The primary goal of the Center's Preservation Services is to enhance economic development across Tennessee through the identification, research, and documentation of historic resources.
Principal beneficiaries are local governments, business groups, and individuals across Tennessee.
In providing services for rural communities and smaller towns, the Center had gained an enviable reputation statewide, regionally, and nationally as a model of how public universities can partner with agencies, organizations, and private citizens in the areas of history, historic preservation, heritage tourism, education, and local economic development. In 1988, the CHP initiated the Mid-South Heritage Partnership which was funded by a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the U.S. Department of the Interior. In response to needs and recommendations of The Best of Both Worlds , the Center began a concerted effort to assist communities in identifying and developing districts into viable heritage tourism projects which increase property values and bring economic incentives to the towns. Sparta Tullahoma Union City Center staff, working with and supervising graduate assistants and students, regularly prepares individual and district nominations to the National Register of Historic Places . In cooperation with the THC, the Center conducted a survey in 1995 of historic county courthouses built since 1865 resulting in the official listing of ten buildings across the state.