DAVIDSON COUNTY, TN - CLIPPINGS - Old Nichol Home
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	Old Nichol Home, Built in 1809, Will Be Replaced by Bank Home
						By Ruby Goldstone

(This article was published in the Nashville Tennessean, Nashville, Tennessee,  
Date unknown)

    Just as the oldest citizens of Nashville are dropping off one by one as 
leaves from a tree, so the oldest buildings in the city are rapidly passing 
away, but unlike the men whose names will be carried on into the years, the 
buildings which have rendered their services in the development and progress 
of the city shall never more be remembered save through photography and the 
stories told a younger generation.
     In the historical background which Nashville possesses many old landmarks 
stand out with prominence, and not the lease of these are the few remaining 
buildings left standing in the crowded business section of the city.  If the 
scroll of the years might be turned back, and the business section of today, 
with its tall buildings and modern thoroughfares, might fade into nothing as 
in the "fade-outs" of a movie, and in the place would merge from the shadows 
of the past a scene of the same location as it was a hundred years ago, 
colonial residences would stand where banks and hotels are now located, and 
stately trees and flowers where stores and commercial houses now carry on 
their business.  With the "fade-outs" of  modern  improvements would also go 
the automobile, and in the picture of yesterday there would appear the 
dignified closed carriages and barouches of the period, as if waiting for silk-
hatted gentlemen in frock coats and perhaps the early Nashville girls with 
their hoop skirts, lace mits and tucked-up curls, to emerge from the houses.
     Nichol House Passes
     One of the oldest and most interesting buildings left standing, but whose 
days are now numbered, is the Nichol house, on the corner of Fourth and Union 
street, now  occupied  by  the Lowenhelm Jewelry Company.  Few of the hundreds 
who pass the building daily give it a thought as one of the oldest buildings 
in Nashville.  The house was build by Josiah Nichol in 1809, and remained the 
home of three generations of Nichols until the late eighties, when the 
increasing business in the downtown section caused to be converted into a 
building for commercial use.
     Within a short time a new bank building well be erected on that site by 
Caldwell & Company, and another landmark of historic days will be destroyed.
     When the Nichol house was built the main business section of the city lay 
in the blocks east of Market street, running from Broad to Cedar Streets.  
Union street was then only a narrow lane, called Union alley.  When a wider 
street seemed imperative, William Nichol, son of Josiah Nichol, permitted  
fifteen feet to be taken from the Nichol house and the space needed for the 
street as a gift to the city from the Nichol estate.  Shortly after that the 
Nichol family moved to the suburbs and since that time the Nichol house has 
been used for practically every purpose that could be named.
Build by Josiah Nichol
     Josiah Nichol bought his family to Nashville from Knoxville, purchased 
the entire block between Cherry and Sumner streets, now Forth and Fifth 
avenues, and on the corner of Cherry and Union alley built his home.  They 
lived in the house until their deaths, when the property was left to their 
son, William, who in turn lived there until it was released for business 
purposes.  After his death the entire property was divided among his 
relatives, his wife, Julia M. Nichol, bequeathing her share of the estate to 
their four children at her death.
     H. D. Nichol, the present owner of the old Nichol home, six years ago 
leased the building to Dave Lowenheim for ninety-in years.  Caldwell and 
Company now holds the lease, and plan are now under way for the building of a 
magnificent bank and office building on the site of the Nichol house.
     Located in the central part of the city, the house was built on the lines 
followed by the early architecture of Nashville, the front wall of the house 
placed close to the street, with the spacious lawn and flower garden in the 
rear of the building.  it was a center of social activity and many famous 
people of the nation were entertained beneath its roof.  Andrew Jackson's 
office was nearby, and some of the most brilliant men of the South discussed 
politics, the all-important question of that time in the Nichol home.  One of 
the most interesting duels of the period was fought in front of the house, on 
Cherry street, now Fourth avenue, by a man named Marlin, editor of the 
American, and Felix K. Zollicoffer, editor of the Banner, the trouble  
resulting from political differences.
     "Norvell's Folly" Recalled
     That Nashville was not such a large city 75 years ago is proved by the 
fact that a man named Norvell built a large three-story building at the corner 
of what is now Broadway and Fourth avenue (the present location of the H. 
Brown Furniture Co.) and it was so far removed  from the business district 
that the block remained idle for years, becoming  known as "Norvell's  folly."  
Several years later it was used for a tobacco warehouse.
     On the corner where the Maxwell House now stands was the undertaking 
establishment of McCoombs and Carson.  In that same community Judge Catron, of 
the United States Supreme Count, and a wealthy man, built an immense home set 
well back on a spacious lawn, an unusual arrangement for a Nashville Home at 
that time, and it was Judge Catron who put down the first dressed stone 
sidewalk.  People flocked from miles around to the great curiosity.  If the 
mere laying of a sidewalk caused so much excitement and interest, it is 
interesting to imagine what those same conservative people would think of some 
of the modern inventions.
     In a building just south of the Maxwell House Dr. Felix Robertson was 
born, Nashville's first white child.  Next door in that building lived William 
Stockell, first fire chief of the city, and further down Cherry street was the 
home of Captain Relsnyder, a noted figure in the early days of Nashville.
   School on Summer and Line
      The children of two generations ago attended Gyles public school on the 
corner of Summer and Line streets, now Fifth avenue and Jo Johnston.  Mr. 
Gyles was one of the first contractors of Nashville, and his wife, Anne T. 
Gyles, was one of the first members of the First Presbyterian Church.
     There are only a few buildings left as old as the Nichol house, and the 
old citizens of Nashville speak of their passing with regret.  Not one of the 
men who knew Nashville a half century ago can talk for long about the old days 
without falling into lapses of forgetfulness of their present surroundings and 
their eyes grow a little sad with remembering scenes from the long ago.  One 
does not wonder at the far away look in their eyes---they are gazing back over 
the longest road in the world, that long, wistful stretch which leads from the 
present to the past, and exists only in memory.

Submitted by Margaret Nolen Nichol, MNNichol@aol.com.  This newspaper clipping  
is in the possession of the submitter.)