Collinwood was built on purpose and all at once. Early in 1913 the Superior Lumber and Tie Company bought Wayne County timberland, and W. W. Collins, the man on the ground for the company, put up sawmills and set about making a town to go with them. The Collinwood Land Company bought ground from J. E. Wilburn for twelve thousand dollars, hired an engineer named Edward Lull to lay out streets, and advertised lots in June 1913. About three hundred people were living there within a year. The name is his, with the wood of the timber business added on, which is as plain an account of a company town as a place name ever gives. He named it himself, by the local account. The traffic counters on the parkway still show this end of Tennessee as its busiest.
The railway was the whole point. Building had started in 1912 on a line to connect this timber to the Louisville and Nashville at Iron City, eighteen and a half miles south, and the first train came in during December 1913 to load lumber. It was meant to carry on north to Hohenwald and never did, so Collinwood became a terminus rather than a stop on the way anywhere. The town incorporated in 1915, lost its charter, and incorporated again in 1921. The depot that stands now was built in 1916, is on the National Register, and holds the town library, which the city commission voted in 2025 could stay there indefinitely.
Getting there
35.1736, -87.7387
Locations are approximate and may be inaccurate, on private land, or otherwise inaccessible. Check before you travel.
Hear it from the road
Whistlestop tells you this story automatically when you drive past. No searching, no tapping, nothing to ask.
