Inner Loop - CBD, Downtown, East Bank, Germantown, Gulch, Rutledge

[CenterHill]

A blast from the past:  Footage of lower Broadway and 2nd Avenue from 1978 when Mayor Fulton was pushing for Riverfront Park.  Kudos to Lexy who sent me this link.

 

Wow, what a great find.    "The sex trade on Lower Broad remains the biggest obstacle to new development."     I first arrived in Nashville just 3 years after that video was made.     Those images seem like a distant memory now, although they were kind of a distant memory back then because, like many people, we rarely ever came down to Lower Broad.   

[CenterHill]

The building in question on the Fluffo site appears to be the nondescript brick building facing woodland; the one with the tin storage warehouse addition at the back.  Up the hill on S. 9th from Fat Bottom.  I wonder what will happen with the Fat Bottom site when they move across the river later this year?

 

Did we ever hear the location of Fat Bottom's new home?     

[Nashville Cliff]

Did we ever hear the location of Fat Bottom's new home?     

 

If I understood my source right, it will be in or near Marathon Village.

[Bezoar]

If I understood my source right, it will be in or near Marathon Village.

Quite the hotbed of alcohol production, Marathon Village is.  

[dmillsphoto]

If I understood my source right, it will be in or near Marathon Village.

 

Yup.

[MetroTN]

I wish I could live in that building but for $1350 it aint going to happen. lol 

[Nathan_in_DC]

That video reminds me why, when growing up, my parents really never took us downtown, even in the 80s. The sleaze was still very present, and they of course, had very recent knowledge of what it was not that many years prior to my childhood.

[rookzie]

That video reminds me why, when growing up, my parents really never took us downtown, even in the 80s. The sleaze was still very present, and they of course, had very recent knowledge of what it was not that many years prior to my childhood.

 

No, you didn't belong down there, and perhaps your parents' intuition and conviction back then could have been pivotal in hedging you from those seeds of depravity in the LoBro heartland back then.  Admittedly, back in the early and mid '70s I strayed once or twice into a couple of those joints, as a matter of curiosity, although readers might find that a stretch of my imagination.  Those dives even then seemed as an unreal, unlikely accost to the open-activity along the N-S division-point thoroughfare representing basically the entire city in the eyes of outsiders.

 

Obviously the focus, fallen from the once bustling Church St corridor, basically had shifted south to the "dregs" of the CBD.  BTW, one hole I happened to have found myself in had been named "Eros" for some reason (as I recall, located near the NW corner of 3rd and Broad).  Your parents' resolve just might be what made you turn, or rather, turn out decent after all.

-==-

Edited May 7, 2015 by rookzie

[Nathan_in_DC]

No, you didn't belong down there, and perhaps your parents' intuition and conviction back then could have been pivotal in hedging you from those seeds of depravity in the LoBro heartland back then.  Admittedly, back in the early and mid '70s I strayed once or twice into a couple of those joints, as a matter of curiosity, although readers might find that a stretch of my imagination.  Those dives even then seemed as an unreal, unlikely accost to the open-activity along the N-S division-point thoroughfare representing basically the entire city in the eyes of outsiders.

 

Obviously the focus, fallen from the once bustling Church St corridor, basically had shifted south to the "dregs" of the CBD.  BTW, one hole I happened to have found myself in had been named "Eros" for some reason (as I recall, located near the NW corner of 3rd and Broad).  Your parents' resolve just might be what made you turn, or rather, turn out decent after all.

-==-

 

Dang it, I'm not decent! I need to work more on making my seedy and lascivious behavior more obvious...

[satalac]

That video makes me want to take a shower. 

[fieldmarshaldj]

That video reminds me why, when growing up, my parents really never took us downtown, even in the 80s. The sleaze was still very present, and they of course, had very recent knowledge of what it was not that many years prior to my childhood.

 

It's funny, because it didn't deter my parents from taking me downtown in the '70s and '80s (though they had moved down from NYC, and Lower Broad was almost "quaint" by comparison to what Times Square was in them days). However, I will say that when we went downtown, we usually stuck to walking down either Church or Deaderick down to 2nd and 1st Avenue and didn't veer over to the peep show venues a few blocks up from the old warehouse at the end of Broadway (back where the old riverboat tours used to debark from).

 

Ricky can confirm that there used to be a spur RR line that ran partly up 1st north of Broadway, and until about 1980, there were abandoned freight cars left sitting there. My father would take me down there and let me climb on them (still have some photos of that). It was still "old Nashville" in those days (the department stores and theaters on Church), but was otherwise more like a ghost town when you got more towards the river, at least on the weekends. Even the 2nd Avenue warehouses had a spooky air about them before they were repurposed and reoccupied.

 

In a way, I still miss the old days (or at least wish some of what was on Church back then, Castner-Knott, Cain-Sloan, and most especially Harvey's, my personal favorite - not to mention a couple of the theaters, still remained today. It's a travesty that ALL of it was lost. You go to almost any major city of note, or even lesser ones, and you still have an old theater or two remaining. We got bubkas).

[smeagolsfree]

I alerted William about this lot yesterday as I saw surveyors at the location. We now have the answer.

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/real-estate/2015/05/exclusive-tour-company-targets-nashville-expansion.html

[CenterHill]

I alerted William about this lot yesterday as I saw surveyors at the location. We now have the answer.

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/real-estate/2015/05/exclusive-tour-company-targets-nashville-expansion.html

 

Doesn't sound like they intend to build anything, just use the parking lot for tour bus pickups.    Is that your sense?

[UTgrad09]

Doesn't sound like they intend to build anything, just use the parking lot for tour bus pickups.    Is that your sense?

 

I guess they might have a glorified kiosk or something. 

[ruraljuror]

Doesn't sound like they intend to build anything, just use the parking lot for tour bus pickups.    Is that your sense?

 

I got the impression some construction would be required for the so-called 'car barns' 

[ruraljuror]

Also, the welcome center and souvenir shop, at least in D.C., is in an enclosed structure.

 

http://www.historictours.com/images/old-town-trolley-tours-welcome-center.jpg

[nashvillwill]

Well, not the best use of the land IMO, but what should we expect after the last 5 or 6 proposals were run off by one city entity or another?

[CenterHill]

Here's the trolley tour kiosk and carbarn in Savannah.  Probably indicative of what we can expect.    Lovely. 

 

 

And the company's site in San Diego: 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 7, 2015 by CenterHill

[Paramount747]

Doesn't sound like they intend to build anything, just use the parking lot for tour bus pickups.    Is that your sense?

Center; I wonder the same thing. Are they constructing a building? Is it a tent? It does sound like the bought a parking lot to squat on.

[CenterHill]

Center; I wonder the same thing. Are they constructing a building? Is it a tent? It does sound like the bought a parking lot to squat on.

 

I predict if they build anything it will be a temporary structure and that the real play for this company is to hold and flip the real estate.    

[Paramount747]

I guess its better than that Hot Dog guy who once told me he was ecstatic when both hotels fell through because he thought tall buildings would kill Nashville and destroy our country music tourist heritage!

 

Oh well, at least he will be forced to move or shut down completely. My only fear is the new owner will let him stay there. So now are we to assume, there will be no parking for the hotel going into the old R&R Building?

 

That entire block needs to be completed and filled in.

[titanhog]

That lot would actually be better for tourists as a parking lot than this.  

 

Oh well...maybe they'll flip the land to someone else soon...someone with an eye for something better than a "Car Barn."

[rookzie]

It's funny, because it didn't deter my parents from taking me downtown in the '70s and '80s (though they had moved down from NYC, and Lower Broad was almost "quaint" by comparison to what Times Square was in them days). However, I will say that when we went downtown, we usually stuck to walking down either Church or Deaderick down to 2nd and 1st Avenue and didn't veer over to the peep show venues a few blocks up from the old warehouse at the end of Broadway (back where the old riverboat tours used to debark from).

 

Ricky can confirm that there used to be a spur RR line that ran partly up 1st north of Broadway, and until about 1980, there were abandoned freight cars left sitting there. My father would take me down there and let me climb on them (still have some photos of that). It was still "old Nashville" in those days (the department stores and theaters on Church), but was otherwise more like a ghost town when you got more towards the river, at least on the weekends. Even the 2nd Avenue warehouses had a spooky air about them before they were repurposed and reoccupied.

 

In a way, I still miss the old days (or at least wish some of what was on Church back then, Castner-Knott, Cain-Sloan, and most especially Harvey's, my personal favorite - not to mention a couple of the theaters, still remained today. It's a travesty that ALL of it was lost. You go to almost any major city of note, or even lesser ones, and you still have an old theater or two remaining. We got bubkas).

 

 

Yes, the then unpaved-over granite cobble extended on 1st between B'way and Church, with the old warehouses facing 2nd having boxcar-level loading docks.  The cars were shoved back and forth up that spur by diesel-electric switchers, last by the L&N, which had acquired the riverfront portion of the former TCRR in 1968.  The fact is that even those few occasional boxcars spotted on 1st Ave in 1980, had to have wheel chocks in place to prevent run-aways downhill (rather steep grade closer to Church), once the brake air had leaked out of the main and auxilliary reservoirs (hand brakes alone being not secure enough), and in 1980, the fact that any boxcars could be observed at all along 1st meant that they had remained in use at that point in time.  Otherwise, they would have been a downhill safety hazard.  The track itself crossed the middle of the intersection of Broad and 1st, and tied into the remaining track behind the old Thermal Transfer plant.

 

It's also a crying-ass shame that no theater was left remaining DT, through all the ages of decay and redevelopment, and again preaching to the choir of all other readers, they should have retained at least one such theater house ─ particularly the "Tennessee" on Church.  Nearly every other decent-sized (and not so decent) town in the state has kept at least one DT theater building, even if it has been re-purposed as a thrift store or something.  As Nashville Cliff had stated last week that Metro's efforts appear to have become somewhat more aligned to architectural preservation, than it had during 1989 (or even the '90s), we only could have hoped that some provision would exist now to protect the Sudekum Bldg. if it were to have remained.  Probably doubtful though, since it always had been privately owned throughout.  That alone seems to say it all for non-govt.-owned structures on the Nat'l Historic Register in Nashville.  Once a property has been been transferred to a party, I really don't know to what extent, if any, that property can be protected by an after-the-fact yet undeclared, yet unapproved preservation overlay from the Metro Historic Zoning Commission  The reason that other old theater buildings have remained DT statewide outside Nashville is that there has been no compelling reason to replace them with something else.

-==-

Edited May 8, 2015 by rookzie

[smeagolsfree]

Noticed workers on site at theStix project.Gave to WW.

From the Post

https://www.nashvillepost.com/blogs/postbusiness/2015/5/7/on_site_work_starts_for_sobros_stix

[smeagolsfree]

This article is behind the paywall, but Fat Bottom has a site under contract. Not disclosing where but the guesses on here are accurate.

https://www.nashvillepost.com/news/2015/5/7/fat_bottom_founder_has_new_location_under_contract