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The Nashville Retrospect

The Nashville Retrospect newspaper features old newspaper articles, in-depth essays by today’s historians, and nostalgic remembrances.

05/01/2026

‘WINDOW TO PANAMA’: From the Jan. 27, 1964, Nashville Banner: “An Amateur radio operator in Goodlettsville has been a ‘window to Panama’ for several area residents since trouble [anti-American riots over sovereignty of the Panama Canal Zone] broke out in the Latin American country 2 [and a half] weeks ago. He is R. W. Leedy of 125 Draper Drive, whose radio set for reasons even he can’t explain — is one of the best in Middle Tennessee for reaching south of the border.

“Leedy spends most of his Saturday and Sunday afternoons talking to an operator named Gloria W. Spears, an American working in Balboa at the Jewish Welfare Board. The two exchange radiograms and ‘phone patches’ (telephone conversations carried by radio) for several Nashvillians who have relatives in the Canal Zone. Residents of Springfield, Memphis, Cleveland, Tenn., and Decatur, Ala., also have used the Leedy-Spears hookup to send messages.…

“Relaying messages such as these are nothing new to Leedy, an amateur radio operator since 1932. He and other hams are sometimes the only persons who can make contact when normal communications are disrupted by storms, disasters and civil disorders.…” (Tennessee State Library and Archives)

Original photo caption: “Tuning In Panama, Goodlettsville amateur radio operator R. W. Leedy prepares to send messages from Nashvillians to relatives living in the Canal Zone.” (Image: Nashville Public Library, Special Collections, photo by Bill Goodman)

For the full article and more stories from the city’s past — including “Senate Vote Ousts Fulton” (1955) and “Earthquake” (1842) — get your copy of the January 2019 issue of The Nashville Retrospect: https://nashvilleretrospect.com/store/ols/products/january-2019

To have Nashville history delivered to your inbox, sign up for our new free email newsletter, The Nashville Retrospect Dispatch, at: nashvilleretrospect.com

27/12/2025

‘SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA’S DEBUT ACCLAIMED’: From the Dec. 11, 1946, Nashville Banner article: “An enthusiastic audience of more that 2,000 gave the new Nashville Symphony Orchestra, its brilliant young director, William Strickland, and lovely guest soloist, Helen Jepson, a triumphant ovation last night as the Nashville Civic Music Association opened its first season at War Memorial Auditorium. Neither smoke [smog] nor drizzling rain could lessen the ardor of local music lovers as they streamed into the auditorium to welcome and hear their own orchestra, the first civic venture of its kind in some 15 years.…

“As the audience settled back into their seats before the lights were dimmed in the auditorium, there was an unusual air of expectancy in the characteristic bustle and chatter that marks the last few minutes before the curtain rises in the theater. This was the night that musicians and music lovers alike had looked forward to for years.…

“The audience waited intelligently without an isolated handclap between the movements of the Beethoven symphony, and then gave it the works. Perhaps it was the rain, or Providence, but not a fire engine siren roared near the building to mar the performance.…” (Tennessee State Library and Archives)

In the photo, William Strickland conducts the debut performance of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra on Dec. 10, 1946, at the War Memorial Auditorium. (Source: Nashville Symphony Archives)

For this article and more stories from the city’s past — including “U.T. Football Blacklisted” (1896) and “Reporter’s Notebook: Courthouse Drama” by Larry Brinton — get your copy of the December 2009 issue of The Nashville Retrospect: https://nashvilleretrospect.com/store/ols/products/december-2009

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22/12/2025

‘STOKES SCHOOL STUDENTS GIVE HUNDREDS OF TOYS’: From the Dec. 16, 1955, Nashville Banner article: “Tree just doesn’t look right without presents under it, so the Stokes kids rounded up about 200 toys and spread them under the old cedar’s branches. (Nashville Jaycees will deliver ’em to needy families Christmas Eve.)…” (Tennessee State Library and Archives)

From the photo caption: “Bobby Goodwin… and Anna Katherine Jones… sit under the Christmas tree students decorated at Stokes School.” (Image: Nashville Public Library, Special Collections, photo by Jack Gunter)

For this article and more stories from the city’s past — including “Spice Round: A Nashville Christmas Tradition” (1948) and “Nativity Scene to Stand Before Parthenon” (1953) — get your copy of the December 2009 issue of The Nashville Retrospect: https://nashvilleretrospect.com/store/ols/products/december-2009

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15/12/2025

‘FOOD FOR NEEDY’: From the Dec. 24, 1959, Nashville Banner: “Food for the needy is readied for delivery by Sheriff’s Patrol lieutenants Melvin Baker, L. S. Lawrence, W. A. Jones, and T. E. House. Sheriff Tom B. Cartwright is continuing his established policy of distributing baskets of food to needy Davidson County families during the Christmas holidays.” (Image: Nashville Public Library, Special Collections, photo by Bill Goodman)

For this article and more stories from the city’s past — including “The Highway Robbery on the Hillsboro Pike” (1870) and “$500 Reward for Davy and Clem” (1820) — get your copy of the November 2020 issue of The Nashville Retrospect: https://nashvilleretrospect.com/store/ols/products/november-2020

To have Nashville history delivered to your inbox, sign up for our new free email newsletter, The Nashville Retrospect Dispatch, at: nashvilleretrospect.com

08/12/2025

‘LENTZ ENTERS NEW BUILDING’: From the Dec. 1, 1959, Nashville Banner: “Dr. [John J.] Lentz [City-County health director who has spent 39 of his 74 years in public health work] sits happily with folded arms on a circular-type seat in the lobby of the new Lentz Public Health Center [at 311 Twenty Third Ave., North]. The building was named in honor of the veteran public health official. It contains offices for the TB [tuberculosis], dental, sanitation, food and milk, rabies and research divisions, a 300-seat auditorium and has a large parking area adjoining. Health Department officials and the Board of Health were on hand for flag raising ceremonies this morning.” (Image: Nashville Public Library, Special Collections, photo by Bob Ray)

For this article and more stories from the city’s past — including “The Influenza” (1880) and “Blind Steer at Large on Cedar Street” (1870) — get your copy of the November 2020 issue of The Nashville Retrospect: https://nashvilleretrospect.com/store/ols/products/november-2020

To have Nashville history delivered to your inbox, sign up for our new free email newsletter, The Nashville Retrospect Dispatch, at: nashvilleretrospect.com

24/11/2025

‘PUBLIC SQUARE PROPERTY SOLD TO ATTORNEYS’: From the Nov. 3, 1972, Nashville Banner: “Half a block on the Public Square — site of the gun fight which almost cost Andrew Jackson his life in 1813 — was purchased today by three well-known attorneys for nearly half a million dollars. The four buildings — 214, 216, 218 and 220 Public Square — will be demolished and the land prepared for future development, according to Glenn Bainbridge, real estate executive who handled the transaction with Bob Eisenstein.… The four-story brick structures — constructed in 1879 — stand on land which is rich in history.

“‘The old City Hotel once was located on the site,’ Bainbridge said. ‘Thomas Hart Benton and his brother, Jesse, had a gun fight with Andrew Jackson there on September 4, 1813. Jackson was shot and almost died from the wounds. However, he recovered and in a decade went on to become President of the United States. And the hotel later burned.’…”

Original caption: “Four adjoining buildings on the Public Square which now house the dry goods firm of Harris Davis and Co., today were bought by three Nashville attorneys, T.S. Pappas, J.O. Bass and Wilson Sims.” (Image: Nashville Public Library, Special Collections, photo by Bob Ray)

Today this is the site of the Davidson Criminal Justice Center at 200 James Robertson Parkway.

For this article and more stories from the city’s past — including “Priest Wins By More Than 3,500 Votes’ (1940) and “Wayne Oldham Is Crowned King Turkey At Heart Benefit” (1979) — get your copy of the November 2020 issue of The Nashville Retrospect: https://nashvilleretrospect.com/store/ols/products/november-2020

To have Nashville history delivered to your inbox, sign up for our new free email newsletter, The Nashville Retrospect Dispatch, at: nashvilleretrospect.com

17/11/2025

‘PEARL MUSIC CLUB PLANS PROGRAM’: From the Nov. 4, 1950, Nashville Banner: “Officers of the Young People’s Club of Pearl High (above), under supervision of Mrs. M. A. Battle Moore, assistant director of city school music and club sponsor (not shown in photo), are making plans for the future when the organization will present “outside music talent” at the school in recitals. According to Mrs. Moore, Jasper W. Patton, A&I State College piano instructor, has already been engaged for a recital at a date not yet set.

“Club officers shown above reviewing the plans, are from left to right, (seated) Miss Doris Campbell, reporter; Miss Katie Turner, vice president; Miss Annie Ogleton, president, and Miss Mildred Madry, assistant secretary. (Standing, left to right) Noble Blackwell, critic; Miss Maxie Jordan, secretary, and James Peebles, chaplain. Not present for the picture were, Newty Jones, treasurer, and Miss Elizabeth Allen, pianist.

“Mrs. Moore said the original purpose of the clubs was to give the students an opportunity to discover exceptional talent among themselves and to encourage attendance to the best community concerts.” (Image: Nashville Public Library, Special Collections)

For this article and more stories from the city’s past — including “That Building That Looks Like a Ship” by Gene Hawkins and “Eugenics and Our Immigration Laws” (1919) — get your copy of the November 2019 issue of The Nashville Retrospect: https://nashvilleretrospect.com/store/ols/products/november-2019

To have Nashville history delivered to your inbox, sign up for our new free email newsletter, The Nashville Retrospect Dispatch, at: nashvilleretrospect.com

13/11/2025

‘BARNARD’S PHOTOS OF STARS ARE PUBLISHED’: From the Nov. 27, 1927, Nashville Tennessean: “It ought to be called ‘The Romance of a Rooftop,’ this story of a Nashville boy of 50 or more years ago. But its final chapter which was written recently with the distribution of an important scientific book to the great libraries of the world was enacted much higher than the Nashville rooftop where the first chapter took place. Indeed that final chapter went as high as the stars right onto the rooftop of the world itself.

“It is the story of Edward Emerson Barnard, a Nashville lad who went to work in a photographer’s studio here at the age of nine. It is the drama of that boy’s ever-increasing interest in the heavens, of his toil by night and day to learn more about astronomy with simple instruments and only two months of public school education, of his studies at Vanderbilt university in his young manhood, of his twenty years photographing the regions of the milky way and the discovery of many comets while he was professor at first Lick’s Observator and later at Yerkes Observatory at the University of Chicago. It is the interesting climax of his life work being finished and put on the great bookshelves of the world five years after his death in 1923. That climax is a volume called ‘A Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way.’…” (Tennessee State Library and Archives)

Original photo caption: “This photograph of a Nashville rooftop shows not only the enlarging machine which Dr. Barnard was employed to watch as a boy but also some interesting points in the city’s geography at that time. It is a view of the top of the building at Fourth Avenue (then Cherry St.) and Union Street, which is now occupied by Calvert Brothers’ Studio. Looking east the large building in the background is the store now occupied by Lovemans. The treetops in the background are evidence of how comparatively sparsely this section was settled at the time.….” (Image: Vanderbilt University, Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries)

For this article and more stories from the city’s past — including “New Cameron High School Building Dedicated In Tribute to Education” (1955) and “Radio Motion Pictures Expected In Ten Years” (1925) — get your copy of the November 2019 issue of The Nashville Retrospect: https://nashvilleretrospect.com/store/ols/products/november-2019

To have Nashville history delivered to your inbox, sign up for our new free email newsletter, The Nashville Retrospect Dispatch, at: nashvilleretrospect.com

06/11/2025

‘OLD MANSION HOLDS COLORFUL PAST’: From the Nov. 28, 1936, Nashville Banner: “Few Nashvillians in passing the ante-bellum house of hand-made brick at 510 Twentieth Avenue, North, fully comprehend the background of history and art which surround the old Cooper home. Built almost a century ago by Samuel Watkins, founder of Watkins Institute, at what was then the junction of Charlotte and Clifton Pikes, the thirteen-room structure was purchased in 1845 by Washington Bogart Cooper, well-known Nashville artist who painted at least a thousand portraits during his lifetime.

“During part of the forty years he lived in the house many Confederate soldiers received treatment for their wounds there, and in some instances the grand piano was used for an operating table.… The home was acquired in 1885 by the late Solomon T. Satterwhite, Nashville’s first taxidermist, who mounted a hundred birds for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. His daughter, Mrs. Katherine Satterwhite Leiper, is living in the house now.…

“‘Dorothy Dix, who writes for the Banner, was married in this house,’ Mrs. Leiper exclaimed. ‘Her real name is Mrs. Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer, you know, and she was married right in this front room fifty-one years ago.’…” (Tennessee State Library and Archives)

Original photo caption: “Its walls scarred by Yankee bullets, its interior characteristic of the artist who lived there, the old Washington Cooper home at 510 Twentieth Avenue, North, is steeped in the historic traditions of Tennessee during the Nineteenth Century.” (Image: Metro Archives)

For the full article and more stories from the city’s past — including “Shoppers Swarm Stores For Holiday Bargains” (1959) and “Downtown Presbyterian Church Bazaar and Waffle Shop” (1956) — get your copy of the November 2019 issue of The Nashville Retrospect: https://nashvilleretrospect.com/store/ols/products/november-2019

To have Nashville history delivered to your inbox, sign up for our new free email newsletter, The Nashville Retrospect Dispatch, at: nashvilleretrospect.com

03/11/2025

‘WHARF AVENUE SPAN COMPLETED’: From the Nov. 2, 1961, Nashville Banner: “A giant steel girder, flying the American Flag, was put in position on the new Wharf Avenue Bridge at 9 a.m. Wednesday, completing the span. Finishing touches to the steel work are expected to be completed in about 10 days, according to spokesman for Nashville Bridge Co., which is contractor for the structural steel work on the bridge. The final girder, shown being lifted into position, weighed 79 tons.” (Image: Nashville Public Library, Special Collections, photo by Bob Ray)

For this article and more stories from the city’s past — including “School Busing Hearing Stirs Emotions” (1979) and “Barnard’s Photos of Stars Are Published” (1927) — get your copy of the November 2019 issue of The Nashville Retrospect: https://nashvilleretrospect.com/store/ols/products/november-2019

To have Nashville history delivered to your inbox, sign up for our new free email newsletter, The Nashville Retrospect Dispatch, at: nashvilleretrospect.com

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Experience Nashville’s Past

Since 2009, The Nashville Retrospect has been providing a unique look into the city’s past. Every month, we republish old articles and photographs from city newspapers along with new essays by local historians about the history of Middle Tennessee, all in the form of a broadsheet-sized newspaper. Scroll through our page to see samples, and check out our podcast for even more. Visit our website to find out where you can buy the paper and how to subscribe. Enrich your life by learning more about where you live.