Will historic buildings be razed in order to widen the bridge?
by Joe Tarr
The state Department of Transportation (TDOT) plans to widen the Henley Street Bridge in the next few years, and local preservationists fear it could mean the loss of several historical buildings around the bridge, including the Lord Lindsey, the Riverhouse apartments, and the Mary Boyce Temple House.
According to TDOT spokeswoman Louann Grandinetti, the bridge is in major need of renovations. And with 58,000 trips a day, it's on the threshold for needing another lane. "It didn't make any sense to come in there and renovated it and put it back like it was," she says.
So the plan is to remove the entire top deck, and resurface the bridge—adding an extra northbound lane, so it will be three lanes going both ways. The so-called turning lane going south will be made a regular lane.
Actual renovations on the bridge are at least two years away, but the state has begun its preparation work. Part of that involves a study of the buildings around the bridge which might be affected. While the study doesn't say what buildings might be torn down, it recommends which ones should be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. According to TDOT's report, the only structures eligible for the register are the Church Street United Methodist Church, Maplehurst Park neighborhood, and the Henley Bridge itself.
The state's highway department says the Lord Lindsey dance club and restaurant, 615 Hill Ave., doesn't qualify because it has been altered too much. Built by Abner Percy Lockett in 1901-02, the building was a Christian Scientist church from 1927 until 1976.
The Riverhouse Condominium at 614 Hill Ave.—owned by developer Kristopher Kendrick—doesn't qualify because it is not connected to any event or person of historic significance, and isn't architecturally significant.
The old Mary Boyce Temple House, 623 Hill Ave., doesn't qualify because it has been altered so much and retains little of its historical integrity on the inside.
Anne Bennett of the Metropolitan Planning Commission disagrees with TDOT's conclusion. "It's true that those structures have been changed, but even those modifications carry with them their own sense of history, a sense of the societal changes," Bennett says.
But even if the buildings don't qualify individually for the Historic Register, Bennett says they should qualify as a district because they are among the last remnants of what was once a downtown residential neighborhood.
Cathy Irwin of Knox Heritage fears the report means TDOT plans to raze the buildings when renovations start, perhaps to have a place to park its trailers and equipment. When TDOT rebuilt the Broadway interchange in the mid-'90s, it argued that homes along Fourth Avenue in the 4th and Gill neighborhood weren't historically significant, and tried to tear them down. But a strong protest in Nashville stopped them.
Robbie Jones, a TDOT historian who worked on the report, says that it doesn't necessarily mean the buildings will be leveled. "We're trying our hardest not to take any buildings for the this project," he says. "But that won't be known until final [bridge] design is submitted to us." Jones adds that there will be plenty of time for the public to comment on the project.
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