Historic Nashville released its annual list today of the most endangered historic properties around the city. This year’s list includes historic homes, a theater, a church and a warning for music lovers.
Colemere Manor
1400 Murfreesboro Pike
This is the property formerly known as New Orleans Manor restaurant and later Monell’s at the Manor. Surrounded by fencing, this mansion, which was built in 1893, is now owned by the airport authority and is slated for demolition for a new runway.
Day-Morgan Cemetery
Clintondale Drive
This Bordeaux-area family burial ground was heavily damaged by a 2021 storm. The site contains burials from between 1872 and 1924.
Belle Meade Theater
4301 Harding Pike
The Belle Meade Theater has had many incarnations since the 1990s, but for a half-century from 1940, this was one of the premier theaters in the city. The Art Deco theater was designed by Nashville-based architectural firm Marr & Holman. There is a planned mixed-use development for the space.
Metropolitan Community Church
131 15th Avenue
This site was one of the first gay-affirming congregations in Nashville when a local mission of the national Metropolitan Community Church first started meeting here in 1972. It was the home of the city’s first Pride celebration in 1977. It’s slated for demolition and an apartment complex to go on the location.
Elijah Robertson House
7704 Old Charlotte Avenue
Built in 1820 by the nephew of Gen. James Robertson, the house was an antebellum residence and tavern and there are two family cemeteries on the property.
Mt. Calvary Baptist Church
611 Creative Way
Located in Madison, this was the site of a historically African American congregation in the Briarville community. The site is located in an area that is developing rapidly, including a large housing development next door.
William Scruggs House
6430 Hillsboro Pike
This 1838 log house is located adjacent to the Aaittafama/Kellytown archaeological site — currently being preserved by Metro parks — and includes historical burial grounds of its own. The site has been listed for sale as a vacant lot for the past three years with no disclosure of burials.
Merritt House
441 Humphreys Street
This mansion in the center of Wedgewood Houston was constructed by state Senator Alfred Gowen Merritt and his wife Caroline Donelson in 1870. The new owners plan to relocate the mansion on the same large parcel, but preservationists fear irreparable damage to the masonry.
Small music venues across Nashville
Historic Nashville took the unusual opportunity to highlight the potential loss of small music venues across the county, noting all of the development work around sites like the Bluebird Cafe and Station Inn.