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MHC News
Marker Project: On March 20th, a new marker for the Nashville YMCA was dedicated at the corner of Church Street and YMCA Way beside the Downtown YMCA. This marker replaces an original MHC wall marker that was placed in 1975 and had since gone missing. Thank you to the YMCA staff and leadership who celebrated with us!
The marker reads:
"On May 18, 1875, members of several Nashville churches gathered at the Christian Church (138 Vine Street) after a religious revival meeting and organized the Nashville Young Men’s Christian Association. Its first building, erected in 1886 on Church Street between Cherry and College, was destroyed by a fire in 1894. In 1912, it moved to its new eight-story building on Seventh and Union, which it occupied until 1972 when it moved to its present building, 1000 Church Street."
Members of the YMCA staff and leadership at the dedication. Credit: MHC.
A new historical marker for Dodson School in Hermitage was dedicated on March 25th. The ceremony included remarks from District 12 Council Member Steve Glover and Principal Tiffany Curtis. MHC Commissioners Chris Cotton and Lynn Maddox attended in support, as did former Council Member Phil Ponder. Students sang a few songs as part of the celebration. This was the largest crowd we'd ever had at a marker dedication! Thank you to CM Glover and Principal Curtis for supporting the marker program and making this celebration possible!
(L to R) MHC Commissioners Lynn Maddox and Chris Cotton, MHC staff Jessica Reeves and Caroline Eller, CM Steve Glover, Principal Tiffany Curtis and former Council Member Phil Ponder.
A packed house for the Dodson School marker dedication!
At the March MHC meeting, a new historical marker for Turner Grammar School was approved. The former school building is located at 2949 Nolensville Pike and is in the process of being rehabilitated in to offices. District 16 Council member Mike Freeman selected the topic of this marker, an excellent choice as the man who donated land for the school was Flat Rock native and philanthropist R.W. Turner.
Former Turner School building. Credit: Parks real estate firm.
The Commission also approved a new privately-funded historical marker for Belmont Church and Koinonia Coffeehouse/Contemporary Christian Music. The marker focuses on the development of this genre and notes Nashville as the capital of Contemporary Christian music. This marker will be placed near the corner of 16th Avenue South and Grand Street.
MHZC news
The MHZC’s April public hearing will be on Wednesday, April 17th at 2:00 p.m. at the Sonny West Conference Center. The application deadline is April 1st at noon.
Davidson County Historian Dr. Carole Bucy will present her popular Nashville 101 and 102 lectures series in 2019. Nashville 101 will be held Thursdays in April at the Bellevue Library and will cover Mississippian Era history up to the Civil War (register here). In September, Nashville 102 will cover the post-Civil War era up to recent history, including the formation of the Metro government. Nashville 102 will be Mondays at Lentz Public Health Center (register here). Due to space limitations for each of these series, pre-registration is required.
Contact Caroline Eller at caroline.eller@nashville.gov or (615) 862-7970 x79780 with questions.
Nashville 101 at Green Hills Library. Credit: MHC.
This April, The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) will host a weekend of free, expert-led tours of many of Nashville's historic and cultural sites, including two dozen public parks, gardens and other open spaces. TCLF’s What’s Out There Weekend tours, which have been organized nationwide and in Canada, enable people to discover the design history of places they may pass every day but don’t necessarily know about. Expert guides provide rich stories, personal anecdotes, and keen observations about each site, landscape architecture, city shaping, and design. All tours are free but space is limited and registration is required.
Centennial Park. Credit: Nelson Byrd Woltz/TCLF.
What’s Out There Weekend Nashville and its accompanying City Guide are made possible in large part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Art Works and Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp., and in partnership with the Nashville Advisory Committee, led by former MHC Executive Director Ann Roberts, Lee Ann Anderson, Eleanor L. Willis, Judson Newbern, and Christine Kreyling.
TCLF’s What’s Out There Weekends dovetail with the organization’s web-based What’s Out There, the nation’s most comprehensive searchable database of historic designed landscapes. The database currently features more than 2,000 sites, 11,000 images, and 1,000 designer profiles and includes What's Nearby, a GPS-enabled function that locates all landscapes within a customizable distance.
Did you know that you can support the Metro Historical Commission Foundation (MHCF) with every purchase you make on Amazon? Through the AmazonSmile program, the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the purchase price from your eligible purchases. You can sign up for over 1 million public charities, including the MHCF. These funds will go directly to supporting preservation projects in Nashville and Davidson County.
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At their annual conference in March, the Tennessee Association of Museums (TAM) awarded Metro-owned Grassmere Historic Farm with an Award of Excellence for Digital Media, Digital Collection. The award recognizes a joint effort between Grassmere and the Tennessee State Library and Archives (TSLA) for the digital Grasssmere Collection on TeVA, which features over 270 historic photographs, family records and other documents about the property. The collection even includes a 1964 interview of the Croft sisters discussing the donation of Grassmere to the Children's Museum of Nashville, among other interviews with the family. Congratulations Grassmere for this well-deserved award!
(L to R) Jennifer Randles (TSLA Digital Materials Librarian), Tori Mason (Grassmere Historic Site Manager) and Ken Mayes (TAM President). Credit: TAM Facebook.
The Tennessee Historical Commission and Tennessee Wars Commission recently announced the grant-funded purchase of 42 acres in Murfreesboro, a portion of the Stones River National Battlefield that was formerly the site of an auto parts distribution center. The $1.8 million acquisition, one of the largest since the battlefield's designation in 1960, was made possible with funding through the Tennessee Civil War Sites Preservation Fund. Read more about the battlefield's importance in the Civil War and learn about current programs on this NPS page.
Stones River National Battlefield. Credit: National Park Service.
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