Shelby Park and Bottoms

Courtesy of Mike Slate

Shelby Park has been a part of the lives of East Nashvillians for more than 100 years. The park was named for John Shelby.  Shelby owned a large parcel of land in what is now East Nashville.  The property that Shelby owned and lived on was bound by the Cumberland River on the south and west, roughly Main Street to the north and South Eighth Street to the east.  Shelby did not own the land now occupied by Shelby Park.

Become a friend of Shelby Park and Bottoms on Facebook. Invite your friends to join.

Friends of Shelby Park & Bottoms

Video showing the past and present at Shelby Park - Shelby Park 100

Shelby Park Turns 100  - The Tennessean 10/10/2012

Shelby Park:  A special place to play ball

East Nashville and Family History

by Debie Oeser Cox

I am most honored and humbled to have been profiled in the March-April issue of the East Nashvillian Magazine. The article tells part of the story of our family history in East Nashville. You can download current and past issues of the East Nashvillian magazine.

Our family has had a continuing presence in East Nashville since 1855. William Sanders Hunt first appeared, in a Nashville City Directory, as an Edgefield resident in that year. Edgefield was a new community then, having recently been subdivided from the farm of John Shelby. W. S. Hunt was my great-great grandfather.

1866 City Directory

His son Felix Zollicoffer Hunt was born March 31, 1866 in East Nashville. The family was living at the corner of Barrow [So. 2nd] and Watson [Boscobel].

Minnie Mae Hunt, daughter of Felix, was born February 24, 1899, when her parents were living in the thirteen hundred block of Shelby Ave. In 1916 Minnie was married to Wilmoth (Pat) Steele, son of Alex and Lola Dickson Steele. The Steele's lived at 620 Shelby Ave., where Wilmoth was born on July 26, 1892. My mother Lola Mae Steele was the second daughter of Minnie and Wilmoth. Mama was born in a house located at 227 Shelby Ave. on August 23, 1919.

227 Shelby Ave

Mama and Daddy's siblings all grew up in East Nashville. Many of my cousins lived in East Nashville or nearby when they were children. I have lived at six addresses in my nearly 60 years, five in East Nashville and at our present home in Inglewood. I still have a problem calling Inglewood "East Nashville." Since the merger of the city and county in 1963, the lines between the two communities have blurred. In 2012 there are only a handful of the family in East Nashville. A nephew and his family live in the neighborhood though they are not native to the community. My husband Jimmy, my two daughters Tammy and Amanda, and I moved to Inglewood in 1978. My children grew up in Inglewood and one of them still lives here. Starting with Grandpa Hunt our family has been continuously in East Nashville for nearly one hundred and sixty years.

Our Davidson County family history began long before there was an East Nashville. Early Nashville area family names on my Daddy's side are Gower, Russell, Wright, Cook, Davis, Allen and Koen. Some of these were here as early as 1780. On Mama's side, Steele, Binkley, Shane, Buchanan, Castleman are some of the families that were in Nashville in the pioneer days of the late 1700's.

My husband Jimmy is no slouch when it comes to pioneer settlers in Nashville. Demonbreun Street was named in honor of Jim's gr-gr-gr-gr Grandfather, Timothy Demonbreun, a French-Canadian fur trader who had a presence here some years before the first permanent settlement.

Timothy Demonbreun
courtesy SeeMidTN.com

Jim's ancestor, John Rains, was one of the first settlers, and is immortalized in many accounts of early Nashville history. Some of Jim's families; Bradley, Binkley, Baker, Dowlen, Fontaine, Freeman were among the earliest settlers in neighboring Robertson County. Our daughters Tammy and Amanda have a fine Middle Tennessee Heritage. They are the eleventh generation of our family to live in Davidson County, Tennessee, through the Gower family line and tenth generation through several other family lines.

Inglewood and East Nashville links

by Debie Cox

I am a ninth generation Nashvillian.  The heart of Nashville, for me, is East Nashville. My maternal great-great grandfather, William S. Hunt, moved to East Nashville about 1855.  Since that time, William S. Hunt has continually been represented in East Nashville, by some of his descendants.  My daddy's family came to East Nashville about 1917.   I grew up in the same Northeast Nashville neighborhood that my daddy was brought up in.  My parents house on Meridian St. and my grandparents house on Pennock Ave. were less than a block apart.   After marrying in 1969, my husband and I, lived in Northeast and East Nashville and moved to Inglewood in 1978.  East Nashville has a fascinating history.  Researching the communities and people on the East side has been a hobby over the years. I hope you will enjoy reading about the people and places of East Nashville.

Inglewood and East Nashville links on The Nashville History Blog.
 ------------------------------------------
Mrs. Clark's School, East Nashville.
Mrs. M. E. Clark Select School for Young Ladies was located near the intersection of Scott and Greenwood Avenues. The Victorian, Queen Anne style house had turrets and towers, with bay windows,  and a large wrap around porch. 
------------------------------------------
Memoirs of Litton Hickman
Edwin Litton Hickman was born August 4, 1875, son of John Pryor and Kate Litton Hickman. The home in which the Judge was born and where he lived most of his life was on Gallatin Road near the site of the present East Nashville YMCA. The home had been built by his parents on land that had formerly belonged to his maternal grandfather Isaac Litton. He served Davidson County for many years as County Judge.
------------------------------------------
General William White
  In December of 1822, General White purchased 200 acres of land in Davidson County, the western section of pioneer settler Zachariah Stull's preemption grant.  White built a two story brick home on his land, near the Dickerson Road, about two miles from Nashville.
------------------------------------------
Jeff McCarn House
Judge Jeff McCarn lived in this house at 808 McCarn Street near Porter Road.
------------------------------------------
 Inglewood Trivia. 
A few tidbits of Inglewood history.
------------------------------------------
Lynnlawn and the Stratton family
 The drive of the home was said to have been lined with lynn trees and the Stratton family named their home Lynnlawn.  The two story brick house had 18 rooms and ceilings on the first floor were 17 and one half feet high.  The large main hall and curving staircase was very much like that in the Hermitage, home of Andrew and Rachel Jackson.  
 ------------------------------------------
Inglewood - Just where do we live? 
I wrote this in response to a question on the Inglewood listserve awhile back. A newcomer to Inglewood was confused by all the names that can be applied to the area and asked, "Just where do we live." it's sort of jumbled, with little editing, but I decided to share.
-------------------------------------------
Gallatin Pike - Businesses and Residents
Inglewood City Directory Listings along Gallatin Pike, 1950 - 1980
This link is to a compilation of address listings along Gallatin Pike from the city limits in 1950 at Cahal/Carolyn out to just past where Briley Parkway crosses Gallatin Pike today. Because the directories were split into city and suburban by 1960 the listings start at Litton Avenue in that year and at McGavock Pike in the following years.
----------------------------------------------
Inglewood Fire Department 1927
In 1927 the Inglewood Fire Department was at 3303 Gallatin Pk. on the west side of road, between the railroad trestle and Home Rd.  
----------------------------------------------
 Litton School Zone
Litton School Zone - Inglewood/East Nashville by Betty Hadley, 1981
A history of Inglewood and East Nashville
-----------------------------------------------
Riverside Drive
I wrote this article for a local newspaper, "The Nashville Retrospect." It was published in the September 2011 issue. The following is the final draft of the story and may differ from the published article. - Debie Cox
------------------------------------------------
EAST NASHVILLE LANDMARK
LANDMARK HISTORIC LOG HOUSE
THE TENNESSEAN, EVENING EDITION, AUGUST 8, 1928
------------------------------------------------
Merchants in East Nashville 1894-95
This is an abstract of businesses located in East Nashville and North Davidson County from pages 1 - 46 of Merchants Licenses. Some streets listed have disappeared in part or totally,because of interstate and other construction.
-------------------------------------------------
A history of the Lockeland neighborhood in East Nashville, from the Judi Wells East Nashville Collection, Box 1, Folder 12, Metro Nashville Archives.
-------------------------------------------------
A history of the McGavock house at 908 Meridian Street in East Nashville.
-------------------------------------------------
 Eastview, an Historic Inglewood Home
Ever wondered about that big old white house, on Gallatin Pk. in the heart of Inglewood?
-------------------------------------------------



This article in the East Nashvillian Magazine tells part of the story of our family history in East Nashville. You can download current and past issues of the East Nashvillian magazine.

Shelby Hall, Fatherland, Boscobel

I am researching the houses that were built by John Shelby in East Nashville. Reportedly there were three, Shelby Hall [later renamed Fatherland], Boscobel and a new house built about 1855 called Fatherland. There is a lot of misinformation in published reports. I am putting together deeds, maps, wills, old news accounts, anything I can find that might shed light on the homes. Stay tuned....