A Grand Old Building
The Latta Jamborees
Selmer businessman and music lover Earl Latta built the one-story brick building in the mid-1930s as a Ford dealership, with Art Deco details and the solid construction of the period. By day it sold and serviced cars. By night, beginning in the 1940s, the cars were rolled out, the equipment pushed to the walls and a stage brought in for weekend music jams in the shop, which happened to have perfect acoustics.
Hundreds of people packed in. As one local put it, “everybody who was anybody played at the Latta jams,” including a house band called the Latta Ramblers and a young guitarist named Carl Perkins.
Saved by the Community
The jamborees carried on into the 1960s, but the dealership closed in 1975 and the building passed through several owners before sitting empty across the street from the courthouse. By 2006 Arts in McNairy needed a home, and county leaders and the Chamber of Commerce saw the Latta as the answer. Arts in McNairy moved in in 2012.
