Sometimes, I feel as though folks look at our fair city and see nothing beyond the bright neon lights of Broadway. “The good time,” as I call it – cowboy boots, cowboy hats, rhinestone, and country music on loop. It’s our equivalent of a casino that has no clocks on its walls. You can lose all sense of time in a place like this. But, I know, as a 37-year-old Mount Juliet native who has spent his entire life around Nashville, that the city is much more than that in 2024. It’s something I enjoy being apart of from afar. Mount Juliet is the perfect distance to be accessible to all of the things I do love about Nashville, while also being far enough away to avoid all of the things I don’t love about Nashville.
When my wife and I went down to the Mount Juliet Public Library back in January, all of these thoughts smacked me in the face. The clerk told us that upon signing up for a library card, that they’d like us to check out at least one book. I guess to get us in the system. I picked up Lost Nashville, and immediately felt as though I was on the receiving end of my favorite one-liner, “there’s more to Nashville than you realize.” So, it was an easy choice. That would be my book that I’d use to kick off my membership in the Wilson County library system.
Nashville is chock- full of music landmarks, but there are quite a few historic structures that have been lost to time. The elegant Maxwell House Hotel served a breakfast blend that grew into the nationally known coffee brand. Public transportation first arrived in Nashville by way of horse-pulled streetcars in the 1860s. Fort Negley was the largest stone fort built during the Civil War. The Nashville Female Academy once served as the largest school for young ladies in the United States during the nineteenth century. Author Elizabeth Goetsch digs into the archives for some of the Music City’s lost structures.
For someone that prides himself on being up to date with the goings-on in Nashville, it never sunk in that in my 37 years, I still hadn’t taken the time to stop and learn more about this city’s history (outside of the stray trip to The Hermitage, of course).
What Goetsch does in Lost Nashville is take readers through a digestible quick-hit tour of the city’s past. We start at the onset of Nashville’s time as a river city…Fort Nashborough to Public Square…when this was essentially a pioneer city. It’s weird to think about it now, but it didn’t sound so different from some of the old towns I’d read about in history books about the wild West. Geotsch dives into the wharves of Nashville giving us a completely different view of what the banks of the Cumberland River could look like. This book was also an introduction to “Smokey Row,” an unsavory place that I’m sure none of us would even think about visiting if such a thing still existed today…
Nashville’s history in the publishing industry, higher education, the theatre, and our communal love of baseball are all highlighted. And, of course, I’m elated that Goetsch didn’t leave out Gerst Brewery. Gerst is still one of the best local brews around in my book! For those of you curious about the city’s history, Lost Nashville is a great place to start. If you’re well-versed in it, well, it’s an easy refresher. Regardless, it’s a fantastic weekend read that will give you a quick history lesson on Nashville. In my case, it made me feel a little more connected to my Music City roots.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, second on Football & Other F Words, analyst for Stacking The Inbox, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, the NFL Draft, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.
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