(also known as the House of God Youth Center)
The Nashville Christian Institute was a Church of Christ-run K-12 school for Black members of the church. It opened in 1940 and closed in 1967, when David Lipscomb College integrated. The first president of NCI was famed preacher Marshall Keeble who had a hand in founding most, if not all, of the African American congregations of the Church of Christ in Tennessee.
The National Register-listed NCI gym is the last remaining vestige of the former NCI campus and stands as a testament to religious education in Nashville’s African American Christian community during segregation and the civil rights era. The gym is currently up for sale and in danger of being torn down, but the right buyer could find a creative way to repurpose the historic building and keep it as a central neighborhood gathering place.
