Gray & Dudley, Financial District

Here stands the former Gray & Dudley Hardware Company building. When it opened in 1900, it was called “the largest business house ever built in this city.” Reimagined as a hotel, the building’s historic exterior was preserved. Inside is a restaurant fittingly called “Gray & Dudley.” You passed the entrance on Bankers Alley. To learn more, explore the Food for Thought and Arts and Murals tours on Nashville Sites.

This small street marks the beginning of Nashville’s Financial Historic District, once called the “Wall Street of the South.” By the turn of the twentieth century, Nashville’s population had grown to about 80,000, and nearby Union Street between Third and Fourth Avenues became the center of banking, insurance, and securities.

If you look up Third Avenue, you can still see landmarks such as the American Trust Building, the Nashville Bank and Trust Company, and the former Federal Reserve Bank. Built in the late 1800s and early 1900s, these grand structures made Nashville a financial center, but that all changed with the Great Depression. Bob McDill’s “Song of the South,” made famous by the band Alabama, reflects the poverty of the 1930s with lyrics like: “Well, somebody told us Wall Street fell, But we were so poor that we couldn't tell.” Sing along with part of the chorus:

Singin’ Song, Song of the South Sweet potato pie, and I shut my mouth Gone, Gone with the Wind There ain’t nobody lookin’ back again.

These former financial buildings have been repurposed as offices, hotels, and residences.To explore more of the city’s economic history, take our Civic and Public Spaces walking tour.

You’ve almost made it to the end of the tour, and the top of the hill! Continue walking up Third Avenue and cross over Union Street (twice) to reach the Public Square. Look for the historical marker for the Gerst House–the beginning of your next stop.