The city of Sparta has donated $2,500 to the city’s historical board to help with exploration of developing a historic walking tour.
Sparta Mayor Jerry Lowery said he proposed the idea to the historical board two years ago. Lowery said the walking tour would be called a Banjo Walk and would tell the history of the historical buildings in the downtown area.
“I thought that would be neat cause I’ve seen another city that had something similar, but they were using opossums,” Lowery said. “And so I thought a banjo walk would be cool to have a QR code type, and have little banjos numbered, and people can walk around that area and see that.”
Lowery said several buildings in Sparta have a rich history. Lowery also said he would like to see buildings that no longer exist be included in the Banjo Walk.
“Some of the buildings that were on the square right there in the downtown area are no longer there,” Lowery said. “So we could put markers there. Where the AutoZone is now was the shirt factory, and that was a big history of Sparta many, many years ago. So, little things like that, I think it would be really neat for people to know and understand, and maybe have an old picture of it, the old courthouse, and things like that.”
Lowery said the donation will be used to hire someone to conduct research on the buildings and put the Banjo Walk together. Lowery said at this time, the Banjo Walk is not set in stone.
“Probably, I don’t know, in the next three or four or five months, that we’ll probably look into that,” Lowery said. “Next historical board meeting we could discuss it even further.”