HOW WE CAME TO OWN THE RAINBOW RANCH
In December 2014 we saw that Jimmie Rodgers Snow had posted an article from The Tennessean about the sale of homes of past stars from Nashville, like Hank Snow, Mother Maybelle Carter and Colonel Tom Parker. My immediate thought was that I would like to see Uncle Hank's home before it was sold out of the family. Cal decided he would speak to Jimmie to see if that would be possible. He hinted about the fact that we might be interested in actually purchasing the house if we could afford to do so. Jimmie was very happy to know that a family member would consider buying the house and restoring it. Everyone else kept telling him that they wanted to buy it so they could demolish the house, garage and barn and use the 2.5 acres to build condos or apartments.
Uncle Hank, Jimmie, and Aunt Min standing in front of the house. Somehow it just didn’t seem right to tear it down.
February 2015 we made it down to view the house to see if it would be possible for us to buy and restore it. The main portion of the house was built in 1951 with other parts being built in 1957 and the studio and the offices added on in the 1970's. When Uncle Hank and Aunt Min finally settled down they wanted it to be their forever home so I can totally understand why they kept building on every time their needs changed.
The house was in serious disrepair and had been badly abused by the last tenant but we tried to look past all of that to see the real bones of the house. The basement was wet and damaged, there was a hole in the roof and the pipes had burst during the previous extremely cold winter and there was a lot of animal damage, but we decided that the true bones of the house were good and if we could stop more damage from happening then we were sure we could fix it.
This is the beginning of the exterior renovation. The process that was completed was to make the basement water tight. The ground needed to be sloped away from the house and a protective barrier had to be added underground.
We took possession of the house on May 8, 2015 and began work the very next day. Thanks to some hard work by Jimmie, Sheri, Bonnie and others we were able to start in a house that had already been cleaned of all the garbage and bad carpets. The restoration/renovation will be done to make the home modern enough for it to be extremely comfortable to stay in but original enough for everyone to be able to see how Hank lived. We are including a small museum in the house so that some of his original belongings can remain.
The Jimmie Rodgers Snow room will show the life and times of Rev. Jimmie Snow with some of his original memorabilia and pictures from the past including pictures from the days when Jimmie and Elvis worked together. Jimmie has helped so much with this project and I am sure will continue to help whenever possible.
The Rainbow Ranch barn is still standing after all of these years and we intend to paint and restore it to its former glory as it has been depicted on album covers and Hank’s photos so many times. This will allow for people to have their personal photos done there when they visit. Shawnee, Hanks beloved horse died and was buried by the barn.
The yard has a park like setting on 2.5 acres with an in-ground pool. During the restoration period Cal and I would sit in the yard and listen to the many types of birds singing. The cardinals I think were my favorite because they are so pretty to look at. There were also robins, bluejays, barn swallows, and gold finch and many more that kept us entertained through lunch. You may also see raccoons, squirrels, ground hogs or deer.
