History Corner

WELLINGTON ARMS APARTMENTS

BY RIDLEY WILLS II

Wellington Arms Apartments, 4225 Harding Road, was one of the first high-rise apartments built in Nashville.

When the seven story building was built in 1939, it was considered one of the strongest and best built residential buildings in the city. My grandmother, Elizabeth (Mrs. Matt G.) Buckner lived there for a couple of years before her death Feb. 15, 1947. My wife, Irene Jackson Wills, sold Girl Scout cookies there when she was a student at Robertson Academy in the 1950s.

Her grandmother, Irene Morgan (Mrs. William C) Weaver lived there at the time as did several of Irene’s elderly great aunts. Nearly everyone living at Wellington Arms then knew who Irene Jackson was and gladly bought a box of Girl Scout cookies, making it easy for her to be the leading GIrl Scout cookie salesman at Robertson Academy. In the 1950s, Mr. and Mrs. R. D. Stanford owned Wellington Arms. They sold the property, then in a park-like setting, for $1,350,000 to a group of Nashvillians, including Robert D. Short, Jr., his son, Robert H. Short, and attorney Lewis H. Conner, Jr. A few months later, the new owners converted the 52-unit complex into condominiums with leases of from six months to a year.

Quite a few years ago, the owners sold the land in front of the building along West End and shops and small stores are located there today. This robbed Wellington Arms of its park-like setting, but the condominium is still popular with high ceilings and attractive rooms.