Nineteenth Century Residences

Imagine Andrew Jackson walking through this area in the 1820s to visit friends on Rutledge Hill or on his way to the state capitol. If he walked down Cherry Street, as it was called then, he would have seen this house just as you see it. The building, located at 104 Fifth Avenue South, was built in the 1820s between Jackson’s first and second runs for U.S. president. (He was elected in 1828.) While much has changed in downtown Nashville, this unassuming building dates back nearly 200 years and remains the oldest original residential house in downtown Nashville.

In the 1820s, Nashville was a small town on the rise. Named the permanent state capitol in 1843, this area was just beyond the wealthier neighborhood on the northern side of Broadway. The two-story Federal style house was more typical of a middle-class white family. According to the Downtown Partnership, “During a renovation in the 1980s, an eighteen-inch layer of silt and sand discovered in a sealed off basement provided evidence that the Cumberland River had indeed reached Fifth Avenue during the floods of the early nineteenth century.”

The building to the right, at 106 Fifth Avenue South was constructed in 1880. After the Civil War, the neighborhood grew more diverse with working-class families who lived here. This included African Americans and immigrants. In the early 1900s, both buildings shifted to mixed use. The ground floor of 106 Fifth Avenue was a shoe shop run by Isaac Otberry and his wife Dora, and the couple lived on the second floor above the store. Next door, Chester S. Williams ran a grocery store. From horses-drawn carriages to peddle taverns and from train whistles to honky tonks, these nineteenth century residences have seen it all.

From Fifth Avenue South, turn LEFT onto Broadway. Walk two blocks to Seventh Avenue South, and the next stop will be on your left at the historic marker for Nashville First Baptist Church.