Yesterday Nashville tore down this gorgeous 135-year-old mansion on Music Row to make way for Richard Branson’s new Virgin Nashville Hotel:
Sorry I don’t have a better picture. Nobody saw this coming. Maybe if we’d had a heads’ up someone could have gone down there to get a goddamn photo before the bulldozers arrived, y’know? As it is, we’re forced to rely on Google Street View to be the official record of Nashville history.
So, this is progress? No thanks. Real “It Cities” respect their history. And Rebecca Hamilton, trustee of the estate, who sold out and conveniently hid behind “no comment”? Giving you a one-fingered salute, honey.
[UPDATE]:
In an email, the Metro Historical Commission tells me they’d been talking with the building’s new owners since December in an effort to get them to incorporate the original building into their design. This tells me they’ve known the wrecking ball was coming for months and never clued anyone else in about it: not the community they’re supposed to serve, not preservationists, not the news media.
As I said, if anyone had a heads’ up we could have at least got a goddamn picture. But no. So, major fail for another city agency.
Would love to know who’s financing this project. If it’s a local Nashville bank you can expect to hear from me and my middle finger.
