Municipal Auditorium/ Morris Memorial Building/ Western Harmony

A. Municipal Auditorium 

You will visit three significant sites connected to music as a part of this “walking stop.” So… keep walking down Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Look left to catch a glimpse of Municipal Auditorium. We’ll tell you about the auditorium now, and you’ll be able to see the entire building once you reach Third Avenue. 

Municipal Auditorium is a mid-century marvel—completed in 1957 as a part of Nashville’s urban renewal project designed to modernize downtown. But this modernization came at a cost. The Bijou Theater, the main venue for African Americans during the Jim Crow era, was demolished. Several other African American businesses and residences were also torn down to make way for the new auditorium, which led to protests and delayed construction for several months.

Municipal Auditorium was the first public venue in Nashville to have air-conditioning, seating 9,000 people, who gathered there for athletic and music events. In 1967, this venue hosted the Country Music Association’s first CMA Awards. Headliners who have performed here over the years include The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, The Grateful Dead, and Fleetwood Mac. This massive gray metal dome was the hottest ticket in town, especially after the Grand Ole Opry moved out of the Ryman in 1974 and before the construction of what is now the Bridgestone Arena in 1994.

The auditorium still hosts many shows and events each year, but the complex also features a great museum on its first floor. The Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum was formerly located on the south side of Broadway. Its building was razed in 2010 to make way for the Music City Center. Luckily, the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum found a new home and reopened here at Municipal Auditorium in 2013. The museum tells the story of music and musicians from Motown to Muscle Shoals and from California to Tennessee—and even includes a recreation of the famed Stax Recording Studio. Consider walking over to take a visit or check out their website: musicianshalloffame.com.

Continue walking until you reach the corner of MLK Boulevard and Fourth Avenue. Look across the street to find the Morris Memorial Building. Feel free to stop for the whole narration of the building or continue walking down the boulevard if you like. 

B. Morris Memorial Building 

Now, look for a building with large gold letters that read, “Sunday School Publishing Board of the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A." This is the Morris Memorial Building, which was completed in 1926. You may be asking yourself, “Didn’t we already talk about the Baptists and Sunday School?” Yes we did, but that was the Southern Baptist Convention. Morris Memorial was home to the predominately Black National Baptist Convention, and this facility served as the publishing headquarters for their religious literature.

This building is important for several reasons. Its neo-classical design was created by McKissack and McKissack, the first African American-owned architecture firm in the country. Reverend E.C. Morris, president of the convention and the namesake of the building, led the National Baptist Convention’s Publishing Board. It was one of the first African American publishing houses in the country. In its earliest years, with the help of Solomon P. Harris and Rev. William Haynes, the Publishing Board launched its most successful magazine, The National Baptist Voice. 

My father, Rev. H. Gregory Haygood, has been writing for the Sunday School Publishing board under the National Baptist Convention, USA for many years and also serves as an editor. Speaking of family, my grandmother, Alma P. Haygood was a great jazz and church musician. She even had the opportunity to play with Duke Ellington! She passed on her talent to my dad so music is in my blood and it was only perfect that I ended up in Music City!

Although the building is no longer used as a publishing house, the Morris Memorial Building serves as a symbol of African American business success. In 2020, an article in the Nashville Scene best captured the importance of preserving this structure: “Morris Memorial—now the only extant building in the downtown core connected with Black enterprise—is a monument of sorts to the achievements by Black Nashville on its own terms, particularly in a time when every power structure was aligned against such accomplishments.” 

Walk one more block. Once you reach Third Avenue, you will see the historical marker for Western Harmony on your left on the patch of grass across the street. Western Harmony is the final part of this stop.

C. Western Harmony 

The roots of Nashville’s music scene can be traced all the way back to The Western Harmony, a book of hymns and instructions for singing published by Allen Carden and Samuel Rogers in 1824. This historical marker stands in the location where it was originally printed by Carey A. Harris of The Nashville Republican. The hymnal featured shape notes, a unique style of notation where different shapes (like triangles and diamonds) were placed on top of note heads to find a pitch. Each shape represents a different sound (Fa, So, or La.) This allows singers to teach and learn songs without knowing how to read traditional music and notation. This early hymnal is a testament to Nashville’s musical roots long before Nashville was known as “Music City.” Listen to this clip of a local shape note singing group from 2017. Follow along on the photo of the sheet music above and see if you can sing with them!

Within Thy circling pow’r I stand,

On ev’ry side I find Thy hand;

Awake, asleep, at home, abroad,

I am surrounded still with God.

Take one more look at the Municipal Auditorium behind you before continuing. Turn RIGHT on Third Avenue and continue walking until you reach Deaderick Street. Take a RIGHT on Deaderick Street and then a LEFT onto Fourth Avenue. Keep walking up Fourth Avenue until you reach Bankers Alley (located just past Wells Fargo.) Stop on the corner of Bankers Alley and Fourth Avenue to learn about the next stop, the L&C Tower. Press “Arrived” when you are ready to begin.