Historic Nashville, Inc. historic houses oral history project, 1977-1978
(Document/manuscript/pamphlet/archival material)

Digital files and CDs are identified by the project abbreviation: "HNIOHP" which serves as a prefix. Arranged thereunder alphabetically by the last name of the interviewee. *Note that this same prefix identifier is also used in several other distinct projects created by Historic Nashville, Inc.

Indexes and supporting documents arranged alphabetically by house name.

Materials housed in Special Collections Division of the Main Library, Nashville Public Library.

Conversion of analog interviews to digital format made possible by funding from the Nashville Public Library Foundation in 2006.

In library use only. Available by appointment.

Scope and content: Fifteen interviews in various formats conducted mostly in 1977 and 1978 with individuals who were owners, or were the family of former owners of historic homes in Nashville, most of which had been in the same family for several generations. Several of the homes were constructed prior to 1800 during the early settlement period of Middle Tennessee. A few are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In addition to their content about five historic homes, the interviews also discuss neighbors and neighborhoods, major roads, families, farming, wealth, household servants, education, domestic architecture, agriculture, businesses, and civic leadership. These interviews may also be of interest to persons studying regional and class accents of native-born upper class Nashvillians, capturing voices which formed in the early twentieth century, in a time prior to universal homogenization of accents. Homes and interviewees include:

Devon Farm: interview with Sara Green (Mrs. William C. Green), index available.

Glen Leven: interviews with: Judge A. G. Adams; Jacob McGavock Dickinson; Mrs. W.G. Kennon; Mary H.T. Orr; Ophelia Palmer Stokes (Mrs. Walter Stokes); Joe Thompson, Jr.; Margaret Thompson (Mrs. Overton Thompson, Sr.); and Overton Thompson, Jr. None of the interviews have indexes.

Hays-Kiser House (also known as Locust Hill): interview with John Kiser, no index. Two black-and-white photographs taken circa 1977.

Longview: interviews with: Wentworth Caldwell, Sr., index available; Judy dePalma, index available; May Buntin Hill (Mrs. H.G. Hill), no index; Shirley Patterson, index available.

Riverwood: index notes from an interview with Lucia Burch Doggerell, but no audio recording extant.

Cite as: [individual interview], Historic Nashville, Inc. Historic Houses Oral History Project; Special Collections Division, Nashville Public Library

System requirements for sound discs: computer with CD drive and MP3 capable software.

Copyright status is undetermined.

None of the interviews in this project have signed release forms.

Source of acquisition unknown;,Acc. RT-100.

Other materials created by Historic Nashville, Inc. are also in the holdings of the Special Collections Division of the Nashville Public Library.

In 1968 the Historic Sites Federation of Tennessee was formed. The name was changed to Historic Nashville, Inc. in 1974. Historic Nashville, Inc. (HNI) was organized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a stated purpose to document and preserve the cultural, historical, and architectural heritage of Nashville. This group was instrumental in saving Union Station, the Ryman Auditorium, and many other historic buildings. In 1970s and 1980s, they undertook a number of oral history projects, many of which were donated to the Special Collections Division of the Nashville Public Library.

The original intent and goal of the Historic Houses Oral History Project is unclear. There may be some association with a series of history talks sponsored by the Nashville Room of the Nashville Public Library, known as "Paragraphs in Nashville History." In 1979-1981, some of these talks focused on historic families and homes, and were published in the book: "Nashville Families and Homes." However, any direct affiliation or correlation between Historic Nashville, Inc.'s oral history project, and the lecture series sponsored by the Nashville Room, is unknown, and the two projects may be completely unrelated.

In English

Unknown provenance as of 2017. It is believed that the recordings were donated to the Nashville Public Library by Historic Nashville, Inc. shortly after they were created in 1977-1978.

Release forms for other Historic Nashville, Inc. oral history projects conducted about the same time indicate the organization's intent to donate the recordings of those projects to the Nashville Public Library; it is assumed that they did so around 1977 or 1978, shortly after the recordings were made.

catalog;,2018;,Linda Barnickel.

inventory;,2017;,Kathy Bennett, volunteer.

original analog audiocassette recordings,reformat,2006;,Safe Sound Archive;,Jim Havron via outside vendor;,converted to .mp3 digital files.

No further accruals are expected.