We are proud to share a cool new piece from the May issue of Nfocus Magazine which shines a well-deserved spotlight on MHC/MHZC Executive Director Tim Walker! Check out the article to learn about Tim's professional background, favorite projects, biggest influence, best advice, and some of the most important Nashville historic preservation projects that he's been a part of.

Image: Portrait of Tim Walker, 2022, credit: Daniel Meigs/Nfocus Magazine.

May was national Historic Preservation Month, but it is important to make preservation a priority year-round! Check out this short video that details why historic architecture is essential to the character of a community.

In May, Meharry Medical College hosted a wonderful dedication ceremony for the new Dr. Josie Wells historical marker, which stands in front of the former George W. Hubbard Hospital. Many thanks to Sandra Parham, library executive director at Meharry Medical College, for her work bringing this marker to fruition!

At the regular commission meeting in May, the MHC approved two new historical markers for Dudley Field and Ernest "Rip" Patton (1940-2021)/Modern Civil Rights Movement in Nashville (1957-1964), with different text on each side. The texts for these markers are as follows:

DUDLEY FIELD/ VANDERBILT STADIUM

Dudley Field opened on Oct. 14, 1922. Named for Dr. William Dudley, it was the first stadium in the South built for football. The first night game took place on Sept. 25, 1954, after lights were installed for the Billy Graham Crusade. Events here included the first NFL exhibition game in the South, in 1944, and a speech by President John F. Kennedy in 1963. After a major renovation, it re-opened as Vanderbilt Stadium on Sept. 12, 1981. It was also home to the Tennessee Oilers in 1998.

ERNEST RIP PATTON (1940-2021)

Ernest Rip Patton was born in Nashville and graduated from Pearl Senior High School in 1958. At Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial University (now Tennessee State University), he participated in the Nashville lunch counter sit-ins. In 1961, he was one of 14 students expelled by the state after being arrested in Jackson, Miss., as part of the Freedom Rides. Those students received honorary doctoral degrees in 2008. Patton spoke, and often sang, across the country about his activism.

MODERN CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS IN NASHVILLE (1957-1964)

Countless men and women fought for equal rights for African Americans in Nashville during the Jim Crow era, beginning with the 1957 desegregation of public schools. Test sit-ins at downtown eateries began in 1959, and efforts to desegregate public facilities lasted until the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Members of the Nashville Student Movement and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee departed Nashville as Freedom Riders in 1961 and advocated for equal voting rights through 1965.

Image: Dr. Ernest Rip Patton, credit Lewis and Wright.

In late April, MHC welcomed our newest staff member, Dustin Summers, who serves as our Administrative Services Officer.

Dustin hails from a Scottish/Nordic family from the Rust Belt area that has a lengthy background in both military service and union organizations. Both of his parents were civil servants who worked for the State of Tennessee and Metropolitan Government. Dustin's family moved to the Nashville area from West Virginia 1986, and he considers himself practically a native Nashvillian, having grown up all around the city for most of his life. He graduated from McGavock High School in 2001, and served in the United States Air Force’s (USAF) Space Command from 2001-2005, where he worked on the Minuteman III ICBM weapon systems at Malmstrom, AFB in Great Falls, Montana. During his time with the USAF, Dustin served one tour in Afghanistan at Bagram Airfield (2004) with the Expeditionary Forces performing Counterinsurgency Operations for base security. He began working at the Metro Nashville Police Department in 2008, where he earned several promotions and served in various roles in their Fiscal and Human Resources divisions, and later in their Behavioral Health Sciences Division as an Executive Assistant and Office Manager. Welcome aboard, Dustin!

Image: Portrait of Dustin Summers, submitted photo.

On June 16th, the Bordeaux Branch Library will host "Genealogy 101: U.S. Federal Census Collection." This session will teach attendees how to use FamilySearch and HeritageQuest to search U.S. Census Records. For more information, contact the Bordeaux branch at (615) 862-5856.

The Main Branch Library has on display an exhibit entitled, "The Junior League of Nashville: Making a Difference for 100 Years." The exhibit includes historical memorabilia and photos that showcase the power of voluntarism and the women who helped incubate and accelerate countless community programs, including many nonprofit organizations. "The Junior League of Nashville" is on display until August 31st.

Lauren Bufferd has been named the Parthenon's new director. Lauren brings over thirty five years of experience to her new role. She has worked at the Parthenon since 2005. Prior to working for the Parks Department, she was the VP for Library and Collections at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville and a Senior Archivist at the Chicago Public Library. Originally from the Boston area. Lauren said she is proud to work for the city of Nashville and is committed to making the Parthenon a place where everyone can engage with the arts. Congratulations, Lauren!

Musicians Corner, Nashville’s free concert series presented by Centennial Park Conservancy, returns this summer with a full season of live music in Centennial Park. The multi-genre series will showcase a variety of performers every Friday in June from 5:00-9:00 p.m. and from 12:00-6:00 p.m. on Saturdays.

Image: Crowd at Musicians Corner event, credit: Musicians Corner Nashville.

We are excited to share that major rehabilitation efforts currently underway at Sunnyside Mansion, home to the MHC/MHZC offices, will update the mansion and log-core rear building, connecting the two with a new glass hyphen administrative space. The office entrance will be re-oriented to the north elevation for easy, ADA-compliant access from a new parking lot and driveway linked to Kirkwood Ave. Our existing circular drive will become a pedestrian-only path. Goals for other site improvements include repairs to the historic stone walls and outbuildings. Once priority items are completed, we also plan to reconstruct missing sections of the former carriage house, which will function as a public café.

Sunnyside is two-story, Greek Revival-style structure, built c. 1852 for Mary Childress Benton, and has a two-story pedimented front porch with four square recessed-panel columns. Egg-and-dart trim, dentil moldings, pilasters, and Italianate-style paired brackets are among the other historic architectural details. The widow of Jesse Benton (first cousin to President James K. Polk’s wife, Sarah), Mary lived in a c. 1800 cedar log cabin now contained within the white, two-story building behind the mansion. Her grand-niece, Mary Douglas Sevier, bequeathed the name “Sunnyside” due to its bright hillside location. The house served as a Union hospital during the 1864 Battle of Nashville, and minie ball scars remain visible on the exterior. “Lee Monte” served as a postbellum moniker for the house, but prominent dentist Dr. L.G. Noel re-named it “Idlewild” upon his 1882 purchase. Colonel Granville Sevier later acquired the property, his mother’s childhood home, and restored the Sunnyside name. Upon his 1945 death, Sevier’s descendants sold the property to the City of Nashville for use as a public park. Other buildings on the property include a c. 1930 stone office, log smokehouse, a 1960s frame storage building, and the eastern section of what was once a four-bay carriage house.

Images:  Sunnyside Mansion c. 1929, courtesy Ian Byington (above). View of rear sections at Sunnyside in 2019, credit MHC (below).

MHC staff have been in contact with the church leadership and contractors working on reconstruction work at Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church, located at 908 Monroe Street. The historic house of worship, which also sustained prior reconstruction work, incurred significant damage from a tornado two years ago. BELFOR Property Restoration recently completed a $1.3M+ job that includes reconstruction of the bell tower, a new ADA-compliant ramp, and refabrication of some of the church's historic stained-glass windows.

Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church is a unique architectural gem, listed both individually in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP 10/31/1979) and as a contributing building within the Buena Vista National Register Historic District (NRHP 4/24/1980). Prominent Swiss architect Henry Gibel designed the eclectic-style, Akron-plan church at a time when this was a German immigrant area of the city. The church now serves a primarily African American congregation as a beloved community anchor in an area that is threatened by rapid gentrification and experiencing loss of historic fabric.

The church suffered extensive damage from the March 3, 2020 tornado that ripped through Nashville. Thankfully, in November that year, the congregation was able to bring on BELFOR Property Restoration to assist with both exterior and interior repairs. In 2021, Historic Nashville, Inc. donated $5,000 to aid with this restoration work. BELFOR handled the cleanup, rebuilt exterior walls using brick to match the existing, rebuilt the tower, sourced metal to match the existing gutters, installed a new roof, and added an ADA-compliant ramp. Hendricks Stained Glass replicated some of the destroyed stained glass windows. Copper Creek Electric completed all of the wiring and lighting, ARK Millwork repaired interior woodwork and rebuilt the damaged windows, and Woods Church Interiors rebuilt the pews in the sanctuary. The total restoration cost was just over $1.3 million, and well worth it to save this North Nashville treasure!

Images: Hopewell Baptist Church with tornado damage, May 2020, credit MHC (above). Post-restoration views of Hopewell's south and west elevations, May 2022, credit MHC (below).

It is with great sadness that we share the recent passing of Irene Jackson Wills (1938-2022), Nashville preservationist and beloved wife of author and historian William Ridley Wills II. A lifelong Nashvillian, Irene attended Robertson Academy, a school designed by her father, Granbery Jackson. She also held strong connections to her alma mater, Harpeth Hall, where she excelled as an honor student with many close friendships. Irene later attended Connecticut College for Women, where she chose to study abroad for one year in Paris at the Sorbonne. It was there that she developed a deep love for architectural preservation, among other aesthetic propensities like gardening, painting, and flower arrangement. After a distant relative convinced her to move back to Nashville, Irene met her future husband at a pre-game Vanderbilt football luncheon. She worked with the Methodist Publishing House and later taught French at Harpeth Hall. In 1962, she married Ridley, with whom she had four sons--Ridley III, Jesse, Morgan and Tom. After tragically losing Jesse to a heart defect in 1968, Irene fought in his honor for improved pediatric specialty care at Nashville's hospitals. In this role, she co-founded the Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt and championed a move for the Junior League Home for Crippled Children to Vanderbilt Hospital.

In the early 1980s, Irene devoted herself to working to save Belle Meade Farm, where she served as a board member and president. Under her leadership, which was bolstered by Ridley's shared passion for the site's preservation, the carriage house and mansion were restored and a rotating board established. She joined and became president of the Garden Club of America's Nashville Chapter, where she received the Zone Preservation Award in 2004. Irene also served as a Swan Ball Chairman at Cheekwood, another historic site she supported. In 2010, she and Ridley made their home at one of Williamson County's most significant historic properties, Meeting of the Waters (c. 1801-1810), where she advised on its restoration. For over 50 years, Irene was a devoted supporter of the Downtown Presbyterian Church, where she and Ridley helped raise over $1 million in funds towards its preservation. She also served as a member of the Colonial Dames of America and the Centennial Club, and as a founding member of the de Tocqueville Society of the United Way of Metropolitan Nashville. MHC awarded Irene and Ridley with an Achievement Award at the 1999 Preservation Awards, in recognition of their decades of devoted service to historic preservation in Nashville.

According to the Juneteenth World Wide Celebration website, Juneteenth (a portmanteau of "June" and "nineteenth") also known as Emancipation Day is the "oldest nationally-celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States." In April 2022, Nashville Mayor John Cooper made this an official Metro holiday, following in the federal government's decision to do so in 2021. Several groups and organizations in Nashville will share in public celebrations of this holiday through the following events this month.

June 11th: Juneteenth Celebration, Tennessee State Museum, 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. This day-long festival kicks off with United States Colored Troops re-enactors, followed by music, dance, poetry, art, crafts and historic games for the whole family. Author Leigh Ann Gardner will read from her book To Care for the Sick and Bury the Dead: African American Lodges and Cemeteries in Tennessee, followed by discussion with journalist, author, and African American Historical and Genealogical Society Nashville Program Chair, Natalie Bell. A screening and discussion about the Fort Negley Descendants Project will also take place.

June 17th: State of Black Music Summit, National Museum of African American Music, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. The Black Music Summit event will feature dynamic discourse and panels exploring the intersection of Black music and culture, with panel sessions that will include industry leaders, top artists, and media personalities.

June 18th: Black on Buchanan, Nashville Black Market (NBM), 12:00-9:00 p.m. on Buchanan Street. Not only can you catch the NBM at the Nashville Farmers’ Market on the first Friday of every month, but it also moves around town and pops up at different festivals, like the upcoming Black on Buchanan Juneteenth Celebration. The NBM will also be at the Fort Negley Juneteenth celebration the next day.

June 19th: Juneteenth615, Fort Negley Park, 6:00-10:30 p.m. Nashville’s official event marking the new national (and Metro) holiday celebrating the emancipation of enslaved people. The event will feature food trucks, re-enactors from the 13th Regiment of the United States Colored Troops Living History Association, activities and fireworks.

You can support the Metro Historical Commission Foundation through your everyday purchases on Amazon! Shop using AmazonSmile and a portion of each purchase will go towards preservation projects in Nashville and Davidson County.

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Have a preservation-related event that you want us to include? Send a message to Caroline.Eller@Nashville.gov.