Join Historic Nashville on February 10, 2018 at 10:00 am as we visit the Woolworth Building in downtown Nashville for a tour led by David Ewing
Please meet in front of the building on 5th Avenue.
Read a little about the Woolworth Building from an article in Bisnow:
At 221 Fifth Ave. North, the Woolworth Building was completed in 1930 and is a registered historic site as part of the Fifth Avenue Historic District. One of the original five-and-dime stores, F.W. Woolworth offered discounted merchandise as well as an inexpensive lunch counter that, before 1960, was segregated.
On Feb. 13, 1960, 124 students from Nashville’s historically black colleges walked into Woolworth as well as other counters at Kress and McClellan, sat down at the white-only lunch counters, and asked to be served — to no avail. Their goal was desegregation.
Their peaceful protests intensified in the following weeks, and were met with violent resistance, until May 10, when Nashville became the first major Southern city to begin desegregating its public facilities when six Downtown stores, led by Harvey’s and Cain-Sloan, opened their lunch counters to African-Americans.
In early 2017, Morales’ company, TomKats Hospitality, took possession of the first floor, mezzanine and basement level of the Woolworth Building, previously a Dollar General, and began work on restoring it. Much of the original architecture has been preserved, including the upper level mezzanine, gilded handrails and wall accents, and hand-laid tile. Parts of the 18K SF space that could not be preserved were re-created to echo the style of the past: flowing staircases, the rebuilt lunch counter, wood-paneled walls, turquoise colors and an Art Deco-inspired vibe.
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