Editorial | Summer Geyer
Then & Now: Second Avenue Second Avenue is currently home to various bars, restaurants, and shops that include Wildhorse Saloon, Hard Rock Café, and Taco Bell Cantina. But Second Avenue was not always a hot spot for line dancing and Crunchwrap Supremes. Originally named “Market Street,” Second Avenue is one of Nashville’s oldest streets and is commonly referred to as the “birthplace” of Music City. Fort Nashborough, the forerunner to the settlement that would become Nashville, was erected near Second Avenue.1 The fort was built by settlers led by James Roberston and saved by Mrs. Robertson when she turned a pack of dogs loose on attacking Native Americans in the Battle of the Bluffs.2 The fighting in the Battle of the Bluffs took place near the intersections of Second and Third Avenues and Broadway.3 While one would think that Mrs. Robertson’s battle dogs would be the highlight of Historic Second Avenue, the prominence of the street actually derives from the use of the Cumberland River. In the 1800s, the Cumberland was used to transport people and freight. Steamboats would dock at the riverfront on First Avenue, then known as “Front Street,” and unload transported goods into warehouses.4 The goods in the warehouses on Front Street were then sold from the storefronts on Market Street.5 Notably, many steamboats used to transport goods to Nashville were owned by Tom Ryman, for whom the infamous Ryman Auditorium is named.6 Records indicate that the first store was opened on Market
Street in 1786. In addition to stores, Market Street housed hotels and saloons for the riverboat workers. The “Silver Dollar Saloon” served as an entertainment venue for riverboat workers for many years – it is now part of the Hard Rock Café.7 Most of the two- to five-story buildings on First and Second Avenue date from 1870 to 1890. In the early years, the buildings on Market Street were primarily wooden.8 After the Civil War, the city began replacing the wood structures with brick buildings.9 The brick buildings featured the Victorian-Style architecture that was used to put on display the “newly-acquired wealth” by the merchants.10 Almost all of the windows on the buildings have either arched or square window hoods, referred to as “eyebrows,” and are grouped in twos or threes.11 To this day, Second Avenue contains the best concentration of Victorian commercial facades in Nashville. In 1904, Nashville’s City Council passed a bill to “rename the streets west of the Cumberland River, running North and South,” in the interest of efficiency.12 This is when Market Street became Second Avenue. Notes of other bills introduced at this time, which were typewritten on lined paper, show that a bill providing for “street car segregation” or separate street cars for white and black Americans, also passed. After the turn of the century, Second Avenue became less prominent and popular.13 River transportation declined as railroads grew, and the street on Second Avenue was widened, causing the (continued on page 26)
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