Fannie Mae Dees Park was completed in 1978. It is named for a Nashville woman, Fannie Mae Dees, who protested the city's urban renewal efforts and expansion of Vandebrilt University. Her home on Capers Ave. was threatened and eventually destroyed by the expansion. The park was intended to be the site of Saint Thomas Hospital, but was not ultimately used so it was repurposed as a park. Councilwoman Betty Nixon determined the park should be named Dees. In 1973 Anne Roos contacted artist Pedro Silva to ask him to come to Nashville to create a community art project in the park that would unite the neighborhood, divided over renewal. Silva eventually agreed and the mosaic dragon, built by Silva and decorated by the public, was completed in 1980. In 2017 the neighborhood association began fundraising a restoration of the dragon with the help of Silva's son Tony Silva.
Fannie Mae Dees Park
36.136919, -86.806213
Description
Fannie Mae Dees Park was completed in 1978. It is named for a Nashville woman, Fannie Mae Dees, who protested the city's urban renewal efforts and expansion of Vandebrilt University. Her home on Capers Ave. was threatened and eventually destroyed by the expansion. The park was intended to be the site of Saint Thomas Hospital, but was not ultimately used so it was repurposed as a park. Councilwoman Betty Nixon determined the park should be named Dees. In 1973 Anne Roos contacted artist Pedro Silva to ask him to come to Nashville to create a community art project in the park that would unite the neighborhood, divided over renewal. Silva eventually agreed and the mosaic dragon, built by Silva and decorated by the public, was completed in 1980. In 2017 the neighborhood association began fundraising a restoration of the dragon with the help of Silva's son Tony Silva.