History of South Nashville ( Page 2)
As the population of the South Nashville area grew, many churches were established that were to become a major directing force for this area of town. One of the first influential congregation was the College Street Primitive Baptist Church which was established in 1838 at 629 College Street ( later Third Ave). The minister was Dr. John Bunyan Stephens who was also a prominent area physician and later a medical professor at the University of Nashville. Dr. Stephens had been a Baptist minister in Marshall County for many of his earlier years and had come to Nashville as one the founding fathers of this congregation. Dr. Stephens ultimately built his home on Rutledge Street on College Hill. That restored home stills stands today complete with the original carriage house. Dr. Stephens’ daughter, Amelia, married into the Dudley family which was to become one of the most influential families in Nashville for the next 100 years.
The 1840’s were relatively non-eventful for South Nashville although growth was steady and sure. Nashville was named the permanent capital of the state in 1843. Prominent men such as lawyers, ministers and educators flocked to Nashville, and the economy was booming. Ex-president Andrew Jackson was frequently seen in town visiting with Nashville’s elite such as then Governor James K. Polk who later was elected president of the United States. Jackson would frequently make the trip out Market Street through South Nashville to the Murfreesboro pike which turned off past Browns Creek to become the Lebanon Pike leading to the his Hermitage. Due to the remote location of the area of South Nashville from the city square, a separate market area from downtown was established at the corner of Lea Avenue and College Street. Streets were unpaved, schools for younger pupils were almost non-existent, and city government services did not exist since the city limits only officially extended slightly south of Broad street. Due to the educational and religious climate, this area of South Nashville had attracted a large number of forward thinking families that were concerned with the situation. In 1850 this group, who had become known as the Town Council, voted to incorporate as the City of South Nashville. Documents filed with the State listed the population of the area as 1800 souls.
The City of South Nashville almost immediately established its first public school in 1851. The establishment of the South Nashville Institute was the first school established in the State that was operated with public funds. That same year, the South Nashville city council voted to build their first public school house. This was a two-story structure of four classrooms. Teachers were hired and instruction started immediately. The schoolhouse was located at the corner of Market Street (2nd Avenue) and Chestnut on a lot donated to the council by Nashville lawyer John Trimble. The first year enrollment stood at 208 pupils in a building that only could properly house a capacity of 160. Additional space had to be rented in the basement of Rev. Hall’s church to house the primary grades. The new school that later replaced the South Nashville Institute would be named Trimble School. The new Johnson Elementary School presently stands on that site today. Other private primary schools to open in the area included Lincoln Hall and the Baptist Brick Church School. That same year, the University of Nashville opened its own Medical Department.
During the 1850’s, the low lying area of Black Bottom further decayed from the lack of attention from either Nashville proper or from improvement efforts of the South Nashville township. The area was mainly low-rent shanties inhabited mostly by poor black and white laborers who worked the railroads and wharves. This area between the two city governments became a "hell’s hole" as some called it.
