Southern Methodist Publishing House

Nashville is sometimes called the buckle of the Bible Belt, and for good reason. From Bibles to Sunday School books, we are the religious printing and publishing capital of America. Some of these publishing houses were located in architecturally significant buildings as well. The Southern Methodist Publishing House is a five-story steel and concrete structure built in 1906 in the Commercial architecture style. This was the third building in Nashville for the Southern Methodists after moving from Philadelphia in the 1850s. They built and relocated to this larger location to meet demand as they became the nation’s second largest printer of religious materials in the early twentieth century.

The building was one of the first constructed in Nashville using steel frame construction and was designed to house very heavy printing equipment. The commercial building features a limestone and brick exterior with Neoclassical ornamentation. Windows on the upper façade are defined with wooden Doric motif columns, and above the main entrance is a broken segmented pediment with a second pediment enclosed within its arch. The pediment is supported by extended brackets with a corbelled base featuring a female figure. Below the cornice of the pediment is a limestone open book motif representing the publishing house and fluted limestone piers frame the entrance. The fifth floor displays an elaborate stone and brick facade which divides each bay into rectangular panels with Greek cross insets signifying the religious use of the building.

The building served as the Southern Methodist Publishing House headquarters until 1957 when they consolidated their printing operations into a newly constructed facility on Eighth Avenue South. Today the building is leased as office space. 

Keep following Broadway until you reach Christ Church Cathedral on your right.