Built in 1820, the building at 104 Fifth Avenue is regarded to be the oldest residential structure in downtown Nashville. Its two-story, symmetrical, three-bay Federal style architecture was typical of middle-class urban homes. The adjacent structure at 106 Fifth Avenue was built in 1880. It is similar in design but is one story taller with four rooms on the second floor instead of three.
The original owners of both buildings were successful merchants who likely built them as rental properties. They must have been profitable investments because they were later acquired by John Ingram, a wealthy Nashville merchant. Ingram owned both buildings until his death in 1849 when they passed down to his son William G. Ingram who lived in both structures. In 1865, William G. Ingram sold both buildings to Joseph Henry Shriver who operated a grocery store out of both locations. After Mr. Shriver's death in 1872, his wife Mary continued to operate the stores until she died in 1895. That's when the real estate boom of Nashville started and the houses next door were bought up by a developer named George W. Smith. Smith divided each house into apartments and rented them out. This scheme worked for a few years until the Great Depression hit and most of the tenants could no longer pay their rent. By 1936, all the apartments were sold at public auction.
In 1937, the National Park Service decided that the older building should be preserved because it was considered important to history.
In fact, when it was built in the late 1950s, the 31-story L & C Tower was the highest commercial skyscraper in the Southeast. Despite being flanked by larger structures, the L & C Tower's significance to downtown Nashville has not lessened. It still serves as a vital part of the city's skyline and remains one of its most recognizable landmarks.
When it was built, the L & C Tower was touted as the world's first completely cast-in-place concrete tower. This means that the tower was made up of three separate segments or "phases" that were joined together with no internal supports. These phases included the base, shaft, and cap. The base phase is the lowest level of the building and typically contains office space. The shaft phase is where the elevator cars travel up through the center of the tower. The cap phase is the highest level and usually includes luxury apartments. The L & C Tower was designed by New York architects Le Corbusier and Charles Eames.
The L & C Tower has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1980. In 1995, it became a National Historic Landmark.
Height: 310 feet (95 m)
Construction Date: February 19, 1958
Location: 510 Broadway Street, Nashville, Tennessee 37203
Nashville had been a well-established center for government and industry by the time the state capital building was finished in 1859. The downtown region experienced an infusion of new enterprises in the early 1900s, thanks to a burgeoning printing sector and a newly built train station. But even with these developments, Nashville remained a small town until the 1950s.
The city's population increased by more than 50 percent between 1960 and 1970. During this time period, many large companies moved their headquarters to Nashville, including Federal Express, Southern Airways, and Vanderbilt University. These corporations brought thousands of jobs with them. In fact, according to the 2010 Census, Nashville has now become America's fastest growing city over the past five years.
The state capital building is one of the most important structures in Nashville. It serves as the home of the offices of the governor and other state officials. As well as being on National Register of Historic Places, it's also a contributing property to the Nashville Downtown Heritage District.
You can visit the capitol building during business hours, but you have to go through a security check before entering.
Hoye House, Washington Street, 1796; Simpkins House, Mechanic Street, 1809; Shriver Farmstead, Third Street, 1790-1810; Laing Farm House, South End, 1812; and Pigman's End, Fayette Street, 1855 are among the seven structures they have decided to be among the oldest still surviving in Cumberland. The city directory lists several other houses as being at least 50 years old.
Hoye House is a two-story, five-bay frame house with a side gable roof, twin interior chimneys, and stone foundation. It was built by William Hoye for $1,800 in 1796. In 1835, Hoye's daughter married Dr. John Simpson, who became an influential surgeon in the area. The Simpsons moved into this house when they set up practice on North Main Street near the present-day site of the Cumberland County Courthouse. They took out most of the walls to make room for the doctors' offices, which include an operating theater where many Cumberlands residents heard Dr. Simpson perform surgery for the first time. He also served as mayor of Cumberland for one term starting in 1847. After his death in 1849, his wife Mary continued to run the practice until she died in 1855. Hoye House has been restored by the Historic Society of Cumberland County as a museum featuring exhibits about local history.
Wikimedia Commons article index Nashville's skyline in 2018. This list of the highest buildings in Nashville counts skyscrapers by height in Nashville, Tennessee. The AT Building, which stands 617 feet (188 meters) tall in downtown Nashville and was completed in 1994, is both the city's and the state's tallest structure. It is also the third-highest building in America after the Chrysler Building in New York City and the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur.
Nashville has been called the country's music capital. There are more than 200 songs that have hit number one on the Billboard Country Songs chart. The city is also home to three Nobel Prize winners in literature: Truman Capote, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner.
The first permanent European-American settlement in what would become Nashville was built around 1780 by James Robertson. Today, that community consists of a few hundred people and is known as Robertson County. In 1789, John Donelson led the second settlement here. That town grew into a major shipping center for the surrounding agricultural economy and became known as Nashville. The city's population in 2017 was estimated to be 380,000 people.
Nashville has been ranked as one of America's most liveable cities. It scores high on measures of quality of life, including health care, public safety, and education.
Historic Preservation in Philadelphia's Old City Elfreth's Alley is regarded the oldest continuously occupied residential street in the United States, according to the Elfreth's Alley Association, a local preservation group. The street crams 32 Federal and Georgian-style residences onto one city block of cobblestones. It was originally part of a large tract of land that was donated by William Elfrith to the Church of England in 1682 as compensation for his serving in King Charles II's army during the English Civil War.
Elfrith's Alley is considered to be the birthplace of American suburbia because of its unique configuration of small parcels of land, which are now owned by individuals but which were at the time inhabited by a single household. These properties were sold by their owners to urban developers who converted them into houses, often without altering the underlying lots.
The street has been designated a National Historic Landmark because of its significance in the development of home ownership in America. No other city street can make this claim.
It is estimated that there are only about 1,000 houses left in Elfrith's Alley, most of which are private homes. The last public house on the street closed in 1966. Today, only residents with an interest in history can be found down the alley, walking their dogs or sitting on their front steps reading newspapers.
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