Nashville is a beautiful city with a tradition of culture and history that dates back to the 18th century. However, the full extent of this history is not reflected in its buildings. Over the years many of Nashville's historic buildings have been torn down in a seemingly random way which doesn't take into account their historic or architectural worth. When downtown, one gets a sense that many of the buildings once had a strong civic purpose but are now awaiting demolition. It is almost impossible to know which of the various remarkable edifices that have thus far escaped destruction will soon receive that fate.
The most important factor deciding the answer to this question is functionality. Like any other city of significant age, as Nashville's needs changed the buildings changed. In order for these needs to be met, the old buildings either had to be torn down or renovated to be useful once again. In the years when Nashville was growing the most rapidly, it needed strong business and commerce. This was never a problem for Nashville, however. Industrially it had its factories and businesses, and as a residential center it had it's services to the public. With the growth of the America's infrastructure and her love for the automobile, the population of the suburbs grew while that of the cities began to shrink. Between 1900 and the present, the movement of business, commerce and residence out of Nashville has left many of the buildings empty. Obviously, these buildings are sitting vacant because they don't currently serve a purpose to the city. Whatever buildings can be renovated to become a functional part of the city again will stand for at least a few more years. However, the ones that cannot will surely be lost like so many others before them.
There is a definite trend for almost all of Nashville's historic edifices. The scenario starts with the building's construction, often accompanied by fanfare of every type, as was the case when Rutherford B. Hayes personally laid the cornerstone for the Custom House. The trend continues with the building serving the public or its company very well for several decades. Then with the increase in crime in the city, the decrease in people, and the prospects of a new building in a nicer area, the business vacates the old building leaving it defenseless against depreciation, vandalism, and fire. If the building has enough architectural or historical significance, then the public appeals to anyone that can help to save the building. Sadly, by this time the building often has become so decrepit that renovation would cost much more than it would have had it never been vacant. This is the biggest deterrent to government and private business to save a building, since it is often cheaper and more useful to have a new building in the suburbs. One can easily understand the dilemma of these institutions. They cannot spend money to occupy a less than functional building and yet pay an excessive price. It is for this reason that unless a building can be economically renovated and used, it will be left to fall to ruin.
An excellent example of the tendency of non-functional buildings to be torn down is Union Station. The station was dedicated on October 9, 1900 as Nashville's passenger terminal on the Louisville and Nashville (L&N) Railroad (Brambaugh 4). At this time train travel was at its peak and Nashville was very proud of the new station. Along with the passenger terminal, a baggage building was built to the side and the train shed to the back. Oddly enough, the construction of the station itself required the demolition 200 various buildings that were on the site (Brambaugh 5). The station was apparently designed after the Allegheny County Courthouse in Pennsylvania (Brambaugh 4). The tower of the main terminal had once been 339 feet tall but had been reduced to 219 feet when the bronze statue of Mercury from the Tennessee Centennial Exposition fell from the tower to the tracks during a storm in 1952 (Brambaugh 5). In the last years of the station's operation, the baggage building was used as Amtrak ticket offices. The main terminal saw few passengers around the 1970's. Eventually, the station was being used only for its freight facilities. The official closing of the station was October 1979 when the terminal was boarded up. Later it was sold to the General Services Administration of the Federal Government (GSA) by L&N for the bargain price of one dollar. The station was to be used for government offices and $7,152,000 was allocated to GSA by congress for this purpose (Johnson A1). GSA persistently refused appeals by concerned Nashville citizens to renovate the station before it fell apart. GSA continued to procrastinate, doing studies about the building's heating costs and to what degree the building could be renovated into useful office space. This sort of procrastination is common. It is often the case that a building depreciates most while sitting vacant awaiting a decision of what is to be done with it. Union Station depreciated most in the few years that it was empty and not the several decades that it was in use. Strangely, one of the most damaging things to occur to the station while it was vacant was bird occupation. The building was unsafe for humans due to a mold spores in the air that feast on bird guano. The guano, was five inches deep in some places on the main floor of the station (Johnson A1). The problem GSA had with the renovation was that they planned on putting floors over the three story open center of Union Station which was most if it's inner beauty. During their indecision, GSA spent much of the money for Union Station's renovation on other expenses. The GSA finally decided that the building was not worth the cost and put it up for private development (Johnson A2). After one failed attempt, the station became a successful hotel.
Union Station's fate came down to either renovation or destruction when GSA couldn't decide if it was economical to renovate and heat the building so that they could use the space in the open foyer for offices. Private business couldn't decide if it was worth the effort to remodel the station either. L&N apparently didn't think that it was worth it to restore the station or else they wouldn't have sold it for one dollar. The only reason the station is standing today is because the hotel it was renovated into is a haven for tourists. The tourists love the architecture of the station and Nashville's historic buildings. The station was not functional in most ways. However, in the end its function became to be aesthetically pleasing and historically intriguing to the guests. Union Station is only standing because it was able to receive a new function.
underneath Union Station's train shed
The Custom House is another example of this trend in functionality. Perhaps the most beautiful historic building in Nashville, it was dedicated in 1877. The buildings original functions were as a Custom House, Post Office and Federal Courthouse until the Current Post Office and Federal Courthouse moved next door in 1952 and 1972, respectively (Beasley Federal A13). From this point on, the building contained merely military recruiting offices. The federal government declared the building "excess government property" when the recruiting offices moved out yet also calling it "structurally sound." They claimed that the building cost $45,000 per year to heat and that it wasn't economical for them to continue using it (Vandeberg 21). Notices were sent out to federal agencies in the southeast giving them first option to buy the structure after the State of Tennessee. However, neither Tennessee nor anyone else wanted the Custom House, claiming that renovation and upkeep were too expensive. Nashville's Mayor Fulton eventually became the biggest advocate for the renovation of the Custom House but he too only wanted the building if it wouldn't become a "costly burden" to the city (Crowe and Lewis A2). The property could be obtained by local government from GSA free of charge if the building was used for certain purposes namely recreation, education, health or historical preservation. The city planned to use the building for Metro offices and to lease the others to non-profit organizations. The cost of renovation was estimated at $4 million. Metro needed financial help before it could take on the project (Neuhauser 21).
Like Union Station, the most damage occurred not over decades of use but over the few years that it was vacant. As May Dean of Nashville's Historical Commission said, "At this time [1976] we must concentrate on stopping the deterioration of the building...The Customs House will soon be in the same shape as Union Station if steps are not taken as soon as possible" ( Hall 1). Finally renovation was begun and funded when GSA gave Nashville the building under its Historic Monument Program because the Custom House is on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1979 an organization called the Customs House Associates purchased a fifty year lease on the building and completely renovated it. On March 29, 1986, the lease was put on the market for $6,973,000 or $200,000 cash and assumption of the rest of the renovation debt (Hawkins 5). Currently the Custom House holds Nashville's Federal Offices, such as the Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Environmental Protection Agency. Thus, the Custom House too was saved at the last minute because once again a useful purpose was given to it.
Cummins station was the other part of Union Station. Hidden behind the train shed along the tracks, it served as a warehouse for goods to be shipped on the railroad. The five story, 480,000 square foot building was home to fourteen food brokerage houses but stands largely unoccupied today. When it was constructed it was promoted as the largest concrete terminal building in the world and the only building in Nashville to be "rat proof" (Crispen B1). The storehouse once was home to Cheek-Neal Coffee otherwise know as Maxwell House (Beasley All-Purpose A9). In 1980 the building was owned by Washington Manufacturing Co. which stored its furniture and clothes there. Washington relocated in 1984 and the building went on sale (Crispen B1). For a while private developers fancied that they could turn the 100 year old station into a mall, hotel, and restaurant complex and build a large parking garage nearby. Howbeit, this never happened and the station is today largely unoccupied. Of the remaining occupants are a wholesale carpet seller and a strip joint. Needless to say, if Cummins Station was ever truly rat proof, it is no longer today. This structure is an example of many of the buildings that are simply not usable for any real purpose. The building has little or no architectural or historical significance. The only reason it hasn't been raised is because the property isn't useful and the cost of raising such a large structure would be enormous.
An excellent example of a building that had served the public well in the past but is now laying vacant is the Bennie-Dillon Building on Church Street and Eighth Avenue. Like the current Church Street Centre, The Bennie-Dillon Building and the adjacent "Doctor Building" were once a center of retail shops and public services. Plans were made in 1981 to renovate the old building to once again be used as a professional building and retail stores. Yet at some time after its renovation the building once again fell into disrepair. The insides of the building are now gutted either for renovation or demolition. While metro has been deciding what to do with the Bennie- Dillon it has become a haven for the homeless and a home for KKK sympathizers. On the walls inside the building there are various anti-black writings and graffiti. The truly terrifying photo below was taken in a room at the west side of the building on the second floor. It depicts a rotting corpse ghoul wearing a horned Nazi helmet, replete with swaztika. Barely visible at the right is a scene of the lynching of a black man. A procession of grim-reaper-looking hooded figures carry a KKK banner and an old man points to the tree where the black man has been lynched. Scrawled across the top are the words, "ALL NIGGERS WILL DIE!" Seeing these images makes a person wish for their removal by renovation of the buildings.
The trend of functionality is one that characterizes all buildings in Nashville or anywhere. We never notice it because all nonfunctional buildings have been destroyed or are avoided because there is no reason to approach them. Nashville's historic and stylistic buildings are an integral part of the city's completeness. For what makes any one city more special than another is often its history and structures. It often seems all too easy for a business to leave the downtown area because it is economically better for them but not the city. However, if this is done too often, all that is eventually left is a weak, crumbling shell of a city. Businesses and residents cannot continue to simply leave troubled or unprofitable areas. Eventually, there will be no new undeveloped areas for businesses to retreat to. It is the responsibility of government and private business to help the city that has served them so well. If this trend of vacating the city when it needs to be occupied most continues then it will soon become almost impossible to reverse.