Matthew Walker Sr., NAACP Office, Creswell Station

After you park at or near the Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Center, walk down the sidewalk towards Jefferson Street as you listen to this stop. Just in front of the health center you’ll see a historical marker, but let us tell you about this important man and the building that bears his name. Matthew Walker Sr. was born in 1906 in Louisiana and moved to Nashville to attend Meharry Medical College. After he graduated, he began working at Hubbard Hospital, which is today’s Nashville General Hospital. He was not just a doctor but a talented surgeon. Dr. Walker was the hospital’s department chair of surgery from 1945 to 1972 and helped secure grants to open this health care facility. Inequities in health care make this center all the more important, and the center’s mission is to “provide high-quality affordable care for under-insured and uninsured Middle Tennesseans.”

Now look across the street at the Frierson Building. You’ll see the name etched in stone at the top. This building was built by John Wesley Frierson in 1954. Frierson was a very successful African American real estate broker and was also active in the Civil Rights movement. This two-story brick building has served as the home office for the NAACP chapter for decades, but the NAACP pre-dates the Frierson Building. The NAACP stands for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and its first meeting in Nashville was held in 1936. In the 1940s the NAACP hosted monthly meetings at the Bethlehem Center on Charlotte Avenue. Their first office was located in the Morris Memorial Building downtown. Check out our Old Time Religion and Music in Music City North tours to learn more about Morris Memorial. 

Across the street from the NAACP headquarters at 1308 Jefferson Street was a gas station, store, and restaurant called Creswell’s Station, owned by I.T. Creswell. In the 1950s, a young Paul Wilson Harper began working at Creswell’s as an attendant who pumped your gas. That’s what they called a “full service gas station” back in the day! Harper used his experience at Creswell’s and grew up to be a savvy businessman. He worked as a manager and executive for Exxon and Gulf Oil stations, and later owned a Phillips 66 franchise. Tennessee Tribune journalist Reginald Stuart wrote that Harper, who passed away in 2018, was a “promoter of Black business in Nashville and could always be counted on to help those in need along the way.”

We’ll talk more about funeral homes at our next stop, but before we leave, take note of Davis-Campbell & McClain. This Black-owned business has offered funeral services here at 1404 Jefferson Street since 1980. 

Turn around and head back to the intersection of 14th and Jefferson Street. Then, take a LEFT onto Jefferson Street and continue in the same direction for about one block. Turn LEFT to park across the street from the Kossie Gardner Sr. Park, between Fourteenth Avenue North and Sixteenth Avenue North.