to the Exchange Bank by the remaining married sisters of Laura Belle who were Stotlar’s and Ferrell’s. Local merchant, Ivan Zwick, bought the building in 1974 from the bank and held it until Aaron Smith, the current owner, purchased it in 2020.

I suppose the question is, how does a New Yorker come about speculating property in Marion? I suspect there are at least two angles here. One, Robertson dealt in hardware and lumber so that is a possible connection. Also, it shouldn’t be overlooked that the then current 1903 Mayor of Marion was Charles H. Denison, a New York transplant from Seneca County, New York, less than 70 miles from Norwich, New York. We may never know the answer to that one.

The irony, however, is not lost on current owner, Aaron Smith, that he has owned the property longer than the man who has had his name on the building for over 120 years.

(Sources: Williamson County Deeds, Ancestry.com, Leader newspaper articles., Compiled by Sam Lattuca, 2/23/2024)