Acme Feed and Seed Building

In 1946, the Acme Feed and Hatchery held a contest in Nashville featuring two prize pigs. After a few weeks of the store’s preferred Purina feed brand, “Acme Mike” was declared the winner over the competitor’s “Puny Ike,” and both pigs were given away to lucky customers. This is just one of the many stories associated with this three-story Italianate style building—completed in 1890 by J.R. Whitemore. The Acme building housed multiple businesses in its early life that benefited from its location next to the Cumberland River and Southern Railroad Depot. As steamboats, barges, and trains unloaded and loaded goods bound for market, the corner of Broadway and Front Street, now First Avenue, was prime real estate.

Early tenants of this building included a grocery store, buggy company, and baking powder company. However, its most notable tenant was the Acme Farm Supply, formerly Acme Feed and Hatchery, which operated from this location from 1943 to 1999. Acme Farm Supply was a family-run business that knew how to advertise. In addition to the “Purina Pig Jamboree,” the store annually sponsored a pet calf named Beauten who appeared on stage at the Grand Ole Opry between the show’s acts. The Grand Ole Opry moved to the Ryman Auditorium, on Fifth Avenue, in 1943—the same year Acme opened on First Avenue.

Tom Morales, a well-known restaurateur renovated the building in 2014 as a food and entertainment venue. The renovation highlights the limestone foundation, brick walls, hardwood floors, and tongue-in-groove ceiling of this late nineteenth century warehouse, giving us a glimpse into the layout of a commercial property representative of the era. Other original materials such as windows and print plates, for labeling animal feed, are featured inside the building. Acme Feed and Seed is open to the public, so feel free to enter and get a good look at the nearly-original layout still in use today. This building is also a part of the Food for Thought Tour on Nashville Sites if you’d like to learn more about the city’s food scene.

From Acme, cross the street and walk along First Avenue North to see the Front Street Warehouses, the next stop, which is on your left.