"A leasable shell for tenants to customize." That's how the City of Millington described the Harrold Building when it asked for ideas this August. If you've driven past the corner of Leroy Boatwright and Easley this year and wondered what restaurant was going in, the honest answer is that nobody has picked one yet. That's on purpose. The city is paying to save the walls and leaving the inside open. For a building that has already been a general store, a shoe factory and a slaughterhouse, that may be the most fitting way to bring it back.
A Building That Kept Changing Jobs
E.A. Harrold opened his first sundries store at the corner of C Street in 1898. The brick building that stands there now went up in 1911, and the Save the Harrold campaign calls it Millington's oldest surviving commercial building. The city's own 2024 budget paperwork gives 1907 as the construction year, so you'll see both dates around town. And if the address throws you, C Street is now Leroy Boatwright Street. Boatwright Pharmacy's own address listing says so.
Here's what that one building has been:
- Harrold's general store, which grew out of the 1898 sundries business
- The property of Babe Howard, a well-known Millington entrepreneur who bought it after Harrold died in 1950
- A shoe factory
- A fabric store
- A slaughterhouse
- A cable company
- Old Timers Restaurant, which the campaign remembers as a gathering place for generations of families
None of those uses came with the building. Each owner or tenant fit their business into the same brick box. Keep that pattern in mind. It explains almost everything the city is doing now.
How It Nearly Came Down, and Who Spoke Up
Old Timers closed in 2017. After that the building sat through years of vacancy and weather. By 2024, parts of the roof and the second floor had collapsed.
The city bought the property through a county tax sale. The Board authorized $134,778.40 for the two parcels, paid from the Capital Improvements Fund, at a called meeting on August 26, 2024. At that same stage, a budget amendment set aside $1 million from the sale of the Beechwood property for economic and community development projects in the core of the city. Preserving and renovating Old Timers was on that list.
The campaign credits young residents with part of the push. It says the city stepped in "after hearing from young residents about the building's importance." One of them, Mackenzie Murphy, is a 2025 Millington Municipal School graduate and a 2025 City of Millington intern who studies at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She wrote the "Save the Harrold" op-ed that the city later attached to its official request for ideas. Her case was that saving the Harrold shows Millington's future "doesn't just champion growth and expansion along our edges." WREG covered the campaign launch on January 1, 2026, and ran a follow-up on the student advocates on January 16. Action News 5 also reported on it that New Year's Day.
What's Being Built Inside the Brick
On March 9, 2026, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted unanimously to award the construction bid to Wagner General Contractors. The work is easy to picture once you know the plan. A metal building shell is going up inside the historic brick walls. The roof and mechanical systems are being redone at the same time. The goal is a building that is "structurally sound, weather-tight," with the interior left for whoever moves in.
The numbers that matter for anyone watching the corner:
- Size: about 10,000 gross square feet
- Construction window: core work was scheduled to start mid-May 2026 and finish mid-November 2026
- Power: electricity expected this fall
- Early opening: the city is considering a limited restroom area and HVAC in part of the building so a section could open in early 2027
The schedule has slipped before. The campaign's website still says the work would be finished in early 2026, with pilot events later that year. The city's August request gives the newer mid-November finish, and it treats any early 2027 opening as something under evaluation, not a commitment.
What the City Asked For, and What It Left Open
Under a typical redevelopment deal, a city picks a developer first and then builds what that developer wants. Millington reversed that order. It is building the shell first and then asking who wants to fill it. The Request for Interest went out August 18, 2026, and named the uses the city would consider:
- One operator running the whole building
- Several operators, including someone managing two or three restaurant spaces
- Music, live performance or entertainment
- Event hosting, with weddings and community events named specifically
- Youth, family or young-adult programs
- Hybrid setups that combine food, entertainment and events
The city's priorities came from public engagement. It wants a place that serves youth, families, young adults and older residents, and that stays busy during the day, in the evening and on weekends all year. One sentence in the document sets the tone for the whole project:
"Revenue generation is a long-term goal; however, the City is prioritizing successful activation and placemaking in the early phases of operation."
So in the early years, the city cares more about the building being open and busy than about the rent it collects. To get there, it says it is exploring flexible leases, money toward tenant build-out, possible redevelopment district incentives, and a look at parking and fee rules in Oldtown. All of that is "subject to applicable approvals," and none of it is guaranteed. Applicants still have to show they can pay for the job and include a budget for building out their space.
That puts real costs on the next tenant. Whoever moves in won't get a finished kitchen or dining room. They'll get a solid, weather-tight shell and design the inside themselves. It's the same arrangement that let Harrold's store become a shoe factory and later a restaurant.
The Calendar From Here
The city's posted schedule runs like this:
- September 29, 2026: responses due
- Early October 2026: first review
- Late October 2026: interviews with applicants, if needed
- November 2026: preferred concepts or partners identified and next steps shared
An advisory review group is expected to evaluate them. The city says it may ask follow-up questions, hold interviews, or adjust its goals before any lease or partnership. The request states plainly that it creates no contract or lease and that the city can change or stop the process. November is a target, not a promise. Even so, it's the first month a name for the building's next chapter could become public, and it lines up with construction wrapping up.
Who's Already on the Block
The Harrold isn't reopening on an empty street. The city's request describes current and planned work across Oldtown, including streetscape and landscaping, pedestrian connections, signs and wayfinding, a review of parking, and park and public-space improvements.
Some neighbors have been there for decades. Boatwright Pharmacy sits at 7899 Leroy Boatwright, and the Millington Chamber lists it as a family-owned independent pharmacy that has served the area for more than 50 years. The campaign dates it to 1957. Murphy's op-ed pointed to Boatwright Pharmacy and Frenchy's Barber Shop as long-running businesses, and to 2KC Cookie Co. as a newer one, as proof that the historic district can do well with local support. 2KC Cookie Co. is a bakery at 7969 B Street that takes online orders and custom requests.
A pharmacy that's been open since the 1950s and a cookie shop that takes orders online are both on the same few blocks. That mix of old and new is what the city is betting a restored Harrold will add to.
If you have an Old Timers story, or you're curious how a revived Oldtown could change daily life around Easley and Leroy Boatwright, I'd love to hear it. With Teresa Ervin Realty, the coffee's on me. Let's Get A Coffee and talk about what you'd want to see inside the Harrold.
