The Arcade
Category: History and Architecture Tour
Details
Part of the Nashville Art Walk / History and Architecture Tour:
In what was once known as Overton Alley, local businessman Daniel C. Buntin created the city’s first enclosed shopping area with the Arcade. Modeling it after the famous Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele (1865-77) in Milan, Italy, Buntin persuaded owners of buildings along the alley that an arcade would be a lucrative development. They commissioned the local firm of Thompson, Gibel, and Asmus to design the two-story arcade. Entrances to the Arcade, at Fourth and Fifth Avenues, are marked by identical Palladian facades. The interior space is two stories high, open to the gabled glass roof. Shops and restaurants line both sides of the first level while shops and offices occupy the second floor mezzanine. The Nashville Bridge Company installed the roof’s rolled steel bracing system; the contractor was the Edgefield and Nashville Manufacturing Company. The Arcade caused so much excitement that more than 40,000 people attended the grand opening in 1903. At the time, the population of Davidson County was approximately 125,000.
- 417 Union Restaurant & Bar417 Union St (68 feet NW)
- Prickly Pear Coffee Co.333 (73 feet NE)
- Peanut Shop19 Arcade (96 feet SE)
- House of Pizza15 Arcade (101 feet E)
- Vintage Creek Boutique24 Arcade (18 feet SE)
- L.O.C.A.L. Creative Art Loft64B Arcade (28 feet NW)
- From Nashville With Love5 Arcade (32 feet E)
- The Bubblery Nashville28 Arcade (65 feet SW)
- Peanut Shop19 Arcade (96 feet SE)
- Diana Warner Studio featuring Kim Barry Studio70 Arcade (adjacent)
- Blue Fig Editions56 Arcade (71 feet NE)
- Andy Anh Ha Gallery83 Arcade (147 feet SW)
- Woolworth Theatre223 Rep. John Lewis Way N (221 feet SW)
- Bank of America315 4th Ave N (298 feet N)
- Wells Fargo Garage232 4th Ave N (310 feet NE)
- 201 4th Ave.201 4th Ave N (317 feet SE)
- Fifth Third Center210 Rep. John Lewis Way N (377 feet S)