What’s inside the historic buildings of Nashville, Tennessee?

A recent trip to Nashville uncovered several historic buildings full of beautiful, virgin growth pine beams, pine and oak flooring and intriguing backstories. Here is a sneak peak at some of these amazing storefronts and warehouses all from the late 1800’s, the backbone of historic Nashville! First stop was the Acme Feed & Seed, now a restaurant. This historic building on the infamous Broadway street is filled with original windows, beams and flooring!

Photo from National Trust for Historic Preservation

The building was built in 1890 and opened its doors as a grocery store that same year. The brick giant housed several companies in the next 120 years from a grocery store to a baking soda company to a flour company. The structure was considered a state of the art building for its time. It even included an elevator to get buggies to the 3rd floor to drop off shipments. It wasn’t until 1943 that it became Acme Feed & Seed, the name it still holds. The Turner family, the original founders of the feed and seed store, still own the building.

In 2013, a local businessman leased the building and turned the 4 story, 22,000 sq ft building into a restaurant, bar and music venue. Keeping the authenticity of the historic building materials, the venue is filled with exposed pine beams and original oak flooring. It took a whopping $6.5 million to historically restore the building to its current condition.

Photo from Preservation Magazine copyright Joe Buglewicz.

Next stop on the tour was the old Marathon Automobile factory building. Stay tuned for our next blog where we take a look at the old equipment of the automobile factory. We also take a peek inside the storefront from the hit show American Pickers.