|
MHC News
The MHC installed two new historical markers in November for Turner Grammar School and Reverend Nelson G. Merry. Turner Grammar School (2949 Nolensville Pike) opened in 1926 and has been recently rehabilitated into office spaces. Rev. Nelson Merry (1824-1884) was Nashville's first ordained African American minister and served as pastor of "First Baptist Colored Church," now First Baptist Church, Capitol Hill.
MHC staff are working on several new privately-funded historical markers, including one that is proposed for the site of the Bradley Studio in Hillsboro Village. Owen and Harold Bradley built the studio in 1953, but moved to a new studio on Music Row by 1955. A recent article in the Hillsboro-West End Neighborhood's fall newsletter highlights this initiative and details the studio's historical significance.
The MHC Foundation held its annual fundraiser on Thursday, November 14th at Clementine, a historic church converted into event space. The event acted as the official launch of Nashville Sites, a new web-based free walking tour program. Thank you to all the sponsors of Nashville Sites, including the James Stephen Turner Family Foundation, Nashville Convention and Visitors Corporation, Humanities Tennessee, The DISTRICT, Belmont University, Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area, MTSU Center for Historic Preservation, PLA Media, The Vanderbilt University Center for Digital Humanities, Aubrey Preston, Nashville Public Library, the Country Music Hall of Fame, Horton Group, and the Metro Historical Commission. The event was a huge success! Check out this spotlight piece about the vision, scholarship and collaborations behind Nashville Sites. The project was also featured in TheNews, Nashville's community newspapers.
Nashville Sites needs your support to help keep Nashville's free walking tours free! DONATE TODAY
MHC Foundation members at the annual fundraiser. Credit: MHC.
MHC Commissioners Gerry Searcy (L) and Linda Wynn (R) at the event. Credit: MHC.
Actors portrayed historical figures from the tours: Richard Northcutt as Captain Tom Ryman, Tamiko Robinson Steele as Sarah Estell, Wesley Paine as Anne Dallas Dudley, Gary Burke as Peter Bailey, and Winston Scott as Hank Williams, Jr. Credit: MHC.
MHZC staff members (L to R) Fred Zahn, Melissa Baldock and Jenny Warren. Credit: MHC.
MHZC news
The MHZC’s December public hearing will be on Wednesday, December 28th at 2:00 p.m. at the Sonny West Conference Center/Metro Campus.
View the MHZC meeting schedule and application deadlines here.
Don't forget- you can watch archived videos of the MHZC meetings on the Metro YouTube channel anytime!
You can now support the Friends of Shelby Park and Bottoms by purchasing an East Nashville license plate! 100% of plate sales help support the nonprofit Friends group with various programs, community engagement and recreational activities in Shelby Park. Some of the projects this group has completed include restoration of hangars at Cornelia Fort Air Park and installation of a bike repair station and water fountains in Shelby Park.
A new Nashville Public Television documentary, "By One Vote," chronicles the story of woman's suffrage in the south. With narration by Roseanne Cash, the original film tracks the events leading up to, and culminating in, Tennessee's deciding vote leading to ratification of the 19th Amendment. MHC Commissioner Linda Wynn and Davidson County Historian Dr. Carole Bucy are among the women scholars and historians interviewed for the piece.
 |
Jefferson Street is one of the most important corridors of African American history in Nashville. With growth along the corridor spurred by the presence of Fisk University, Tennessee State University and Meharry Medical College, the area was also home to a bustling music and cultural district prior to the construction of Interstate 40, the effects of which caused significant damage to the community. Today, local treasure Jefferson Street Sound (JSS) is housed in a small brick building near 21st Avenue North and strives to tell visitors the story of Jefferson Street's musical heydey.
Lorenzo Washington at JSS museum. Credit: Jefferson Street Sound.
Run by CEO and MHC Preservation Award winner Lorenzo Washington, a fixture in the music industry for over 40 years, JSS offers a unique and comprehensive overview of the musical heart of Jefferson Street. The micro museum features numerous photographic and audio-visual exhibits, as well as many personal effects of the artists who helped build this legacy. You can support the JSS mission by visiting the museum, shopping in the JSS store, or making a gift to help continue their programming.
The Metro Archives has published a searchable online database of enslaved and free people of color in an effort to make genealogical information more accessible to researchers. Based on the records found in the Davidson County will books from 1780-1865, this database contains information regarding the movements and enslaved African-Americans in Nashville before Emancipation.The Nashville Slave and Free People of Color Database includes information (if given) such as:
• The name, age, and sex of the enslaved individual;
• The enslaved individual’s family relationships;
• The name of the slaveholder;
• Where and/or to whom the enslaved individual was transferred;
• Location information for the original record.
Upon request, Metro Archives can provide digital images of these documents. The Nashville Slave and Free People of Color Project is ongoing, and records continue to be added to the database.
In response to development pressures along Music Row, a new interpretive sign in front of PLA Media (1303 16th Ave South) calls attention to the history and current challenges facing the Music Row community. PLA Media President Pam Lewis has worked closely with Carolyn Brackett and the National Trust for Historic Preservation to research and design the fact-based, two-sided sign, which stemmed from the "Save Music Row" movement. The interpretive sign was created by Interpretive Graphics Signs & Systems and is the first of its kind on Music Row.
Country and Broadway Legend Gary Morris and PLA Media President Pam Lewis. Credit: PLA Media.
Lewis also serves as a founding member of the Music Row Preservation Trust, direct donations to which are being accepted through Historic Nashville, Inc.
Local firm Hastings Architecture, housed in the old Ben West Library, was recently profiled in a New York Times article. The firm opted for an adaptive reuse of the former library, turning the 1966 interior into vibrant new studios and offices using 24,000 of the building's total 42,000 square feet of space. While the renovation called for replacement of about two-thirds of the exterior marble panels, the New Formalist building retains 16-foot-tall windows, some of Nashville's earliest modern curtain walls, concrete columns, and interior lighting was designed to reflect the old book stack locations. Original terrazzo floor in the lobby was refurbished, as was the terazzo-clad monumental stair which connects the two main floors. Hastings purchased the building in 2017--it previously sat empty since 2001.
Ben West Library, 1969. Credit: Metro Nashville Archives.
|
