Carnton front
Submitted

As staff of the Battle of Franklin Trust began considering how to best deal with the closing of Carnton and the Carter House because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a bit of irony made its way into the plans.

To address immediate needs, BOFT will be hosting a Facebook Live tour of Carnton Thursday at 11 a.m. Eric Jacobson, the nonprofit’s CEO, will lead the tour through the various rooms of the home and will be taking questions posed by viewers.

The Facebook Live tour, of course, was necessitated by the onset of the worldwide health crisis. But in an odd twist, producing an online tour of the popular Carnton site that played such a key role in the Battle of Franklin would never have been possible were it not for the coronavirus.

“It would really be hard to do this stuff under normal circumstances because there’s always people in the house and so much going on,” Jacobson said. “But right now it’s like a ghost town. The house is quiet and it’s the perfect platform to do it uninterrupted.”

Two or three members of BOFT Films will be filming and helping sort through viewer questions for the live production that will last 45-60 minutes. The video will remain on the BOFT Facebook page for viewing at one’s convenience.

If all goes well Thursday, the team has planned to do a live tour next week at the Carter House.

“We may do several of these over the next couple of months,” Jacobson said. “We may be out on the battlefield and in some of the historic cemeteries, and maybe on the battlefield at Spring Hill. We might even do some in the gift shops to encourage people to buy online.”

The Facebook Live tour will serve a couple of purposes, according to Jacobson.

“We decided it was a way for folks to stay engaged and to take a tour like they haven’t done before,” he said. “But also it’s a way for people who have never visited Carnton, and who may never come to Franklin to see Carnton, to experience the tour. So really, it’s a two-pronged approach.

“Of course, it all came together because of what we’re all going through.”