Here in McKenzie, in the heart of Northwest Tennessee, you’ll find a thriving community with a long, storied history; a city that values its traditional celebrations and landmarks while also embracing cultural growth and transformation.
Visit the Carroll County tourism website for information on county-wide amenities, including a calendar of McKenzie’s annual festivals.
Carroll County Tourism Website
We are immensely proud of downtown McKenzie, an area rich with history; there are many historic buildings that have been maintained since the early 1900s, including one of the area's only remaining railroad depots.
The City of McKenzie is an alumnus of the Tennessee Downtowns program, a partnership with the Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development to revitalize a community’s downtown area.
Central to downtown McKenzie is the scenic "Downtown Veterans Memorial Park," with a World War I era cannon and the Carroll County War Memorial. The park’s towering trees and landscaped corners surround the central gazebo that shelters various events during the year.
Throughout downtown you’ll find local businesses, including a florist, frame shop, gift shops, clothing stores, restaurants, an antique shop, the Park Theatre, and more, as well as public facilities such as the McKenzie Memorial Library, the Gordon Browning Museum, and the McKenzie Station Splash Pad Park located at the site of the first train station in McKenzie.
The Park Theatre has begun its second life in the community due to a process of grants and a group of volunteers. In 2011, ACT II: Plan, Preserve, and Protect was founded to identify and pursue grants as well as raise cash through a broad range of events and fundraisers. Grants from LPRF and the Delta Regional Authority along with the City of McKenzie began the work of making the building structurally sound, safe, and usable for community meetings, workshops, theatrical performances and movies on the week-end. Community Leaders such as McKenzie Banking Company, the McKenzie Industrial Board, Carroll Bank & Trust, Bank of Gleason, Ruth & John H. Morris Memorial, the Kermit Holland family and Beta Sigma Phi donated various sums of money from $ 5,000 – 35,000.00 to buy equipment for the theatre. The Park Theatre is a self-supporting entity of the city.
Housed in the historic old McKenzie Post Office Building, the Gordon Browning Museum and Genealogical Library is a publicly owned museum/repository for documents, images and artifacts that represent the history and culture of Carroll County, TN.
The museum is named in honor of the two time Governor of the State of Tennessee; Gordon Browning. The museum contains numerous papers, photographs and personal effects of the former governor. In cooperation with city, county and state organization, the Carroll County Historical Society operates and maintains the museum and repository.
In addition to its wartime artifacts the museum houses rare items taken from Hitler’s desk during the U.S. liberation of the Nazi prison camps.
Contact
Brent Cox – Curator
640 Main St. N
McKenzie, TN 38201
731-352-3510
gbmuseum@aeneas.net
Contact
Ike Gilbert
731-535-1887
The Webb School Alumni Museum, opened in 2016, and is housed inside the former Webb School, an all-African American school which opened its doors in McKenzie in 1927, and served 22 communities throughout West Tennessee. It operated until 1966. The museum pays tribute to the educators who played vital roles in this first African-American school in the county, in addition to displaying artifacts and items which reflect the educational curricula during this era. Dr. Carroll Van West, Director of the Tennessee Center for Historic Preservation, who worked with the alumni committee to develop the museum, has noted that the museum houses one of the best examples of the famous Rosenwald Schools.
When the Webb School, a historic Rosenwald School for African- American children closed its doors in 1966, a group of alumni immediately acted to form the Webb Alumni Association in efforts to preserve the memories of the education and of those students in over 22 communities who attended the school. In 1971, the alumni raised enough funds to purchase their alma mater and in 2016, the group opened a museum which houses Webb School artifacts collected through the years by the alumni and families of those who attended the school.
Today the Webb School Alumni Association has charter throughout the country. In addition to activities throughout the year in the individual clubs, the association gathers each Labor Day Weekend to recognize and celebrate the historic school with a variety of events including a fashion show, BBQ, talent show, and other activities.
