By Matt Lewis
Hattie Cotton Elementary School was built in 1950 and found itself in the middle of the Civil Rights movement only a few years later. In 1957, in response to the Civil Rights Movement and the Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. the Board of…

By Matt Lewis
On November 4, 1910, the Eastland Church of Christ was completely constructed in East Nashville in a matter of hours. The church, located at Sharpe Avenue and Gallatin Pike, was built under the supervision of one architect and involved over one…

By The Bygone Nashville team
By 1919, the Edgefield/East Nashville suburb has grown large enough to justify Andrew Carnegie partially funding a public library here. In order to secure his funding, Carnegie libraries had to fit a formula of public support, an openness to provide…

By Michael Suhr
Until Woodland Sound Studios opened in 1967, the borders of Nashville “Music City USA” didn’t extend east of the Cumberland River. While Broadway was brimming with Honky Tonks and major labels on Music Row were solidifying the “Nashville sound,” a…

By Olivia Pugh
Located at 624 Main Street, Bolton’s Spicy Chicken and Fish was opened in the late 1980s by husband and wife team Dollye Graham-Mathews and Bolton Mathews. Bolton Matthews opened the Main Street location in 1993, making Bolton’s Chicken and Fish…

By Austin Hall
In 1871, the Nashville and Edgefield Street Railroad Company began construction on a street railroad for the city. The street railroad had lines on Fatherland Street, Woodland Street, and Main Street and was completed the following year. The first…

By John Phillip Aguilar
Lockeland Elementary School, otherwise known as Lockeland Design Center, was once the site of Lockland Mansion, named for Jane Locke. The first Anglo-American settler at this site was Daniel Williams who obtained 640 acres as a Revolutionary War…

By Austin Hall
Originally built in 1850, a suspension bridge crossed the Cumberland River and connected Edgefield directly to downtown Nashville. In 1874, The Republican Banner printed an article about the bridge highlighting its importance to the town stating,…

By Olivia Pugh and Audrey Creel
The Russell Street Church, located in 819 and 901 Russell Street, first opened its doors in 1905. The Russell Street Church of Christ was one of the most influential churches in East Nashville, and its members established many other prominent East…