The Metropolitan Historical Commission (MHC) regularly applies for and receives grant funding from state, federal, and national nonprofit organizations. These funds allow the MHC to complete various preservation initiatives outside of our standard programs, many of which address high priority needs or knowledge gaps in our community that could not otherwise be pursued. Grant-funded projects often result in reports and other written deliverables that should be shared with the public for educational purposes. Read on to learn more about findings from MHC's grant-funded projects and how this work benefits the residents of Nashville and Davidson County.
Centennial Park Historic Concrete Assessment
Nashville's Centennial Park contains several structures made from historic concrete, including bridges, architectural follies, and the Parthenon, originally constructed for the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition. Funded by a federal historic preservation grant from the Tennessee Historical Commission, this project assessed the historic concrete's conditions and repair needs. Findings and recommendations in the final report document this important material history and will enable long-term preservation for these structures.
Davidson County Cemetery Survey and Preservation Plan
In 2021, MHC began a roughly 5-year project to re-survey hundreds of burial grounds originally recorded in the Davidson County Cemetery Survey as well as previously unrecorded cemeteries. This work is being funded through multiple rounds of federal historic preservation grants, which are administered locally by the Tennessee Historical Commission. During the final project phase, field survey findings and historical research will be utilized in the development of Tennessee's first county-level cemetery preservation plan, with recommendations on how to preserve these important historical resources.
Phase 2 Presentation of Findings (video)
Davidson County Cemetery Survey Project Poster
Phase 3 Presentation of Findings (video)
Documenting Nashville's Mid-20th Century African American Neighborhoods
The National Park Service has awarded an Underrepresented Communities grant to the MHC for the purpose of documenting Nashville's mid-20th century historic districts built by and for African Americans. We have identified several Davidson County neighborhoods tied to prominent African American entrepreneurs and professionals, districts with significant collections of mid-century architecture, and areas developed to provide housing for African American residents displaced by interstate construction, redlining practices, and other forms of racial discrimination. This project will result in the completion of a countywide National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) context and one new NRHP district nomination.
Underrepresented Communities History Project Flyer
Economic Impact Study
MHC initiated Nashville's first economic impact study (EIS) on historic preservation activities in Nashville in 2018. This project was funded in part by a private telecommunications company as mitigation for cell tower installation, while a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Daniel K. Thorne Intervention Fund supported the development of a cultural tourism analysis component. The two-part EIS details the positive impacts that historic preservation has on Nashville and Davidson County and provides recommendations for further integrating preservation practices into our future growth.
Neighborhood Conservation Zoning Overlay Design Guidelines Consolidation
In 2019, the MHZC received grant funding from the Tennessee Historical Commission to consolidate all of the design guidelines for neighborhood conservation zoning overlays. The project included two goals; one was to consolidate all neighborhood conservation design guidelines into one basic set of design guidelines, with individual chapters for each district. The second goal was to create new guidelines for outbuildings and an associated plans book, for the same districts. Ultimately, the plans book was not adopted by the commission but the consolidated design guidelines were.
The Civil Rights Movement in Nashville, Tennessee, 1942-1969
In 2021, the National Park Service awarded MHC with an African American Civil Rights grant to document Nashville's civil rights history. This project focused on recording the history of the Nashville Student Movement and resulted in the creation of a National Register of Historic Places countywide historical context as well as two individual nominations for local churches involved in the movement. Through field survey, research, stakeholder input, and interviews with movement participants, this work also identified dozens of other civil rights-related buildings, sites, and march routes that may qualify for additional designations.
Historical context: The Civil Rights Movement in Nashville, 1942-1969