Nashville Then and Now

I think I've mentioned before that I'm very interested in Nashville's history, so this book, by Katrina McDaniel, is COOL! I just happened to come across it at the library.

It shows old pictures of places all over Nashville (mostly downtown) that were made between the Civil War era and the early 1900's, and then shows a photo of the same spot today, describing the changes that have been made. Some of them look very much the same and some are completely different. The front cover shows the then newly-built state capitol with Union troops camped on the grounds during the Civil War.

Don and I took a nice walk downtown Saturday night after we went to Spaghetti Factory, and it meant a lot more to me than it has before, seeing the old buildings and remembering how long some of them have been there, or what the places used to look like. It was interesting to imagine the now-paved roads as once being dirt roads full of horse-and-buggies or having tracks for street cars (maybe that's why downtown has such bad parking!). We walked over the Shelby Street Bridge, which the book shows a picture of shortly after it was finished in 1909. It looks pretty much exactly the same, but is now a pedestrian bridge because a few years ago they decided it wasn't safe for traffic anymore.

If you are at all interested in the history of Nashville, this book is for you. It is 144 pages with lots of photographs. It would also make a good gift or coffee table book.