The Nashville I Remember

[weenie608]

This photo is amazing! Where can I request a copy? Thank you

[MLBrumby]

Is that the occasion of a new bridge? Victory Memorial bridge?  And the first time I saw it, I didn't notice that the other bridge in the background is actually the old Woodland Street bridge.  What was at the site of the VM Bridge before this version?  A predecessor? 

Edited March 9, 2021 by MLBrumby

[Auntie Yock]

4 hours ago, MLBrumby said:

Is that the occasion of a new bridge? Victory Memorial bridge?  And the first time I saw it, I didn't notice that the other bridge in the background is actually the old Woodland Street bridge.  What was at the site of the VM Bridge before this version?  A predecessor? 

Yes, the opening of the VM Bridge. There was no bridge at this location before its construction (note photo below after construction of the Metro Courthouse):

[markhollin]

46 photos of Andrew Jackson Hotel over the years at The Tennessean.  Includes more pics of its implosion in June of 1971.

https://www.tennessean.com/picture-gallery/news/local/2021/08/01/andrew-jackson-hotel-downtown-nashville-demolished-1971/8055124002/



 

[MLBrumby]

I’m a bit of a car buff…. And that last photo has some cars made several years after 1971. So did that hole stay there for a while a’la Lake Palmer? 

And what was that masonry building across deaderick? Then there’s a strange white building across union street. 

[MidTenn1]

2 hours ago, markhollin said:

 

 

The eight story white building on Union Street was where the military draft board and induction center was. Good riddance!!

[bnacincy]

My Dad and I watched the Andrew Jackson hotel implosion from atop the L & C tower....hard to believe it was 50 years ago!

[rolly]

12 hours ago, bnacincy said:

My Dad and I watched the Andrew Jackson hotel implosion from atop the L & C tower....hard to believe it was 50 years ago!

pIcS oR iT diDnT haPpeN  

[bnacincy]

11 hours ago, rolly said:

pIcS oR iT diDnT haPpeN  

No pics....just memories in an old (and fading!) brain.

[markhollin]

From The Tennessean archives of August, 1961:

[Baronakim]

 

On 3/9/2021 at 5:00 PM, MLBrumby said:

Is that the occasion of a new bridge? Victory Memorial bridge?  And the first time I saw it, I didn't notice that the other bridge in the background is actually the old Woodland Street bridge.  What was at the site of the VM Bridge before this version?  A predecessor? 

I see that there have been some questions lately on the downtown bridges and the demolition of the Andrew Jackson Hotel.  I created this topic to show some of the history of just those parts of Nashville history and as this is a very short topic (2 pages) , I think many of these questions could be much more fully answered by visiting the more extensive posts I made on the first page of this topic.  New folks to Nashville and the forum might find the historical posts interesting as I covered the history of Nashville bridges, hotels, shopping districts and a lot more in detail and may not realize they are there in older threads.  There are also fairly extensive posts on Nashville history in the thread "Old Nashville Treasures" I created a couple of years ago  (buried on page 8 of listed threads).   Also there is a big post on Centennial Park back in 1897 in the Parks and Greenways topic.  Most of the threads  on our forum deal with individual buildings both proposed and built and they go mostly inactive after the construction is complete or the proposal is dropped.  I am pointing out the location of more historical ones as many newcomers to Nashville I think would enjoy them rather than having me reposting them.  Here are some historical photos I have recently found on Nashville's older parks like Shelby Park and East Park over the river from downtown.   The first is a photo of East Park with the central Beaux Arts bandshell demolished in 1956 because the city did not want to repair the toilets under it for use by "negro" citizens at the time.  Reprehensible days in our history to tear down a magnificent stone elevated bandshell for racist views of the era.  In  the photo shows the school and the Tulip Street Church on Russell Street.   Shelby Park was the home of several odd structures and follies, a few of which remain.  The windmill however burned to the ground decades ago.  I wish it could be rebuilt, but Shelby Bottoms is a great addition to the park.  Newcomers should visit Shelby Park as it is very much still like it was 50 years or more ago.

 

Edited August 8, 2021 by Baronakim
More Shelby Park old photos

[markhollin]

This from Music City historian Brian Mansfield:

"Before Nashville's music business coalesced around 16th and 17th Aves. S. in the early to mid-1960s and was spread from West End to Hendersonville, there was a proposal to build a Music City U.S.A. complex to create a centralized location for the industry. This is what it would have looked like."  It would've been 300 feet long and 5 stories tall with a rooftop restaurant, and a set of large recording studios behind.


 

[smeagolsfree]

Any idea where it would have been built??????

[markhollin]

21 minutes ago, smeagolsfree said:

Any idea where it would have been built??????

More from Brian Mansfield:

" It was the idea of WSM’s GM at the time. He got an architect to do the rendering then they got Mayor Ben West behind it.  I don't think it got very far. They didn't even have a location picked when this rendering ran in the paper."

[smeagolsfree]

Thanks!

[Auntie Yock]

On 8/2/2021 at 8:02 AM, MLBrumby said:

I’m a bit of a car buff…. And that last photo has some cars made several years after 1971. So did that hole stay there for a while a’la Lake Palmer? 

And what was that masonry building across deaderick? Then there’s a strange white building across union street. 

I believe it was an empty hole for  a time, but nowhere near as long as Lake Palmer. The masonry building across the street from the demolished former Andrew Jackson Hotel where the Rachel Jackson buildings stands today was the Cotton States Building (built around 1925). The state acquired it as an office building for the Highway Department and built an ugly attachment on it. They got rid of it entirely to build the aforementioned Rachel Jackson Building around 1985.

The "strange white building" on Union is still there today, 501 Union, with some minor alterations to the facade and color.

[Nash_12South]

I came across this early rendering of what was Suntrust and is currently the Fifth Third Center at Church & Fifth. Oh, what might have been......

 

[MLBrumby]

Typical Nashville... cut down to size. 

[donNdonelson2]

2 hours ago, Nash_12South said:

I came across this early rendering of what was Suntrust and is currently the Fifth Third Center at Church & Fifth. Oh, what might have been......

 

I prefer the design of the building as it was built. I gave a theatre set designer a tour of downtown a few years ago and he immediately picked up on the design relationship between the 5/3 tower and the Downtown Presbyterian Church. The Egyptian Revival vibe makes that intersection really special.

[LA_TN]

That would have likely been built, as is, if they could have gotten the lot facing Church St. Due to a squabble over price, they decided to build what we got. After construction had started, the owner (of the Church St lot) finally conceded to an offer, and thus we now have the plaza on Church St. And the upcoming makeover should make that space much more engaging 

[Baronakim]

Here  are a bunch of Nashville photos from  the 90s...1993-1999, when so many of the iconic Nashville buildings were not yet or were being built.   Bridgestone Arena 1999, The Bat building 1993, the Red Grooms Carousel 199? , the Courthouse Square expansion 1995 and the 1993 Summer Lights up at the War Memorial Building.   Just look at all the surface parking south of Bridgestone I like the construction of the top of the Bat Building particularly. 

Edited August 25, 2021 by Baronakim

[MLBrumby]

Where is the Groom carousel now?  

[markhollin]

45 minutes ago, Baronakim said:

Bridgestone Arena 1999

The Nashville Arena (now Bridgestone Arena) opened in 1996.  This photo (which is in reverse) was probably from Spring of 1995. 

[donNdonelson2]

59 minutes ago, MLBrumby said:

Where is the Groom carousel now?  

In possession of TN State Museum & in storage. (And it’s a crying shame that it is not out where it can be seen and loved, in operation for all to enjoy!)

[BnaBreaker]

4 minutes ago, donNdonelson2 said:

In possession of TN State Museum & in storage. (And it’s a crying shame that it is not out where it can be seen and loved, in operation for all to enjoy!)

Agreed... I wonder why it isn't?  It's not like there aren't ample places to put it.