Hard Bargain Mount Hope Redevelopment

Ty’s House: New Community Center

admin — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 19:30:05 +0000

For years the residents of the Hard Bargain neighborhood have wanted a community center. This dream has become a reality thanks to Solomon Builders of Nashville and the Ty2 Foundation. Along with many of their subcontractors, suppliers and vendors, they helped renovate the former cemetery caretaker’s house in the Mt. Hope cemetery. On Saturday, August 11, 2012, over 400 volunteers showed up for “Ty Us 2Gether @ Mt. Hope,” a day of service in memory of Ty Osman, Jr. who was killed in a tragic car accident in March 2012.

The new community center, named Ty’s House, offers classes, events, and an Internet Café so children and adults can have access to computers and the internet. Various educational and training programs take place throughout the year.

Hard Bargain Association is raising money to help furnish Ty’s House. To make a tax-deductible donation, click below or you can write a check made payable to Hard Bargain Association, and mail it to HBA, PO Box 545, Franklin, TN 37065-0545.For more information, call 591-0504 or email info@hardbargain.org.

Hard Bargain Unveils New Name at Annual Dinner

admin — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:49:30 +0000

Hard Bargain Association, formerly known as Hard Bargain Mt. Hope Redevelopment, held its annual Building Hope for the Future Celebration dinner Feb. 23 at the Factory. The event was the first time the new name and logo were unveiled to the community. Executive Director Brant Bousquet shared the reason behind the change. “Our old name was confusing and was too wordy. It left people with questions about the name of the neighborhood. The new name and logo better reflect who we are and what we are about. The logo shows how we all work together, which is a theme of this event. We could not do what we do – provide affordable housing, repair homes, preserve the neighborhood- without the support of others.”

Read full article at Williamson Herald website.

Families Come Home to Franklin’s Hard Bargain Neighborhood

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:00:52 +0000

Written by Vicki Stout | For The Tennessean

FRANKLIN — Angela Gentry grew up in Williamson County’s Hard Bargain neighborhood and longed to move back to raise her children.

Generations of families have called the four-block neighborhood that borders New Highway 96 West in Franklin home since the years after the Civil War.

The Hard Bargain neighborhood has 120 homes, four of which are new construction, with a fifth in progress and ground broken for No. 6.

Hard Bargain Mt. Hope Redevelopment has plans for many more generations of families to make their home in this area near downtown. The grass-roots nonprofit organization is dedicated to preserving the historic neighborhood through restoring existing homes, building new ones and providing beautification efforts to the neighborhood.

Gentry knew this is where she wanted to replant her roots.

“I grew up here my entire life,” she said of the neighborhood. We lived on Glass Street; my dad still lives here,” said the single mother of two sons, Isiah, 13, and Donovan, 10.

Read more at The Tennessean’s website.

Photos from Big John’s Housebreaking

admin — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 01:00:31 +0000

The home of John Murphy, a life-long Hard Bargain resident, was destroyed by a fire on June 5, 2011. We are thankful that Big John, as he is affectionately called, escaped without injury. The company that insured John’s house for decades went out of business and John was left without homeowner’s insurance.

Big John has given his life to love and serve his neighbors and the Franklin community. He is a second generation stone mason, having done stone and brick work all around Williamson County. He was a Boy Scout leader in Hard Bargain for over 17 years, a Korean War veteran, masonry shop teacher at Franklin High and Page High, former Franklin police office and former deputy with the sheriff’s dept., lay minister in the Primitive Baptist Church, and for the past several years- a board member of Hard Bargain Mt. Hope Redevelopment and site superintendent of all the homes we have built.

Ribbon cutting of second home

admin — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:00:34 +0000

Boxes neatly line the walls of Shanita Beech’s Ashley Court apartment. The packing is complete, the closing is set and a brand new home in the Hard Bargain Mount Hope Redevelopment (HBMHR) community awaits another first-time buyer.
“I’m so ready,” exclaimed this 29-year-old mother of first-grade twin boys. “I just love it. I can’t wait to move in.”

Beech, a fifth-generation Williamson County resident and graduate of Centennial High School, could share a few pointers on focus and discipline.

Several years of working hard, saving money and studying how to create and manage a family budget has finally yielded a lifetime of dividends for Beech and her two 6-year-olds.

Click here to read the article in the Williamson Herald.