Maxwell House Hotel (Felix Zollicoffer)

On your way to this stop, we hope you paused to read the brown Civil War Walking Tour sign marking the former site of Judge John Catron’s house. He served as associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1837 until 1865. An opponent of secession, Judge Catron came to Nashville in 1861 to convince state leaders to remain in the Union. He fled soon after but returned to an occupied Nashville in June of 1862 where he presided over the U.S. District Court. 

Now, back to our story. You are now at the former site of the Maxwell House Hotel at the corner of Fourth and Church Street. Find and read the historical marker on the corner of the current building. Construction on the Maxwell House Hotel, named for owner John Overton, Jr.’s wife Harriet Maxwell Overton, began in 1859, using the labor of enslaved persons. The outbreak of the war halted construction, and the Confederate Army initially used the incomplete structure to quarter soldiers,dubbing it “Zollicoffer’s Barracks,” in honor of Confederate General Felix Zollicoffer. 

Zollicoffer was a former Congressman, comptroller, and newspaperman. A force in the Whig Party, he was a staunch defender of states’ rights but opposed Tennessee secession. Once the war began, he joined the Confederate military as a Brigadier General. Zollicoffer was killed at the battle of Mill Springs in Kentucky in January 1862. His death caused mass confusion as other Confederate officers scrambled to take command of the battle without his leadership. Ultimately, the Union army was victorious. You can see Zollicoffer’s grave at the Nashville City Cemetery. 

The Maxwell House Hotel played another significant role during the Civil War, as a makeshift jail. The hotel was seized by the U.S. army and used as a prison for captured Confederates. On September 29, 1863, a staircase collapsed as prisoners were being moved to a lower floor for their breakfast. Initial reports said two men were killed and seventy five others injured. Later accounts reported that over forty Confederate prisoners died from wounds related to injuries sustained at the accident. 

John Overton, Jr. resumed construction on the hotel after the war, and in 1869 it opened as Nashville’s largest hotel. The main entrance was on Cherry Street (now Fourth Avenue), facing Printers Alley and the infamous Men’s Quarter. Initially, women were not allowed to enter the main door, as was customary for hotels during the Victorian Era of the late 1800s. A side entrance on Spring Street, now Church Street, was used by women, which rerouted them from the front entrance considered off-limits for respectable women. The Maxwell House Hotel burned on Christmas Day 1961.

Before we leave, there is one more fun fact associated with the hotel. Maxwell House Coffee derived its name from the hotel in 1892, when coffee broker Joel Cheek struck a deal with hotel management to sell his coffee exclusively. Now that’s a story that’s “good to the last drop.”

Turn RIGHT on Church Street and continue until you reach Fifth Avenue. The church across the street can be viewed from this position.