Historic Ink
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Historic Ink The Newsletter of Historic Nashville, Inc. Spring/Summer 2010, Vol. 33, No. 1 GREAT NASHVILLE FLOOD! work double time in order to keep Nashville with drinking water through the crisis. The overall devastation and extraordinary impacts of the Great Nashville Flood of 2010 are public More comprehensive coverage will be included in the knowledge so we will not repeat them here. However, next newsletter. For now, updates will be we do want to provide a summary of the impact of the continuously posted on our Facebook page and via flood to Nashville’s historic places. Our hearts go out our website and email. If you know of historic places to all the flood survivors and victims, particularly in Nashville that were impacted by flood damage that those who lost loved ones. We would like to thank the we have overlooked, please let us know. heroes who saved landmarks and lives as well as the army of volunteers who have made us proud. Remarkably, flood damage to historic places was minimal and less destructive than expected. A historic truss bridge spanning the South Harpeth River in west Nashville’s Linton community was washed out; the 1889 bridge had been decommissioned years ago. While damage assessments are ongoing, the following historic places were impacted by the flood. nd • 2 Avenue Historic District • Lower Broadway Historic District • Tanglewood Historic District, Madison • Belle Meade Mansion Downtown Nashville when the Cumberland River crested some 12-feet above flood stage. Courtesy the Tennessean. • Shelby Bottoms Park • Percy Warner Park • Riverfront Park Inside this Issue • Carnegie Library North Branch • Old Hickory Library From the Vice-President 2 • Eversong at Stone Hall, Hermitage From the Editor 3 2009 Nashville Nine Update 4 The historic riverside Omohundro Water Treatment Behind-the-Scenes Tours 5-6 Plant was unharmed due to the heroic efforts of Habitat’s Home of Healing 7 Sheriff Daron Hall and 400 county inmates, who New Board Members 8 bagged 500 tons of sand and stacked for 36 hours Membership 9 straight. Flood waters came within eight inches of “What to do about those old windows” 11 breaching, but the temporary levees held. Because the About HNI 12 modern water treatment plant in Donelson was flooded and shut down, Omohundro was forced to FROM THE VICE-PRESIDENT exciting opportunities coming up later this year with tours scheduled of the Ryman Auditorium and the L&C Tower. It certainly is a great time for historic preservation in Nashville. I wanted to begin by giving you a few Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and highlights from the recent MHC Preservation Awards held survivors of the recent flooding in Nashville. Some of at the Nashville Public Library on May 11. HNI hosted a those victims include historic places in some of the oldest reception honoring the nominees and winners at the areas of our city. HNI will be assisting in any way that we Hermitage Hotel following the awards. It was a wonderful can with damage assessments. Our organization holds evening to see some of the shining examples from Preservation Easements on many properties in Nashville, Nashville’s preservation community. primarily in downtown, and we will be assisting those owners as needed. We are very sensitive to efforts to Mayor Karl Dean made a brief appearance and was met by highlight the condition of historic properties with our a standing ovation for his heroic efforts during the recent annual Nashville Nine list of endangered properties, and flood in Nashville. He was especially humbled and we want to be proactive especially in the face of this great honored to be able to present an award to the Omohundro natural disaster. Water Treatment Plant, which recently saw some renovations, but more importantly has been the city’s saving grace as our only water treatment option once the K.R. Harrington facility was knocked out of commission by the flooding of the Cumberland River. The Old Bordeaux Bridge located south of Nashville off SR-100 was washed away by the flood. Courtesy TDOT. And, speaking of the Nashville Nine list, it’s almost that time of year again. The 2010 Nashville Nine list will be released in September, just a few months from now. With the recent flood damage and newspaper articles focusing on the fate of historic buildings such as the former Tennessee Department of Highways Headquarters along Charlotte Avenue, we are reminded just how important it is to be vigilant year-round in the effort to save our historic places. The veranda at the Hermitage Hotel was the setting for the The 2009 Nashville Nine have seen some great successes HNI reception following the MHC award ceremony. with the Arcade Post Office being spared from closure and the recent listing of the Hall-Harding-McCampbell House We were also pleased to see a couple of our historic tour in Donelson to the National Register of Historic Places. properties receive recognition for their efforts including With your help, we can identity newly endangered the Fall School (Church of Scientology) and the American properties and create success stories that will strengthen Trust Building (Hotel Indigo). HNI board member Patrick Nashville for years to come. Gilbert was the project architect for both renovations. Hopefully you were able to tour these properties with us Alan F. Hayes, AIA earlier this year. Our monthly tours are free to all HNI East Nashville members which we think is a great benefit. We have some Historic Ink: Spring 2010 2 HNI OFFICERS PRESIDENT David Price PAST PRESIDENT Robert “Bob” Tuke VICE PRESIDENT Alan Hayes SECRETARY Gary Gaston TREASURER Jared King In 1926, floodwaters from the Cumberland River crested 4-feet higher than in 2010, BOARD MEMBERS causing floodwaters to reach much further into the downtown area. Courtesy the Tennessean. Holly Barnett Tony Giarratana FROM THE EDITOR Robbie D. Jones The recent flood reminded us all of the impact of modern technological Brandon Mauldin advances in communications. Most of us had no idea of the magnitude of Scarlett C. Miles the natural disaster until we viewed surreal images on the TV and Internet, Mike Murphy images captured by TDOT traffic cameras on I-24, store security cameras, Laura Rost and cell phone cameras. As the outside world learned of the flood, our Joshua Smith phones lit up with calls, text messages, and Facebook updates from around Vivian Wilhoite, ex-officio the country. Were we OK? Were our homes underwater? We turned to the NEWSLETTER EDITOR Internet, TV, and radio to gather the latest information as traditional hard Robbie D. Jones copy newspapers could barely keep up. It was almost too much. [email protected] Here at HNI, we did our best to keep you informed of storm and flood related damage to Nashville’s historic places. Our best way of MEMBERSHIP COORDINATOR communicating was through Facebook, which we updated daily, sometimes Scarlett C. Miles several times a day. Our Facebook page is only a few months old, but has [email protected] some 250 fans from around the country (even a few in the U.K.). We also communicate to our members via email. If you would like to be added to the PRESERVATION EASEMENTS email list, contact Scarlett Miles. If you have experience in website design Bob Tuke, Committee Chair and hosting and would like to volunteer please contact David Price. As we [email protected] are an all-volunteer board with day jobs, we do the best we can with limited resources and manpower. WEBSITE MANAGER David Price Robbie D. Jones Editor, Historic Ink Historic Nashville, Inc. [email protected] PO Box 190516 Nashville, TN 37219 Send correspondence and submissions for publication to the Historic Ink editor. Deadline for submission of material for the Fall 2010 issue is August 15, 2010. http://www.historicnashvilleinc.org Contact the editor about format preference. Historic Ink was published from 1977 to 2003 and re-launched in 2009. Email: [email protected] All content is copyrighted © 2010 by the Historic Nashville, Inc. and is protected by federal copyright law. Printed by Allegra Print & Imaging, Nashville, Tennessee. Historic Ink: Spring 2010 3 THE NASHVILLE NINE 2009 Nashville’s 9 most threatened properties DEMO SOON SAVED! “Silverdene” McCambell House Jackson House Lawrence Finn House 305 Kent Road (Donelson) 3500 Brick Church Pike 931 Main Street (East) (Bordeaux) SAVED! PROGRESS DEMO SOON US Post Office – Arcade Mt. Olivet Cemetery Chapel Charlotte Ave Church of Christ (downtown) 1101 Lebanon Pike (Southeast) 4508 Charlotte Ave (Richland Park) Historic Neighborhood Schools Historic Neon Signs – Home for Aged Masons & – Countywide Countywide – Masonic School Ransom School shown Weiss Liquors on Main St R.S. Gass Boulevard (West End) shown (East) (Inglewood) Historic Ink: Summer 2009 4 “Behind-the-Scenes” Tours The recently launched “Behind-the-Scenes” Tour of local landmarks is an exciting new program offered by HNI. Over 125 people participated in recent tours, which are free for HNI members. Since the last issue, we toured the following historic places: Hodge House at Percy Warner Park, downtown Masonic Lodge, The Hermitage, WSM Tower in Brentwood, and Two Rivers Mansion in Donelson. We look forward to seeing you at future tours! HNI members Heather and Kris Gallagher. Masonic Lodge at 7th Avenue & Broadway. Hodge House at Warner Park Historic Ink: Spring 2010 5 L&C Tower 401 Church Street July 10 at 10:00am HNI members tour Two Rivers Mansion. UPCOMING TOURS Opened in 1957, this 31-story skyscraper is Nashville’s best known example of Mid-Century Modern architecture. United Record Pressing 453 Chestnut Street Ryman Auditorium June 12 at 10:00am 116 Fifth Avenue North August 14 at 10:00am URP began in Nashville in 1949, located at its present site since 1962.