Willard Broyles is facing the one time Lafollette High School in this 1947 photo.

By Charlie Hutson

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF) – I bet back in March 1947, when Willard Broyles posed for this picture, he never imaged that 75 years later people would be looking at it; much less on the WLAF world wide web site. It’s Throwback Thursday.

Willard was facing what back then was the Lafollette High School on West Central Avenue, now where an empty bank building sits next to First Baptist Church of Lafollette. In the back ground are some pretty cool things. First off is the mail box on the left side of the picture. Back in the day these metal mail boxes mounted on a concrete post were all over the town. Next is the east corner of the Lafollette Courts, one of Lafollette’s busiest motels complete with a restaurant and even a garage for your car for your overnight stay.  Next Economy Motors, back then the local, well only, Chevrolet dealer.

Economy Motors would sell out to a couple of guys. One was James Prewitt and the other was Estil Huddleston. Of course they changed the name and moved next door into the Tower Building, the new Chevrolet dealer. You guessed it; Prewitt & Huddleston Chevrolet. The Economy Motors building became Economy Gulf operated by Dave Davis with Economy Repair Shop operated by C.E. Taylor.

Several years later Huddleston bought out Prewitt, and then Huddleston bought the Economy building and made it his sales lot for his new and used cars at Huddleston Chevrolet. In 1974, Huddleston moved to a new location near the Sky Way Drive-In Theater, where the Lafollette Church of God now sits. But that’s a story for another day. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 02/16/2023-6AM)

2 Replies to “Memories stirred in old photo of Willard Broyles”

  1. I remember this site well and moved to the High School the following days . I too remember Willard Broyles whom, if I recall correctly, lived on E. Prospect St. The Lafollette Tourist Courts presented a very prominent site being at the time located on the main North to South Hwy 25W. A nice memory.

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