330 Charlotte Avenue – Downtown, built 1924-1926
Located downtown near the Courthouse Square, the Morris Memorial Building is a four-story Neoclassical Revival-style office building designed by McKissack & McKissack, a prominent African-American architectural firm based in Nashville. Constructed from 1924-1926, the steel, masonry, and limestone building housed the National Baptist Convention, which published religious materials for African-American Baptist churches, as well as other African-American businesses including the architectural studios of McKissack & McKissack. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, the Morris Memorial Building is the only building still standing that is originally associated with African-American businesses in the downtown core. Recently, a developer announced a proposal to extensively renovate and enlarge the building with an eight to ten-story addition to the roof, which would adversely impact the building’s integrity as an important African-American landmark and result in the building be removed from the National Register of Historic Places.
