Old Nashville Treasures

[downtownresident]

3 minutes ago, MLBrumby said:

Gonna throw this one out there b/c I NEVER see/hear anything about this one. I dated a girl whose parents lived here in the late 1980s and I remember thinking how unique it was (and Wessex Towers). But I've always liked the irregular windows on its facade. And it's all brick. I recall walking into the lobby and thinking how cool the brick was.  Anyway, I 'give' you.... Rokeby (which BTW was the name of the plantation where Adelicia Acklen lived in the mid-1850s. 

Rokeby Condominiums 

Designed by Barber McMurry....https://bma1915.com/ 

The 12-story Rokeby Condominiums tower opened to acclaim when it was completed in 1976, and today is still considered one of its most prestigious residential developments. 

The building has been selected as one of the city’s most notable landmarks.

BarberMcMurry's flexible design allowed the developer to market the widest possible range of condominium unit sizes. Amenities include fireplaces, swimming pool, sundecks, tea room, secured garage parking, and extensive landscaping. The Rokeby provides its residents and visitors a functional and attractive facility which provides the convenience of more expensive condominiums.

I lived in Wessex Towers for a few years, and loved the building. 

[donNdonelson2]

As a young fellow I was intrigued by The Rokeby and still find it a handsome example of that style of residential design.

[Baronakim]

On 11/11/2019 at 3:40 PM, chris holman said:

Maxwell House 

Chris, since you posted this great memory of the old Maxwell House Hotel, I am making it the next focus of my Old Treasures reports.

 

THE MAXWELL HOUSE HOTEL  1859-1961

 

 For over 100 years, The Maxwell House Hotel stood on the northeast corner of 4th Avenue N., and Church Street in the center of Nashville serving as the heart of the city's social and political life.   Nashville's John Overton's son, Colonel John Overton Jr. built the hotel, which he named  after the father of his wife, Harriet Maxwell Overton.  Construction began in 1859 by slave laborers on a massive hotel designed by Isaiah Rogers.    Only partially completed at the outbreak of the Civil war, the unfinished brick building served as as a barracks for the occupying Union garrison  and both a prison and hospital for captured Confederates as Nashville was an occupied city from 1862 to the end of the war.   Several Confederate prisoners were killed when a staircase collapsed in September of 1863.  There is also a tale murder of a Southern belle and a Union guard during the war, killed in a jealous rage by his brother, also a guard, who was subsequently killed by the collapse of the staircase while transporting the bodies.  Stories of them haunting the hotel was a popular tale.  In 1866, though the hotel rooms of the building were unfinished, the public areas were in use and  Nathan Bedford Forrest , the famous Confederate calvary General was inducted into the newly formed secret vigilante society the Ku Klux Klan.  During the recovery of the Union occupation, The KKK held its first national meeting  at the hotel in April 1867.  Nashville residents were dubious of the completion of the building as a grand hotel and dubbed it "Overton's Folly"; however, with funding from his father's financial wealth, he completed construction and opened the hotel on September 22, 1869..

Built in what became known as the Men's Quarter of the city with the entrance facing on 4th Avenue N., the brick five story , 240 room hotel cost over $250,000, a tremendous sum,  with innovations such as steam heat, gas lighting and bathrooms on each floor.  As 4th Avenue was developing a notorious reputation for men's entertainment, a separate entrance was on Church Street to protect the reputation of lady guests.  The main entrance opening into the two story lobby had  eight Corinthian columns and led to an elegant lobby  featuring mahogany cabinetry, brass fixtures, gilded mirrors, and multi-tiered chandeliers.  A grand stair led to a ballustraded mezzanine up to the dining room.   Off the lobby, were ladies’ and men’s parlors, billiard rooms, barrooms, shaving saloons and the concierge desk.   The dining room featured  typical fare of the time like venison, bear, mallard duck, pheasant, quail and even possum though elaborately prepared and served in an elegant and spacious dining room which also served as a ballroom.  The hotel became famous eventually for its Christmas Feast through the 1890s renowned for  such delicacies as Calf’s Head, Leg of Cumberland Black Bear, and Tennessee Opossum.   Meals were included with the room at four dollars per day.   George R. Calhoun, the brother of silversmith William Henry Calhoun, managed a jewelry store in the hotel and proudly displayed wares in the a lobby showcase.

From its opening through the First World War among the famous hotel guests were Jane Addams, Sarah Bernhardt, William Jennings Bryan, Enrico Caruso, "Buffalo Bill" Cody, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Annie Oakley, William Sydney Porter (O. Henry), General Tom Thumb, Cornelius Vanderbilt, George Westinghouse, and Presidents Andrew Johnson, Rutherford B. Hayes, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson.

Joel Cheek  named his blended coffee that was served in its restaurant for the hotel, creating Maxwell House Coffee.  President Theodore Roosevelt reportedly commented that the cup of coffee he drank was "good to the last drop".  The statement was used for decades as the advertising slogan for Maxwell House coffee, which was served at and named after the hotel.

On June 4, 1958, the Maxwell House suffered the first of two fires.  There were no reported injuries and damage was over $50,000.   The second blaze on Christmas day of 1961 completely gutted the hotel to a ruined shell which was demolished in 1962.

From TSLA "Disasters in Tennessee:

"On Christmas Night, 1961, the hotel caught fire and burned. The origin of the fire is unknown, but flames were first spotted on the 4th floor corridor. Within an hour the fire had spread to the 3rd and 5th floors and eventually through the roof. Between 60 and 70 people, both staff and guests, evacuated the hotel. The firemen on the scene eventually abandoned their efforts to save the hotel and instead attempted to prevent adjoining buildings from catching fire.

At the time, Fire Marshal Dan Hicks stated that the building was insured for one million dollars, and the acting hotel manager, Robert Witt, estimated that the damages to the furnishings were $100,000. J. W. Roach, chief city building inspector, stated the owners would most likely have to tear down what was left and rebuild. However, the Maxwell House was never rebuilt, and all that remains now of the once-famous hotel is an historical marker."

 

Edited November 15, 2019 by Baronakim
added new fire info & photos

[bnacincy]

Hadn't seen any interior photos before.....thanks for finding those!

[MLBrumby]

21 minutes ago, Baronakim said:

Chris, since you posted this great memory of the old Maxwell House Hotel, I am making it the next focus of my Old Treasures reports.

 

THE MAXWELL HOUSE HOTEL  1859-1961

 

 For over 100 years, The Maxwell House Hotel stood on the northeast corner of 4th Avenue N., and Church Street in the center of Nashville serving as the heart of the city's social and political life.   Nashville's John Overton's son, Colonel John Overton Jr. built the hotel, which he named  after the father of his wife, Harriet Maxwell Overton.  Construction began in 1859 by slave laborers on a massive hotel designed by Isaiah Rogers.    Only partially completed at the outbreak of the Civil war, the unfinished brick building served as as a barracks for the occupying Union garrison  and both a prison and hospital for captured Confederates as Nashville was an occupied city from 1862 to the end of the war.   Several Confederate prisoners were killed when a staircase collapsed in September of 1863.  There is also a tale murder of a Southern belle and a Union guard during the war, killed in a jealous rage by his brother, also a guard, who was subsequently killed by the collapse of the staircase while transporting the bodies.  Stories of them haunting the hotel was a popular tale.  In 1866, though the hotel rooms of the building were unfinished, the public areas were in use and  Nathan Bedford Forrest , the famous Confederate calvary General was inducted into the newly formed secret vigilante society the Ku Klux Klan.  During the recovery of the Union occupation, The KKK held its first national meeting  at the hotel in April 1867.  Nashville residents were dubious of the completion of the building as a grand hotel and dubbed it "Overton's Folly"; however, with funding from his father's financial wealth, he completed construction and opened the hotel on September 22, 1869..

Built in what became known as the Men's Quarter of the city with the entrance facing on 4th Avenue N., the brick five story , 240 room hotel cost over $250,000, a tremendous sum,  with innovations such as steam heat, gas lighting and bathrooms on each floor.  As 4th Avenue was developing a notorious reputation for men's entertainment, a separate entrance was on Church Street to protect the reputation of lady guests.  The main entrance opening into the two story lobby had  eight Corinthian columns and led to an elegant lobby  featuring mahogany cabinetry, brass fixtures, gilded mirrors, and multi-tiered chandeliers.  A grand stair led to a ballustraded mezzanine up to the dining room.   Off the lobby, were ladies’ and men’s parlors, billiard rooms, barrooms, shaving saloons and the concierge desk.   The dining room featured  typical fare of the time like venison, bear, mallard duck, pheasant, quail and even possum though elaborately prepared and served in an elegant and spacious dining room which also served as a ballroom.  The hotel became famous eventually for its Christmas Feast through the 1890s renowned for  such delicacies as Calf’s Head, Leg of Cumberland Black Bear, and Tennessee Opossum.   Meals were included with the room at four dollars per day.   George R. Calhoun, the brother of silversmith William Henry Calhoun, managed a jewelry store in the hotel and proudly displayed wares in the a lobby showcase.

From its opening through the First World War among the famous hotel guests were Jane Addams, Sarah Bernhardt, William Jennings Bryan, Enrico Caruso, "Buffalo Bill" Cody, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Annie Oakley, William Sydney Porter (O. Henry), General Tom Thumb, Cornelius Vanderbilt, George Westinghouse, and Presidents Andrew Johnson, Rutherford B. Hayes, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson.

Joel Cheek  named his blended coffee that was served in its restaurant for the hotel, creating Maxwell House Coffee.  President Theodore Roosevelt reportedly commented that the cup of coffee he drank was "good to the last drop".  The statement was used for decades as the advertising slogan for Maxwell House coffee, which was served at and named after the hotel.

On June 4, 1958, the Maxwell House suffered the first of two fires.  There were no reported injuries and damage was over $50,000.   The second blaze on Christmas day of 1961 completely gutted the hotel to a ruined shell which was demoli

Baron, do you remember the several years when that site was vacant? I wonder what sort of speculation was going on... and did the city leaders just believe it was one of the many dominoes of the inner city that were falling. I look at that photo and think it must have been depressing to see and walk past everyday.  Was the cause of that fire ever determined/made public?  Ever since I learned of the Maxwell House, I've dreamed of one going up on the site at the parking lot at Church (between First & Second).  Maybe a bit larger at 7-8 stories, but the same style and balconies on the side overlooking the Cumberland. 

Edited November 13, 2019 by MLBrumby

[chris holman]

2 hours ago, Baronakim said:

Chris, since you posted this great memory of the old Maxwell House Hotel, I am making it the next focus of my Old Treasures reports.

 

THE MAXWELL HOUSE HOTEL  1859-1961

 

 For over 100 years, The Maxwell House Hotel stood on the northeast corner of 4th Avenue N., and Church Street in the center of Nashville serving as the heart of the city's social and political life.   Nashville's John Overton's son, Colonel John Overton Jr. built the hotel, which he named  after the father of his wife, Harriet Maxwell Overton.  Construction began in 1859 by slave laborers on a massive hotel designed by Isaiah Rogers.    Only partially completed at the outbreak of the Civil war, the unfinished brick building served as as a barracks for the occupying Union garrison  and both a prison and hospital for captured Confederates as Nashville was an occupied city from 1862 to the end of the war.   Several Confederate prisoners were killed when a staircase collapsed in September of 1863.  There is also a tale murder of a Southern belle and a Union guard during the war, killed in a jealous rage by his brother, also a guard, who was subsequently killed by the collapse of the staircase while transporting the bodies.  Stories of them haunting the hotel was a popular tale.  In 1866, though the hotel rooms of the building were unfinished, the public areas were in use and  Nathan Bedford Forrest , the famous Confederate calvary General was inducted into the newly formed secret vigilante society the Ku Klux Klan.  During the recovery of the Union occupation, The KKK held its first national meeting  at the hotel in April 1867.  Nashville residents were dubious of the completion of the building as a grand hotel and dubbed it "Overton's Folly"; however, with funding from his father's financial wealth, he completed construction and opened the hotel on September 22, 1869..

Built in what became known as the Men's Quarter of the city with the entrance facing on 4th Avenue N., the brick five story , 240 room hotel cost over $250,000, a tremendous sum,  with innovations such as steam heat, gas lighting and bathrooms on each floor.  As 4th Avenue was developing a notorious reputation for men's entertainment, a separate entrance was on Church Street to protect the reputation of lady guests.  The main entrance opening into the two story lobby had  eight Corinthian columns and led to an elegant lobby  featuring mahogany cabinetry, brass fixtures, gilded mirrors, and multi-tiered chandeliers.  A grand stair led to a ballustraded mezzanine up to the dining room.   Off the lobby, were ladies’ and men’s parlors, billiard rooms, barrooms, shaving saloons and the concierge desk.   The dining room featured  typical fare of the time like venison, bear, mallard duck, pheasant, quail and even possum though elaborately prepared and served in an elegant and spacious dining room which also served as a ballroom.  The hotel became famous eventually for its Christmas Feast through the 1890s renowned for  such delicacies as Calf’s Head, Leg of Cumberland Black Bear, and Tennessee Opossum.   Meals were included with the room at four dollars per day.   George R. Calhoun, the brother of silversmith William Henry Calhoun, managed a jewelry store in the hotel and proudly displayed wares in the a lobby showcase.

From its opening through the First World War among the famous hotel guests were Jane Addams, Sarah Bernhardt, William Jennings Bryan, Enrico Caruso, "Buffalo Bill" Cody, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Annie Oakley, William Sydney Porter (O. Henry), General Tom Thumb, Cornelius Vanderbilt, George Westinghouse, and Presidents Andrew Johnson, Rutherford B. Hayes, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson.

Joel Cheek  named his blended coffee that was served in its restaurant for the hotel, creating Maxwell House Coffee.  President Theodore Roosevelt reportedly commented that the cup of coffee he drank was "good to the last drop".  The statement was used for decades as the advertising slogan for Maxwell House coffee, which was served at and named after the hotel.

On June 4, 1958, the Maxwell House suffered the first of two fires.  There were no reported injuries and damage was over $50,000.   The second blaze on Christmas day of 1961 completely gutted the hotel to a ruined shell which was demolished in 1962.

Wow. What a loss 

[chris holman]

 

 

[Baronakim]

Thanks guys for your enthusiasm about my recent posts.  Please note that I have added more photos and descriptions in them in the past day or so.  This includes the castle (2 new photos), the Arcade, L&C (photo of Victorians torn down), Centennial (more 1897 pics), Theatres and the Maxwell House (more about the fire +photos), so you might enjoy another look.  Oh yeah,  thanks Smeagol for your fealty...incidentally I am his Excellency Baron Akim Yaroslavich, Baron Glaedenfeld.  Feel free to grovel anytime. 

One more comment about why I am posting these old Nashville subjects.   Old buildings in the past were built over the older ones' remains.  That is why urban archaeology works and we learn things...ancient Rome...burials...etc..  I post about old Nashville because modern construction removes everything down to the bedrock, leaving no trace of history of the site.  Knowledge of this is left to photographs and the web for the most part.  It is difficult to track down 99% of what Nashville was like even one lifetime ago and the 1% is often vague and not well understandable unless you you were alive then.  A city is more than a collection of its present buildings...it is an amalgamation of those, its past buildings, memories and the interaction among its citizens, past and present.  I want to share what I recall, for in a not to distant future, further memories such as these will be inaccessible.  Sorry if some of the details might be boring.

Here is my next Nashville subject....

BYGONE DOWNTOWN SHOPPING

Nashville during the 1950's and early 1960's was quite an experience for kids growing up. The era was before malls, so most Christmas shopping was done downtown as there were not yet even suburban branches of the stores.  Downtown Nashville was a madhouse, literally thousands of shoppers walked Church Street in densities which  present malls now have wistful dreams.   Church Street bustled with shoppers, jostling elbows with all the movie goers and spilled over onto 4th and 5th Avenues.  The big downtown stores were  Castner-Knott, Harvey's, W.T. Grant's, Cain-Sloan, Woolworth's and Sears-Roebuck.  One of the favorite department stores was Harvey's, which had kid friendly activities like the Monkey Bar Diner at lunch time,  live monkeys in a cage and an indoor  carousel.  Mr. Max Lowenstein, a survivor of Buchenwald concentration camp, operated the carousel for many years . There was also a monorail that ran around the top floor of the store. Hilariously, Mr. Harvey often released the live moneys into the store on slow shopping days and a popular salon where old ladies had their hair dyed and styled in bizarre blue, purple, and pink  coiffures.

From Wikipedia:  "The original Harvey's department store was opened by Fred Harvey in 1942 at the corner of 6th Avenue North and Church Street. The site was the former home of a post-Reconstruction Nashville retailer, Lebeck Brothers/Denton & Company, which rose to prominence in the 1870s. When the Lebeck Brothers property became available due to the store's closing, Fred Harvey founded Harveys department store on the property. The store expanded to eventually cover the entire block of Church Street from 6th Avenue to 5th Avenue. The store brought the first escalators to middle Tennessee and the decor featured several carousel horses which had been salvaged from Glendale Park, a local amusement park that closed during the Great Depression.  The store was also known for its lavish Christmas decorations as well as the annual nativity scene in Centennial park.  Harvey's was in the news for the Nashville sit-in demonstrations at the lunch counter, an important part of the Civil Rights history.   This also happened at  Woolworths on 5th Avenue .> The original Harvey's  store closed in January 1984 and was sadly torn down to make way for the current surface parking lot.

Cain-Sloan in the 50s was adjacent to Harvey's at 5th and Church (St. Cloud's Corner). Cain-Sloan was much older than Harvey's opening in 1903, co-founded by Paul Lowe Sloan, Pat Cain and John E. Cain.  The store was built new for Cain-Sloan Department Store rather than occupying an older building.   Regretfully, there is next to no documentation of what existed on the site previously other than old photographs of questionable identity.  100+ years old Nashville downtown on Church Street is mostly lost.   I particularly remember Cain Sloan personally, as my grandmother worked there from the late 1940s  and ran the post office in the new store until about 1975.  Cain-Sloan was different because the older building was open from floor to floor and heights were very tall.  At 5th Avenue, the interior was 4 stories tall!  Very narrow escalators were paired in the middle and the two elevators were small and had a uniformed operator  (regrettably, always an older black gentleman, but that was the times).  The floors stepped back in tiers in the narrow central sales area, women' s foundations, the smallest floor,  3rd home item  sales, 2nd men's clothing, and main floor hats, gloves, perfumes, etc.   The main entrance was on 5th and an annex was was on the actual corner at Church which had women and children's clothing and shoes and a furrier.  When I needed shoes as a young child, mom always took me there to get Red Goose shoes .  You got to pull a mechanical goose's neck and got a plastic golden egg with toys and candy in it.  What was really bad though was the sales person fluoroscoped your feet to insure the fit.  As the clerk was not medically trained, bot the child and the clerk  were exposed to big doses of radiation (the machine did not take plates but stayed on).  Cain-Sloan built a new store across church in 1961 in which they had an  animated "Bunnyland" display and Breakfast with Santa.  Young ladies could take classes in "White Gloves And Party Manners."   Harvey's bought and expanded into the old Cain-Sloan building.  The later Cain-Sloan store  was demolished and used as a surface parking lot until Tony G. built his 505 tower on the site.  

The third major department store, Castner-Knotts, was at the corner of Capitol Boulevard and Church Street across from the library now and adjacent to the small park Tony G. covets.    The Caster-Knott Building was built in 1906 for Charles Castner and William Knott's Castner-Knott Dry Goods Company.  Founded in 1898, the store moved from its original location on 5th Avenue in what was the start of the city's westward expansion along Church Street.  At that time, Caster-Knott was a single five story building with a 111-foot front at 618 Church street.  Castner-Knott leased a portion of the building at 616 Church which previously was Armstrond's Department Store in 1933, a separate five story building constructed in 1911, with 28 feet fronting Church Street and as deep as the 618 Church building at 146 feet, adjacent to Capitol Boulevard.  The top two floors were connected between 618 and 616 for Caster-Knott in 1936, the bottom three floors were connected in 1958-1959 and a small addition on the rear was added in 1975.  Castner-Knott 's historic flagship store went out of business in 1996.  The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.

Sears, of course, did not have a Nashville origin, as did the other three, but it had a major presence at the corner of 8th Avenue N. and Church Street next to the Paramount Theatre, where the new courthouse is now under construction.   Part of lot 150, in the original town of Nashville, surveyed and plated in 1784, the southeast corner of Church Street at 8th Avenue North was first owned by John Boyd  at the corner of Spring Street (Church) and  Spruce Street (8th).   In 1896 Victor E. Shwab, and his sister Augusta Shwab Dickel, bought the  narrow lot where Sears would build a store; the property leased for twenty years from April 1, 1936 through April 1, 1956.  The Shwab owners built for Sears, a a five story and basement mercantile building, with a mezzanine floor.  At the end of the lease, Sears, moved  a few blocks away, on Lafayette Street at 7th Ave (now Nashville Rescue Mission).  After Sears moved from Church Street, the Shwabs leased to various tenant including  National Stores (1957,) Ben Franklin store (1968), Gold & Silver Jewelers of Nashvilleand eventually, the State of Tennessee as an office building.

All  of these majors eventually opened suburban branches in Nashville malls and shopping centers, but those are also gone now.  Closed and reused or swallowed by other department store chains like Dillard's, Peebles and Macy's.   Sears, of course, in in process of disappearing nationally.   There were many, many smaller store on Church and the Avenues too.  Here is a partial list of the central part of Church in the 50s.   6th to7th east side: Candyland, Dorris Jewelry, Krystal, Shyer's Jewelry, Flagg Brothers Shoes, Baker'sLadies Shoes, Weinstein Jewelry, Loews Vendome Theatre, 1st American Bank, White Leather Co., Kay Jewelers, H.G.Hill's, Joy's Florist; west side Castner   Knott,     Holiday's Shoes, Chesters Ladies  Co., Barton's Ladies Clothing, National Shirt Store.       From 6th to 5h: Harvey's,  Cain-Sloan, the Tennessee Theatre, the Jewel Shop, McKendree Church and the new Cain-Sloan site.  From 5th to 4th west side: Gus Meyer , Petway Reavis, the Maxwell House; east side:  First Presbyterian , Halmak Store (Cohen Bldg.), Princess Theatre and several small business slated to be demolished for the L&C tower in 1954.

By no means was shopping limited to Church Street,  Dozens of stores lined the Avenues as well, too many to cover here but here are the most remembered...7th Avenue N. (north) :  Chandlers Shoes, Grace's fashions, Crosskeys Restaurant, Bookworld    6th Avenue N. (north): Joseph Frank & Son Shoes, Knickerbocker Theatre, Florsheim Shoes, Levy's Clothier, and the Luggage Store.  5th Avenue N. (north):  Feldman's, F.W. Woolworth's, McLellan's, Burt's Shoes and Montgomery Ward's and Loveman's.

As you can now must realize, downtown shopping was a huge deal with more stores in a few blocks than later malls every had.  Sidewalks were packed and nights were just as active with restaurants and entertainment.  Around holidays, shops and department stores stayed open beyond their regular hours to allow patrons to shop until as late as ten o'clock.  But all of this vitality disappeared after the 70s with Metro trying everything to stop the retail exodus.  Fulton's Folly was a much derided rebuilding of the street in a meandering brick pavement which lasted a few years until the tore it up and restored the street to a one way straight configuration.  They tried to get people back with a mall called Church Street Center, which quickly failed and now is the site of the Library building.  Buildings were torn down and replaced.  The grand and beautiful old Victorian Watkins building was razed for a  W.T. Grant's store.  With the new century, life returns to Church Street with new residential towers built, more even now as we on this forum watch our new downtown grow.

As a treat I finally found the last photo, which is of the old Victorian businesses on Church (1956) to be demolished for the construction of the new L&C tower

 

Edited November 16, 2019 by Baronakim
as usual more spelling, punctuation & capitalization errors

[rolly]

Wow, talk about street activation...

[donNdonelson2]

Growing up in rural middle Tennessee, coming to Nashville for Christmas shopping was a real treat! On one trip I recall us eating lunch at the Iris Room in the new, modern Cain Sloan department store. I thought it was the most amazing experience!

[downtownresident]

Absolutely beautiful photos, Baronkim. Thank you for these wonderful posts! 

[donNdonelson2]

As a young fellow, I had one trip into Nashville for shopping that included a meal at a location that I had a really difficult time pinpointing. I could recall the general look and feel of the restaurant space but had no idea of its actual location after the passing of so much time. It would intrigue me for years until an old business would renovate and reopen and I went for drinks at the Oak Room at the Hermitage Hotel. Upon descending the staircase into that dark oak paneled room, I knew instantly I’d found the room where I’d dined so many years earlier. What a feeling!

[Vrtigo]

14 hours ago, Baronakim said:

What a treat indeed! Thanks for the quick trip back in time, m'lord. (A hat-tip to the castle talk in the other thread.)

I think it would be such a neat experiment for someone to capture a "today" equivalent of all of these streetscape photos. While I have spent plenty of time on today's Church St. and surely have stood in just about every location pictured, I'm still having trouble remembering each location and what stands there now. These bygone times would seem much more real with some real-life experiences to back them up!

[Baronakim]

HAD TROUBLE LOADING PHOTOS. IF THERE ARE VACANT GAPS BETWEEN, KEEP SCROLLING.  THANKS, BARONAKIM

 

 

Of all the great things we post about Nashville, its old buildings, its new towers and its rocketing growth, one single factor seldom gets the credit that is due.  Without it, Nashville would certainly be much different today...if Nashville existed here at all.  Throughout our city's history, our growth and commerce stems from the river and its bridges.    It is the single most important element in both the old and our new city's development.

THE RIVER

Even before the founding of Nashville, the principal avenue to reach into the wilderness was always the Cumberland River.   Jacques-Timothée Boucher, Sieur de Montbrun (23 March 1731 – October 1826), anglicized as Timothy Demonbreun, a French-Canadian fur trader, is acknowledged as the first white man to set foot on the future site of Nashville. While hunting,  Demonbreun noticed a large number of game animals at a salt lick, later known as French Lick and eventually, Sulphur Dell.  Living  in a cave in the rive bluff until he built a rude a cabin near the river as his home base for fur trapping.  . When James Robertson and the Watauga settlers established Fort Nashborough  in 1778, they were both surprised and relieved to find that Demonbreun, a white man, was thriving there.   Their fortification was on what was called Front Street  just north  of where the riverbanks allowed good landing.  Fort Nashborough backed up on the edge the higher river bluff to only have three sides to defend against hostiles instead of four. River rafts and boats remained vital for the settlement but by the 1800, it was obvious that having to cross the river on boats to reach the east bank was inconvenient,  due to increased traffic, the obvious answer was to build a bridge.    The plan of the first bridge across the Cumberland River was proposed by the citizens of Nashville in 1818.   From the 1819 construction contract and descriptions of the structure published in newspapers of the time, we know much about this first bridge. From descriptions "The superstructure consisted of three wooden arch spans, each 187’ long, for a total length of approximately 560’.  The bridge was 40’ wide, contained two carriageways and two footways, and was supported by three stone piers and two abutments that stood as high as 80’ above low water."    Erected just downstream from where the present Victory Memorial Bridge is located, at the northeast corner of the Square across to Main Street, it opened in June of 1823. The covered bridge had windows along the sides to provide light. When it was built water craft was small and the structure was only 75 feet above the low water mark.    In the late 1830's thousands of Cherokees crossed this bridge on the Trail of Tears.  By the mid-nineteenth century, the new generation of steamboats was too tall to pass under the bridge, so in 1850 the first Woodland Street Bridge was built to replace it and allow steamboats to get to the new wharf at the Front Street landings. The new bridge,  a suspension bridge, was high enough to allow steamboats to pass underneath uninhibited and the 1823 Nashville Toll Bridge was demolished in 1850. All traces of the bridge were dismantled and removed, or fell into the river and sunk to the bottom of the channel, except, that is, for its massive stone abutments.  Recently the surviving old stonework of the embankment buttresses was cleaned up and recognized by historians as the ruins of the first bridge over the Cumberland in Nashville.  It is under the Victory Memorial bridge constructed in 1955.  The first 7 photos illustrate the earliest Nashville  bridge. 

The next 8 photos show the constuction of and the finished  suspension bridge over the Cumberland.    In them clearly seen is the first new neighborhood, Edgefield on the east banks.  The  view of the steamboat landings at the foot of Broad Street  is from 1873.  In the last view of the suspension bridge, which is a drawing, the first railroad bridge across the river is seen.   Note:  more about the railroad bridges will be covered later in this post.

The suspension bridge was replaced by a double width steel truss bridge, the Woodland Street Bridge, in 1886 which was build beside it.  10 photos show this bridge under construction, and in use through the 1950s.   As I child, I often crossed this bridge with my grandfather either picking up my grandmother at Cain-Sloan or going to the Courthouse Square on Saturday for the farmer's market day.  Even in the 1950s, farmers still brought their goods with horse drawn wagons mixed with the 1940s pickup trucks.  Note in the photos that Victorian mercantile buildings still were on the riverbanks at the square; Gay Street under the bridges and the small amphitheater did not yet exist.  They were demolished in the 70s.  The photos of the steamboats landing are 1900 and 1906 respectively.  In the 1906 view, the suspension bridge is partially demolished; the view of the Victorian buildings on the square probably dates from 1907 as new foundations for buildings are being laid where the suspension bridge was demolished.   

Bridges in the first decade of the 20th century changed a great deal of the access to the east banks.   In 1908,  the Sparkman Street Bridge construction began  by the Nashville Barge Company  which was founded in the 1890s.   Adjacent to the new bridge, the firm built its headquarters on the banks of the Cumberland River,  a six-story office building which remains today.  It can be seen in the two photos of the new bridge over a Cumberland River in full flood.  It is interesting to see the flooded east bank where the Titian stadium would be built and before the industrialization seen in the following photo in the 1960s.   By then the name of the bridge had been  changed to the Shelby Street bridge, but  days were numbered for the aging industrial facilities.   By the 1980s, the east bank was an industrial slum.   The barge building operations moved to Ashland City downstream in the 1990s allowing for construction of the new stadium for the Titians and with it, a new bridge for the city.   The Shelby Street Bridge was completely rebuilt as the Siegenthaler Pedestrian Bridge  The next 2 photos show another bridge built The old six story building was completely remodeled as a  venue for weddings, private dinners and events.  It is now known as the Bridge Building and the riverfront has become a popular park and river landing area for private boats.

In the next 2 photos, another new bridge can be seen, the Jefferson Street Bridge downriver at what is now Germantown. Building began in 1909 of a multiple span steel truss bridge both narrower and higher than the Shelby Street bridge.  Both bridges had very long ramped approaches on concrete arches.  The Jefferson Bridge was taken down by explosives in 1992 and replaced with a new bridge of modern design similar to that of the Victory Memorial Bridge built in 1957 one block downstream from the Woodland Street Bridge . 

The following photo shows the completed Victory Memorial Bridge connecting the James Robertson Parkway to Main Street in East Nashville in 1956.  The construction of the L&C tower is underway.  The new street is on the north side of the Nashville Courthouse; the Victorian buildings seen around the Public Square  are soon to be demolished. In the next photo, Mayor Ben West is seen driving dignitaries across the new bridge,   The old city hall building at the new bridge would later bear his name as the Ben West Building.  The old steel truss span of the Woodland Street Bridge was replaced in the 1970s with a new  span matching the Victory Bridge, but retaining the old masonry piers.  Both bridges can be seen in the terraced Riverfront Park view taken about 1982.  During the 60s and 70s, the interstate highway system loop around the city was constructed with high twin bridges over the Cumberland; this is the Sillman Evans Bridge on the south crossing.  A similar set of bridges were built by what became Metro Center  downstream on the north part of the loop.

The last vehicular bridge to be built in Nashville is the Gateway Bridge in 2004, now a landmark for its distinctive arches and colorful lighting displays  that are internationally recognized as in Nashville, Tennessee.  The old Shelby Street Bridge was renamed after John Siegenthaler and made a pedestrian only bridge in 2007 connecting downtown to the Nissan Stadium.   The city side approach was demolished and shortened by one block making it steeper, but was vital to the new Sobro building boom.  The Siegenthaler Bridge was rebuilt with new observation platforms and is brilliantly illuminated at night, both above and below,  Together, the two bridges are stunning at night from Lower Broad.

The next set of photos shows the old Osburne-Hessey Warehouse that blocked river views from Broadway until it was demolished for Riverfront Park.  The building was a massive concrete structure designed to survive the flooding of the river that came all to often before the TVA dams were built upstream.     Besides flooding, the river would occasionally freeze over and Nashvillians could walk to the other side or braver ones could drive across.  The photos are from 1946 just before I was born, but I remember the next big freeze, the Blizzard of 1951.

Returning to the railroad bridges of Nashville, the  photo (colorized) taken during the occupation of Nashville in 1862 shows the bridge that replaced the covered railroad bridge  seen in the drawing by the suspension bridge.  A steel truss bridge replaced this one in the 1890s which was much lower than the vehicular bridges and solved the problem with river traffic by the center span swinging 90 degrees to allow boats to pass thru.  This type of railroad bridge was known as a "swing bridge".  It is stiil in use today when the river is too high for barges to clear.   Of course when steamboats need passage, the swing function is employed.  It is interesting that the popular General Jackson steamboat has its smokestacks hinged down flat to pass under.  The last photos are technically not downtown, but a a couple of miles upstream at Shelby Bottoms. The elevated railroad trestle and bridge was built by the L&N Railroad in the 1920's to bypass downtown Nashville to Randnor yards which replaced the main yards in what is now the Gulch in Nashville.  The elevated high steel trestle runs over Shelby Park Bottoms  to cross the Cumberland to Donaldson.  The last photo is The Shelby Bottoms Pedestrian Bridge, a suspension walk bridge connecting  the Nashville Greenways on both sides of the Cumberland.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 17, 2019 by Baronakim
fixed photo order

[Jamie Hall]

It's fascinating to see how Church Street was "the" main street in downtown Nashville for much of the 1900s. How did Church Street rise to that prominence rather than Broadway in that era, considering Broadway seemed to have easier access and (probably) better access to parking?  Was that intentional planning by the city or just a gradual progression?

[MLBrumby]

Good question. But I think it might have to do with the fact that Broadway was a wider street and therefore had more wholesale and retail for large products with easier access to the train depot and river before that (there used to be a freight dock at the river). Plus, it's closer to the historic industrial section of downtown, what is now Sobro.  Conversely, Church St. is closer to the traditional 'white collar' offices and older hotels at the time. Plus I believe Church was easier to access from East as well as West sides of town. Just guessing there, but I always find it fascinating how cities evolve. 

[DeemonBruhn]

It's fascinating to see how Church Street was "the" main street in downtown Nashville for much of the 1900s. How did Church Street rise to that prominence rather than Broadway in that era, considering Broadway seemed to have easier access and (probably) better access to parking?  Was that intentional planning by the city or just a gradual progression?

Church Street was originally Spring Street and the center E-W street in the original city plan. (Broadway was the southern edge in that same plan.) Following the city plan the center of downtown was Church for many years and most of the commercial buildings originally sprung up around it. The center has gravitated over time.

[chris holman]

[bnacincy]

Great Photos!

Anybody remember a place on Lower Broad-I think it was where Honky Tonk Central is now-called Heavy's?

Wonderin' what happened with it.....it came and went sometime in the 70's, I think.

[Jamie Hall]

Very cool photos. I'd always heard that Lower Broadway was a lot different in the '70s and '80s, but I didn't realize it was such an eclectic mix. 

[chris holman]

We had streetcars ,train station and retail everywhere then and street activity. I'm glad it's coming back. The city seem very urban even in these times

[Mr_Bond]

On 11/11/2019 at 12:08 PM, Baronakim said:

 

I think this picture is in the restaurant in Nordstrom (Nordstrom Grill?  Used to be Sixth & Pine).  I'm friends with a member of the Strobel family whose music store is in this picture.

[Mr_Bond]

13 hours ago, chris holman said:

 

Scooters have been in Nashville longer than I thought!  Should this go in the Transportation thread?

[donNdonelson2]

48 minutes ago, Mr_Bond said:

Scooters have been in Nashville longer than I thought!  Should this go in the Transportation thread?

Cushman scooters are still being built.

http://www.cushmanscooters2.com/

[chris holman]

Nashville, November 1910. 

1912 paper