Creating Places: A Citizen Observer's Look at Nashville's Built Environment


Writer's Note: William Williams' interest in the manmade environment dates to 1970, at which point the then-young Williams started a collection of postcards of city skylines. The collection now numbers 1,000-plus cards. Among the writer's specific interests are exterior building design, city district planning, demographics, signage, mixed-use development, mass transit and green/sustainable construction and living. Williams began his Creating Places column with The City Paper in February 2005. The column in its original form was discontinued in September 2008 and reinvented via this blog in November 2008. Creating Places can be found on the home page of the website of The City Paper, at which Williams has worked in various capacities since October 2000.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Creating Places: Nashville from on high

Check this site for some tasteful photos of Nashville prior to 1950. Of particular note, click on the Tennessee State Capitol shot (Row 2, Photo No. 3), as it details the type grand built form we once had downtown. Even into the early 1960s, Nashville — both downtown and Midtown — offered numerous beautiful brick and stone buildings. But by the mid-1960s, the wrecking ball was wreaking havoc on the city's urban core. By 1980, I would estimate, up to two-thirds of Nashville's pre-World War II-built structures (not including single-family homes) had been demolished. Somehow, many other cities escaped the carnage — at least to the degree Nashville suffered. To this day, I envy mid-sized Southern cities like Birmingham, Louisville and Memphis for their number of vintage buildings still standing.
Posted by at

8 comments:

  1. AnonymousAugust 9, 2012 at 4:50 PM

    Totally agreed. Lived in both Memphis and Louisville and some of the vintage buildings in both of those cities are amazing. Most have been transformed to suit today's needs, but the beauty of them was kept in tact. I especially loved Midtown Memphis.

    ReplyDelete
  2. William WilliamsAugust 9, 2012 at 10:35 PM

    A-Mous,

    I was born in Memphis in 1962 after my folks met at what was then Memphis State College. I try to visit at least once every two years. Love the city. Lots of beautiful buildings.

    WW

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousAugust 10, 2012 at 2:01 PM

      I liked Memphis a lot more before it became so dangerous. It has some of the highest crime in the country. Even Midtown has serious problems with car and house break-ins today . There are a host of other social problems in Memphis too, like the highest infant mortality rate in the country. horrible public schools and a downtown that has a lot of blighted buildings like the old Chisca hotel, the Sterrick Building, Sears Crosstown, and let's not forget the Pyramid arena which is to become a Bass Pro Shop! Beale Street is tacky at best and definitely not safe after 10pm and on weekend nights. Memphis is also having a lot of problems with its airport, with the highest air fares in the country and huge cuts by Delta Air Lines. Nashville's airport now handles more annual passengers than does Memphis. I still like Memphis, but they have a huge number of problems.

      Delete
  3. William WilliamsAugust 10, 2012 at 8:11 PM

    Memphis does, indeed, have problems.But I sometimes wonder if those problems are overblown. Still, I'm glad you can speak favorably of the Bluff City, as I've come across many folks who can bring themselves to say nothing positive about it. I pity them.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousAugust 12, 2012 at 1:15 AM

    My very favorite things about Memphis are the greenway along the bluff from downtown to the beautiful South Bluffs neighborhood and the park below the bluff walkway...nice, wide-open playland along the river with some interesting historic markers and sculpture installations. I won't dwell on the negative (most cities have plenty to pick at and complain about, but I always try to look for the things to appreciate in every place I visit)

    donNdonelson

    ReplyDelete
  5. William WilliamsAugust 12, 2012 at 10:56 PM

    Don,

    A quality "favorite thing." I like the parkways (North, East and South) and the fact that (and I realize most folks would not relate to this) most mailboxes are at the entrances of the homes and not at street curbs. Makes for a much more attractive manmade landscape.

    WW

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousAugust 13, 2012 at 1:53 PM

    I happen to think that the campus of Rhodes College on North Parkway is one of the most beautiful college settings in the country. The stonework and gothic design are beautiful. Unfortunately, the entire campus is surrounded by a high fence because of the crime in Memphis. It's right across from the Zoo in midtown.

    ReplyDelete
  7. PillowTalk4August 15, 2012 at 10:59 AM

    I agree that Nashville did itself a disservice by eliminating so many of the buildings throughout the city. Nashville sometimes looks like a city that got it's start in the 60's and 70's. It's interesting to see how the north side of the capitol looked before the James Robertson Parkway was paved through. It's kind of ashamed that the city chose to disrupt the north-south flow of streets to put in the parkway. Granted today the capitol setting is quite beautiful, but I can only imagine how it looked with homes sitting below it. Imagine how much those homes would cost today.

    BTW, the lone photo without a title is the original administration building at Tennessee State University. The TSU campus is another example of how old buildings were demolished making the campus feel more like it got it's start in the 50's and 60's as opposed to 1912. They had to fight to keep the original president's home which is small but stately in appearance.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)