Tennessee Architecture
Created by Robbie D. Jones of Nashville, this website and blog tells the stories of Tennessess’s historic buildings, structures, landscapes, architects, and builders. Please reach out if you want to know more!
News
- Marlin Meadows: Antebellum Farm to Mid-Century Subdivision in NashvilleIntroduction The Marlin Meadows subdivision was developed in the 1950s in Neely’s Bend, a peninsula in the Cumberland River in northeastern Davidson County. Historically, Neely’s Bend was part of Madison, an incorporated town founded in 1857 and absorbed by Nashville … Read More »
- John Parmelee’s Fire-Safe Streamlined Model HomeIn the 1930s, architect John H. Parmelee introduced “fire-safe” houses to Nashville. Constructed of masonry, these dwellings were often designed with modernist features such as flat concrete roofs, concrete structural systems, metal frame windows, tile floors, and stucco walls. Completed … Read More »
- Pearl and I.T. Creswell House: International-style at Fisk UniversityLocated at 910 17th Street North on Nashville’s historic Fisk University campus, this Miesian town house was completed in 1963 for Pearl Creswell and her husband Isaiah Thornton “I.T.” Creswell. Pearl was an art curator and Isaiah was the university’s … Read More »
- St. Joseph Church: “Not Bizarre” Mid-Century Modern in NashvilleThis unassuming Mid-Century Modern landmark hides in plain sight in Madison, a suburban neighborhood in northeast Nashville. The St. Joseph Catholic Church and School opened at 1225 Gallatin Pike in 1953. Six years later, in 1959, the parish hired Belli … Read More »
- Dr. Ira N. Kelley House & Office: Unconventional Postmodern Landmarks in Trousdale CountyIn the early 1980s, Dr. Ira Neeley Kelley, Jr. (1926-2007), a longtime physician at Hartsville, Tennessee, and his wife JoAnn Kelley, hired Alabama architect Robert L. “Bob” Faust (1932-2020) to design a Postmodern hilltop home near Hartsville in rural Trousdale … Read More »
