Students working on a chemistry experiment, 1950. Dr. Hubert Crouch and eleven other men of science from HBCUs established the Association of Science Teachers in Negro Colleges and Affiliated Institutions. Image courtesy of Tennessee State University Special Collections.

A postcard showing an aerial view of the Tennessee State University campus between 1930 and 1945. At the time, the university was known as Tennessee A&I College. Memorial Library (now the Harold M. Love S., Student Success Center) is located near the center, directly across from the Administrative Building (now the Walter S. Davis Humanities Building.) To the right of the Administrative Building is a recreational space, now occupied by Holland Hall and Crouch Hall. Image courtesy of Nashville Public Library.

Stop 8 of 18

Holland Hall, Crouch Hall, and Mirrored Lakes

The area just north of the Boswell Complex was the home of Tennessee A&I’s mirrored lakes, a recreational space on campus that afforded students the opportunity to canoe, picnic, and find some downtime from the rigors of college life in the middle of a racially segregated town. In its place—Holland Hall and Crouch Hall now stand. The Holland School of Business building is named for Lewis R. Holland who came to TSU in 1942. He organized the Department of Business Administration and would lead the department until his retirement in 1972. After the merger of TSU and UT-Nashville in 1977, the business program moved to the former campus of UT-Nashville. Today, it is Tennessee State University’s Avon Williams Campus, located downtown on Tenth Avenue North. Dr. Holland also helped to establish the TSU Employees’ Federal Credit Union in 1951, an institution that continues to provide much-needed banking services to TSU employees.

The building directly in front of the Boswell Complex is Crouch Hall—named for Hubert B. Crouch. Dr. Crouch was a professor of biology, Director of the Division of Sciences, and Dean of the graduate school. Hubert Crouch and eleven other men of science from HBCUs established the Association of Science Teachers in Negro Colleges and Affiliated Institutions with a mission to increase the number of African American scientists. This organization was the predecessor of the National Institute of Science. More recently, Crouch Hall was the birthplace of the North Nashville Heritage Project, an effort initiated in 2010 by history majors dedicated to the collection and preservation of North Nashville’s history.

Continue along the sidewalk. The Research and Sponsored Program building is just up the hill on your LEFT.

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