2969 Court St. Barlett, TN
Circa 1871. 2-story white frame home
The Gotten House was built by Nicholas “Nick” Gotten (1832-1919) and Julia Sophia Coleman Gotten (?-1892). They wed in 1869. The Gotten family arrived in Memphis in 1860. Gotten was a blacksmith and also ran a gin and a mill. He also served as Bartlett’s first constable. After Gotten died, he left the home to his spinster daughter, Maggie.
The area was called Union Depot because the Memphis & Ohio Railroad (later the Louisville & Nashville ((L&N)) built tracks in the area in the 1850s. Union Depot was demolished in 1940. After the Civil War, in 1866, the area was renamed Barlett. The area was a major crossroads outside Memphis. Highway 70 (Summer Ave., The Broadway of America, TN Highway 1, The Memphis-Bristol Highway) went by Bartlett and near the Gotten House. Their surviving son, Monroe Gotten, lived with his wife, Mabel, in Memphis.
The City of Bartlett purchased the place in 1948. From then to the late 1970s, the Bartlett Police Station operated from it.
In the early 1980s, the Gotten House was saved from planned demolition. The Bartlett Historical Society leased it and continues to do so with about 1 acre. Since 1990, the Bartlett Museum has been open and operated by the Bartlett Historical Society. NR 2002
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