Shannon McFarlin News Director
Paris, Tenn.–The first order of business for the newly-formed Grove Tower Advisory Committee will be to seek a comprehensive engineering study of the building. The decision was made during discussion of next steps at the first meeting of the Advisory Committee last night.
The Advisory Committee was formed by unanimous vote of the Henry County Schools board of education last month after a presentation by the Save Grove Tower Association.
The committee members appointed to the advisory committee were all present for its meeting Monday evening: County School Board Members Russ Orr and Jim McCampbell; three citizen-at-large members Bill Jelks, Jerry Hayes, and Patrick Smith and Bill Jelks; and two County Commissioners David Webb and Marty Visser. Orr serves as chairman.
Jelks’ father, Robert Jelks, was chairman of the original Save Grove Tower campaign in the 1980s, which successfully worked to restore the building to public use after it had been vacant.
The Grove Tower building is one of Henry County’s historical gems. Built in 1906, it was evacuated in 2023 due to its deteriorated condition. The county school central staff was ordered to vacate the building and has been operating from the Henry County High School since.
Later that year, the board approved a stabilization plan for the building, which was performed by Renaissance Historic Exteriors. The unused building is of great concern to many local citizens who do not want to see it deteriorate further, many of whom went to Grove High School when it operated in the Grove Tower Building.
Webb said Paris-Henry County Industrial Committee Director Rob Goad “is confident we can get a grant” for the study and committee members approved of Goad applying for a grant.
One of the most important aspects of building restoration facing the committee is “to stop the leaks in the building as much as possible,” Webb said. Director of Schools Dr. Leah Watkins agreed, noting that leaking continues to be a major problem for the building. “The water is coming through the windows”, she said.
McCampbell suggested each member of the committee should take a tour of the building “from the basement to the top” to familiarize themselves with its current condition. He said County Schools Maintenance Supervisor Jamie Kemp took him on a 2 ½ tour of the building, which was very enlightening. “We should think of a professional brick mason going through the building and we need someone to really look at the original brick because that’s what is holding everything up. Not the 1940s brick that was put over that, but the original brick. One of the keys as to whether the building is viable in the future is the structure of the building.”
Orr said the Grove Tower building “is an engineering marvel” especially since “it was built over 120 years ago”. He also stressed, “This is not a new problem for the County School Board. It’s a problem we’ve been dealing with” for some time.
Ironically, he said, the school board was going to hold a work session to look into the future for the Grove Tower building at the same time that the board was approached by the Save Grove Tower Association to make its presentation. “This is a big project and it’s bigger than the five members on the school board. We needed a committee from the outside and we have a good group here”, pointing to the members of the advisory committee.
Webb, who is County Historian and a member of the Save Grove Tower Association, reviewed the history of that committee, which has achieved 501 (c) (3) not-profit status. Suggestions offered by the Save Grove Tower committee for future usage of the building include establishment of a national FFA museum and/or Hall of Fame (due to Henry County’s history with the FFA), construction of a Historic Grove Tower Inn, with a tie-in with Grove Park Inn in North Carolina (founded by Dr. E.W. Grove).
A complete list of suggestions is included in our article that was posted on our sites on October 10, 2025.
Jelks said Grove “has been a part of Henry County for a long, long time and needs to be preserved”. Both Grove Tower and the courthouse are landmarks “that cannot be replaced. We don’t want to lose our identity.”
Photo: From left, committee members David Webb, Bill Jelks (hidden), Jerry Hayes, Jim McCampbell, Marty Visser, Patrick Smith, Russ Orr and Dr. Leah Watkins. Photo by Shannon McFarlin.