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Nashville Bits and Pieces


smeagolsfree

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The trip down Broadway is shocking in regards to how far it has come! It was desolate and fairly run down. Imagine what people will think of it in another five years and so much more of Broadway is built out, 

Demonbreun Hill was......interesting......I didn’t realize how kitchsy it was previously. It was a 1990s Music Valley Drive.

Edited by Hey_Hey
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3 hours ago, Hey_Hey said:

The trip down Broadway is shocking in regards to how far it has come! It was desolate and fairly run down. Imagine what people will think of it in another five years and so much more of Broadway is built out, 

Demonbreun Hill was......interesting......I didn’t realize how kitchsy it was previously. It was a 1990s Music Valley Drive.

It's a different kind of kitschy these days.... 

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43 minutes ago, MLBrumby said:

Saw a Toyota commercial about 1-2 years ago that was for their national campaign. Camry was driving through downtown. First noticed that strange 2-tone brick building at the top of 8th and Union Street. Car was going around that curved ramp. May be available on YT.

There was a local ad firm that had the Toyota account. They used to film the annual Toyotathon commercials in the old Melrose theater on Franklin Road. Maybe they still have the account.

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On 2/18/2018 at 5:59 PM, TNinVB said:

Here’s a video I found on YouTube. Some people driving around Nashville and Brentwood in 1994.  It blows my mind how much everything has changed.   Lower Broadway was so dead. No arena, no stadium, no SoBro basically. 

I'm curious: What would have attracted tourists downtown in 1994? On the video, I saw the Hard Rock Cafe, and the Ryman. But other than that, was there anything tourist-centric on Lower Broadway in the early '90s?

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12 minutes ago, Jamie Hall said:

I'm curious: What would have attracted tourists downtown in 1994? On the video, I saw the Hard Rock Cafe, and the Ryman. But other than that, was there anything tourist-centric on Lower Broadway in the early '90s?

It was just starting to turn with the explosion of country music in the 90s...so people were beginning to spend time at the honky tonks down there...and more honky tonks were opening up.

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32 minutes ago, Jamie Hall said:

I'm curious: What would have attracted tourists downtown in 1994? On the video, I saw the Hard Rock Cafe, and the Ryman. But other than that, was there anything tourist-centric on Lower Broadway in the early '90s?

2nd avenue was much more of the draw when I first moved here.  

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58 minutes ago, Jamie Hall said:

I'm curious: What would have attracted tourists downtown in 1994? On the video, I saw the Hard Rock Cafe, and the Ryman. But other than that, was there anything tourist-centric on Lower Broadway in the early '90s?

The video also showed Wildhorse Saloon.  As japan said, 2nd Avenue was more happening than Broadway in the 90s.  While places like Tootsie's and Ernest Tubb's were still on Broadway, there were also adult bookstores and porn shops on Broadway back then (one was visible in the video).  Broadway was definitely not family friendly in those days although it was starting to change.

Edited by jmtunafish
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7 hours ago, jmtunafish said:

The video also showed Wildhorse Saloon.  As japan said, 2nd Avenue was more happening than Broadway in the 90s.  While places like Tootsie's and Ernest Tubb's were still on Broadway, there were also adult bookstores and porn shops on Broadway back then (one was visible in the video).  Broadway was definitely not family friendly in those days although it was starting to change.

Exactly. I remember, as a kid, on occasion we would go to a restaurant downtown if we were there for another reason (something at Municipal Auditorium or a show at TPAC), but we would never go down to Broadway. It was mainly just a forum for porn shops and seedy dives.

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Remember the Alamo! The clothing store owned by notorious cult leader Tony Alamo was in the building at the NE corner of 4th & Broad. The store featured lots of garish clothing, especially heavily rhinestoned denim jackets and was staffed by “volunteers” from his church/cult. It drew crowds in the daytime hours for a number of years until his empire came crashing down.

http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-tony-alamo-20170503-story.html

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31 minutes ago, donNdonelson2 said:

Remember the Alamo! The clothing store owned by notorious cult leader Tony Alamo was in the building at the NE corner of 4th & Broad. The store featured lots of garish clothing, especially heavily rhinestoned denim jackets and was staffed by “volunteers” from his church/cult. It drew crowds in the daytime hours for a number of years until his empire came crashing down.

http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-tony-alamo-20170503-story.html

I remember that fool....didnt he keep his wife on ice at his house after she passed away?  If you went to a show downtown you would come back to your car with their religious literature  on it...this guy was quite the character.

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For a few years, in the 85 to 89 range, there was a great bookstore on Second Avenue N.  and Third Avenue S. just off of Broad was home to several fabric, rug, and home design/fixtures merchants for several decades. Up until the 1980s there were numerous furniture stores downtown, some on Broadway.

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2 hours ago, jmtunafish said:

I do miss the old Nashville Banner.  While it always played second fiddle to the Tennessean, I felt it was the more serious paper and did a better job at investigative journalism.  And being the afternoon paper, there were many times when it scooped the Tennessean with breaking news.  It was a sad day when Nashville was reduced to a one-newspaper town.  Hard to believe that was 20 years ago today.

https://www.tennessean.com/story/life/shopping/ms-cheap/2018/02/20/20-years-ago-today-nashville-banner-ceased-publication/319919002/

Nashville Banner front page on February 20, 1998. The

I miss Joe Biddle.

9 hours ago, shanky said:

Downtown was more of a local scene back in the 90s...the other comments are right about it being the main draw....there was laurels and the Irish place next to it and ace of clubs not far away.  In some ways the street has gone downhill since then.

Seanachie!

Edited by tragenvol
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My favorite lunch spot in the late 80's early 90's was Windows on the Cumberland on 2nd Avenue.     Sort of a bohemian vegetarian restaurant that had live music on weekends.     If you planned ahead, you could secure a lunch table by the big windows overlooking the river on days when Ingram was launching a new barge down the ramp where the East Bank greenway river access is now.   

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