Frist Art Museum and United States Post Office

Built with Public Works Administration funding during the Great Depression and designed by local architects Marr & Holman, this massive Art Deco post office was completed in 1934. It is faced with panels of white Georgia marble and Minnesota granite, with simple fluted pilasters, casement windows, an intricate belt course, and decorative frieze at the roof line. The interior retains many original Art Deco details, such as the geometric terrazzo and marble floors, aluminum handrails on the interior stairs, and cast aluminum grilles. These decorative grille designs were selected from a federal planning manual with representative ideals of American progress and productivity. In 1986, a new central postal distribution center was built near the city’s airport, and this downtown icon was no longer needed.

In 1998, ownership was transferred to the city and a new public-private partnership began. The building was leased to the Frist Foundation, who oversaw the renovations by Tuck Hinton Architects as the building was transformed into the Frist Art Museum, with a small post office operating on the basement level on the west side. The museum officially opened to the public in 2001. The Frist, as it is called by locals, offers 24,000 square feet of rotating exhibits from local, national, and international artists. Exhibits are showcased in the spacious galleries that were once mail sorting rooms. The Frist offers free architectural tours on the first Saturday of each month at 4:30 pm.

The Frist Foundation was established in 1982 as the HCA Foundation by the Hospital Corporation of American (also started in Nashville). The foundation became independent of HCA in 1985, and supports arts and culture, civil and community affairs, education, and health and human services.

Next door to the Frist Art Museum is the Estes Kefauver Federal Building, also on your right.