spring | 2022
Madison's new Downtown Park
issue 1.3
The Best of MadisonRivergate
J oshua H edley The Honky Tonk Professor
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Founder & Publisher
Creative Director
Editor-in-Chief
Layout & Design
Lisa McCauley Chuck Allen
Managing Editor
Randy Fox
Contributing Writers
Leslie LaChance
Chuck Allen
Ad Design
Benjamin Rumble Advertising
Benjamin Rumble
sales@theeastnashvillian.com
Photo Editor
Distribution
Travis Commeau Illustrations
Benjamin Rumble
Clifford Cotton Cory Parsons Thomas Kelly
The Madisonian is a quarterly magazine published by Kitchen Table Media. All editorial content and photographic materials contained herein are “works for hire” and are the exclusive property of Kitchen Table Media, LLC unless otherwise noted. This publication is offered freely, limited to one per reader. The removal of more than one copy by an individual from any of our distribution points constitutes theft and will be subject to prosecution. Reprints or any other usage without the express written permission of the publisher is a violation of copyright. ©2022 Kitchen Table Media P.O. Box 60157, Nashville, TN 37206
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CHANGE LIVES.
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
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BENEFITING
MEDIA PARTNER
Contents
Spring | 2022 | Issue 1.3 features
cover story
Honky Tonk Professor Joshua Hedley's latest album, Neon Blue, pays homage to ’90s Music Row Country, but it's more than just a retrograde experience
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BY RANDY FOX
commentary
Publisher’s Letter 9 BY LISA MCCAULEY
The “MAD” Frontier 11 It’s a bird...It’s a plane...It’s… BY RANDY FOX
in the know
A Proper Place To Play 24 cover shot
Madisonians prioritize a new public park on Madison Station Boulevard BY LESLIE LACHANCE
+ The Madison 30 Square Story BY RANDY FOX
The Best of 32 Madison-Rivergate
Joshua Hedley
The Madison-Rivergate Area Chamber of Commerce announce the winners of their annual “Best of” poll.
PHOTOGRAPH BY TRAVIS COMMEAU
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Publisher’s Letter S
BY LISA MCCAULE Y
pring has sprung, and I couldn’t be any happier! I’m excited to be able to shake off winter and start enjoying the great outdoors again and all other happenings related to this time of year. One of the most important happenings this time of year is high school graduation. I’ve been thinking about my own and how hard my last year of high school was, along with so many other kids who lived in and around Madison at the time. Here’s my story: Along with the last two generations of my family, I attended Dupont (Elementary, Junior High, Senior High), but because Dupont High closed at the end of my junior year, I ended up being a part of the first graduating class of Hunters Lane Comprehensive High School. The first few months at Hunters Lane were downright terrifying. Madison H.S. & Goodlettsville H.S. also closed at the end of the previous school year, bringing together the entire student bodies from these two schools along with a handful of Dupont and some Maplewood students sprinkled in.
With the exception of a few kids from Madison who attended DuPont Elementary K-6, we were a bunch of strangers from very different backgrounds forced together in a place where none of us wanted to be. What could go wrong?! Fights, that’s what. And a lot of them! It was so bad the first week of school that we made the local news every day that week. The good news is it got much better over time. We as a group put our differences aside and learned how to work and grow together, and some of us even became friends. I ended up attending prom with a former Madison student who also happened to be a Dupont Elementary K-6 alumnus. It’s refreshing to see folks stepping up to make a difference in the Madison/Rivergate area. They remind me of my fellow students in that first of graduating class at Hunters Lane — a very diverse community working together for common goals, despite many individual differences. Something we could all use a lot more of these days!
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The Mad Frontier: B Y R A N DY F OX
It’s a bird...It’s a plane...It’s…
I
recently celebrated the anniversary of one of my most significant life events. Fifty years ago, I officially became a comic book fan. That may sound tremendously geeky or at least a statement filled with hyperbole, but it’s a simple truth. In April 1972, I was eight years old, going on nine. Thanks to the Batman TV show and various Saturday morning cartoons, I had dug superheroes since I was around five years old. And although I’d read and even bought a random superhero comic book here or there, I hadn’t put the pieces together yet. That all changed in 1972 when I became friends with a kid named “Red.” I don’t remember his real name now, but he had red hair (hence the nickname) and an encyclopedic knowledge of comic book superheroes. We met on the playground, and he would regale me with tales of superheroes I had never heard of, along with the history of four-color worlds of wonder. He soon began loaning me comics, and almost overnight comic books became my number one obsession and primary weekly expenditure. I had maybe purchased ten comics in the first eight years and 11 months of my life, but now I was bringing two or three every week. But I wasn’t just reading and accumulating comics. I wanted to know everything about them. Not just the mythologies of these pulp paper worlds but who wrote them and drew them and the medium’s history. Its evolution from comic strips, how it was influenced by something called “pulp magazines,” and more. Letter pages alerted me to a thing called “fandom.” Fans corresponded with each other, self-published something called “fanzines,” organized conventions, and a lucky few became professional writers and artists. I wanted in on ALL of it. I didn’t realize that I was choosing an identity for myself that wasn’t the result of my parents, school, or church. It was a concept of self that I embraced whole-heartedly and that I alone owned. Comic books were not just something I liked; being a comic
book fan was who I was. In retrospect, it gave me a template for every subsequent concept of self throughout my life: movie critic, music journalist, fiction writer, magazine editor — or more simply put — writer. I learned that my concept of self wasn’t necessarily tied to my profession at the time, nor was it something I could allow other people to impose upon me. Whatever I wanted to do and whomever I wanted to be started within me. Or, to borrow a phrase from The Rocky Horror Picture Show (one of many teenage obsessions), “Don’t dream it, BE it.” This idea of owning your concept of self has not only been on my mind because of 50 years of not “outgrowing” funny books (which my mother was sure I would do someday) but also because Nashville and its neighborhoods, like Madison, are at a crossroads. Over a decade as the “It” City seems to be wheezing to an end, and the question is, “What’s next?” While it’s much harder for a city or a neighborhood to stay true to a singular concept of self than an individual because it’s made up of multiple individuals and influenced by so many external factors, the heart of a community starts with individuals coming together for a common purpose and working out a consensus of vision. Do you want Madison and the larger city of Nashville to be a better place for all, a place where justice, opportunity, and a sense of community stand tall? Well, it’s not going to be an easy task, nor a simple one. Still, as with all concepts of self, the start is to decide who and what your community is, even if others tell you it’s impossible to achieve or mistakes your conviction for a silly obsession. Perhaps you’ll succeed, or maybe you’ll fail. Most likely, you will land somewhere in the middle, between your ideals and something else, but no matter the result, having that faith to believe in something bigger and better is the first step to achieving anything. And that’s a superpower we all share.
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HONKY TONK PROFESSOR Joshua Hedley's latest album, Neon Blue, Pays Homage to ’90s Music Row Country, But it's more than just a retrograde experience Story by Randy Fox Photography by Travis Commeau
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O
n “Country & Western,” a key track from Joshua Hedley’s new album, Neon Blue, the 37-year-old singer/songwriter slyly confronts one of the great country music conundrums. What does a country singer in the 21st century call their music?
They say I’m neofolk, a traditional outlaw Americana troubadour, that doesn’t sound like me at all I sing about real life, like drinking, cheating, and loving I’m what they used to simply call country music The problem, of course, is in Hedley’s answer, which is too vague for modern pop music taxonomy. A more detailed categorization is required. Are you a Bro-Country dude singing red-state anthems of pick-up trucks and hot girls in Daisy Dukes? Or a roots music artisan crafting driveway moments for the NPR-icana crowd? Or perhaps you’re a new millennium outlaw drinkin’ and cussin’ and hellraisin’ with every country-punk nugget you spit out? In 2022, it’s vital to commit — a legion of radio programmers, music critics, and marketing professionals need to know. With his new album, Hedley deftly throws a monkey wrench into the works of the country marketing machinery. While he seemed to be firmly pegged as a traditional country revivalist with his first record, 2017’s Mr. Jukebox, which drew inspiration from late 60s era countrypolitan pioneers, Neon Blue is rooted firmly in the sound of the 1990s hat act era, a period many country revivalists regard with scorn. Perhaps the real problem for the gatekeepers is that Hedley’s a true country music polymath who has absorbed all of country music’s rich and varied history while keeping his focus on the future. By being one of a rare breed of artists who’s able to navigate the tricky path between inspiration and imitation, Hedley not only confounds the marketeers but brings something genuinely new and vital to vistas others might consider frozen in amber, or as he says in “Country and Western,”
I studied all the legends and learned from what they done. No, I’m not trying to rewind time; I’m just doing what I love. A native of a distinctly un-country area of the American South — Naples, Florida, aka “Golf Capital of the World” — Hedley’s road to defining himself began at a very early age and under circumstances that would seem to indicate the hillbilly gene is a product of nature instead of nurture.
“For whatever reason, I asked for a fiddle when I was three years old,” Hedley recalls. “Neither of my parents listened to country music, so where I found out what a fiddle was is shrouded in mystery.” Faced with the horrifying prospect of a three-year-old sawing away on a fiddle all day, his parents managed to kick the can down the road a few years. Hedley persisted, and at age eight, his parents folded with the stipulation that classical violin lessons were part of the deal. Hedley says his quest for country continued, however. “My classical teacher knew that I wanted to play fiddle music, so she taught herself fiddle tunes, and after my classical lesson, she would teach them to me.” Mastering the basics, Hedley soon began a self-study in the most acoustically-perfect location he could find. “Somehow or somewhere, when I was about 10, I got a hold of some country music, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys and Merle Haggard,” Hedley says. “After that, it was on. I had a Bob Wills double CD set with all of his hits on it. I would take my fiddle into my parent’s bathroom, close the door, listen to the CD, and learn all the Bob Wills and Joe Holley fiddle parts. I taught myself these old Western swing songs but had nowhere to play them.” The lack of places to play soon changed as Hedley’s skill on the fiddle progressed. By the age of 12, he was landing paying gigs. “I had been doing my bathroom Bob Wills thing long enough to develop an ear for improvisation,” Hedley says. “My parents started taking me to sit in with bands at the VFW halls and bluegrass jams, and I started playing in country bands around town. I was playing almost every weekend, making money.” Fortunately for Hedley, his parents supported his career choice, bringing him to Nashville in 1996 to attend the Mark O’Connor Fiddle Camp. He spent a week studying technique with the renowned fiddler and violinist and then another week hustling sit-in gigs on Lower Broadway. Annual summer trips to Nashville continued, and by the time he was 19 and ready to move to the Music City, he already had a regular gig lined up as a sideman on Lower Broadway. “That’s when my education really got started,” Hedley says. Working with several different bands on Lower Broadway, Hedley was an apt pupil at the university of honky tonk. Although he had little interest in becoming a headliner, he was wise enough to identify an opportunity when it came his way.
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“I had joined Brazilbilly [the house band at Lower Broadway’s Robert’s Western World], but I got let go because they had two fiddle players and decided they only needed one. I said, ‘Okay, if I’m getting let go from this gig, I want you to give me one of my own,’ and they did. I started playing with a three-piece country trio on Wednesday afternoons.” Despite moving to the center of the stage at Robert’s, Hedley says he had no interest in pursuing “stardom” further. He continued to work in Justin Townes Earle’s road band and eventually moved over to backing alt-country troubadour Jonny Fritz. “I played with Jonny for seven years,” Hedley says. “Towards the tail end of that time, I started writing songs. I wrote ‘Weird Thought Thinker’ [a song that would eventually appear on Hedley’s Mr. Jukebox] and played it for him. He loved it and asked me to play it at his shows. I started writing more, and one song turned into two, and then those two turned into me opening for Jonny. We were touring in Australia, and people would come to the show and ask where my CD was. I figured I better have something to sell, so I made an EP called Don’t Waste Your Tears.” The EP features four songs written by Hedley and was cut at Jeremy Ferguson’s Battle Tapes Recording in East Nashville in 2016. The self-released EP sold well enough to pay for itself. However, of more importance, it brought attention to Hedley as both a singer and songwriter, especially when a copy ended up in the hands of Third Man Records co-owner Jack White. “I had done some session work with Jack on some of the Third Man ‘Blue Series’ singles,” Hedley says. “Initially, they wanted to release the EP on vinyl, which was great, but I came back with more songs, so they signed me to a one-album deal, and that’s where Mr. Jukebox came from.” Recycling two songs from the EP, Hedley cut the remainder of the album at Battle Tapes, working with the same musicians. Recorded in an independent studio far from Music Row with a group of fellow Lower Broadway players then released on the label owned by one of Nashville’s biggest rock stars — Mr. Jukebox might seem to be pure rebellion against the current mainstream slate of Bro-Country. But there’s an ironic twist: it also served as a counterpoint to the standard-issue alt-country rebellion of the time. “[Mr. Jukebox] was born out of two things,” Hedley says. “I was heavy into early Willie Nelson records and Owen Bradley’s productions from the late sixties, and also hearing the traditional revival that was going on when everyone was sticking around that ’70s outlaw movement sound. I wanted to turn the dial back a bit. I wanted to do something different. So I decided to go full countrypolitan. For Hedley, that meant taking a deep dive into a period of country music that is often overlooked and undervalued
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“
WE MADE A ’90S COUNTRY RECORD AND IT TURNED OUT
— the late 1960s when mainstream Nashville (and West Coast) studios were producing records that perfectly balanced honky tonk authenticity with big strings and pop vocal backings. Whether he’s channeling the epic heartbreak majesty of pre-Billy Sherrill George Jones in the song “Counting All My Tears,” the sophisticated country introspection of cardigan-sweater era Willie Nelson in “Let’s Take a Vacation,” or capturing the big Bakersfield emotional sweep of Wynn Stewart in the album’s title track — Mr. Jukebox delivered the goods with multiple replays. “I wanted people to like it, but it was also very much scratching an inch for me,” Hedley says. “I wanted to see if I could recreate that
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timeless sound. In my opinion, we pulled it off, and people really seemed to like it. My whole life just changed. It was pretty wild.” Amongst these externalities, Hedley dealt with an internal upheaval of the spiritual sort. “I got sober a few months before I made Mr. Jukebox,” Hedley says. “I knew I had to do it. I knew I was an alcoholic for a long time, but I was also a slave to authenticity, which was total bullshit. I felt I had to drink because that’s what all my heroes did — like I was a poser if I was out there singing drinkin’ songs and not drinking. It took its toll on me. You can build a legend as a drunk, but you can’t maintain anything, and if you want to talk about authenticity, here’s some: all those guys
either sobered up or they died.” While embracing sobriety was the right move, sticking with it one day at a time is the more significant challenge. “I got sober in 2017, and I stayed sober for a little while. Made Mr. Jukebox and started touring on that. I could blame the stress of the road or whatever, but in actuality, I just caved and started drinking again. Now I’m on round two, two years clean.” The start of Hedley’s second round of sobriety coincided with the pandemic’s arrival. While it meant his opportunities to tour were curtailed, it gave him time to think about the direction for his follow-up record, Neon Blue. “I don’t want to make the same record
THE ’90S COUNTRY WAY, EXACTLY THE WAY I WANTED IT TO.
“
JOSHUA HEDLEY twice,” Hedley says. “Just like Mr. Jukebox was influenced by what I was listening to at the time, this one was too. When Joe Diffie died, I went down a YouTube rabbit hole of his songs, and that turned into listening to all the hits from the ’90s. I’ve always revered that era of country. That’s what was on the radio when I was a kid, and it was a turning point. The last great era of country music where you could turn the radio on and immediately know you were hearing a country song because there was fiddle and steel on everything.” Hedley was ready to go when an offer to record a new album materialized from New West Records. He knew the sound he wanted and how to achieve it. “I made Mr. Jukebox in a home studio with my buddies, and I pretty
much wrote every song on it,” he says. “On this one, I had a different approach. I didn’t just want to make a ’90s sounding record. I wanted to do the whole Nashville thing.” First up was writing a batch of new songs. Doing the ’90s-Nashville thing meant heading for the writer’s room with some cowriters. “First up was Carson Chamberlain, who wrote hits in the ’90s for George Strait, Dean Dillon, and Alan Jackson,” Hedley says. “He called in a couple of other guys [Wyatt McCubbin and Zach Top], and we did three-way writes because when you get three good writers in a room, you have to try not to write a good song. Every song on this record was probably written in 30 minutes or less.” With the songs in hand, Hedley cut the
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record in the heart of Music Row at the historic Ronnie’s Place studio, using the cream of the current crop of Nashville studio musicians. “We made a ’90s country record the ’90s country way, and it turned out exactly the way I wanted it to,” Hedley says. The result is an album that checks off all the touchstones of early ’90s country, from honky tonk stompers (“Broke Again,” “Wonder If You Wonder,” and the album’s title track, “Neon Blue”) to heartbreak weeper singalongs (“Old Heartbroke Blues”). It also delivers some classic country shuffles (“Country & Western” and “The Last Thing in the World”). Of course, there are confessional ballads — “Free (One Heart)” and “Found in a Bar” — before closing with a perfectly chosen cover tune (a
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magnificent rendition of Roger Miller’s “River in the Rain”). While it’s an album sure to please any fan of ’90s country, it also may surprise the most diehard hat act hater. “I wanted to make a fun record, especially given the last couple of years of bullshit we’ve all been through,” Hedley says. “There’s so much feel-good party music that came out of that era of the ’90s that I knew that’s what it had to be.” “I understand some people’s reaction, though,” Hedley continues. “You couldn’t have made me listen to a Shania Twain record in 1996 — gun to my head, pay me a million dollars — it just wasn’t going to happen. But looking back on it now, ‘Whose Bed Has Your Boots Been Under?’ is a 4/4 shuffle. There ain’t nothing more country than a 4/4 shuffle. As I get older and learn more about music and appreciate more aspects of music, going back and listening to the ’90s stuff with a better education on how it was made is great, and I love it.” That ability to love the past and yet constantly reappraise and revise his passions for it may be the key to Hedley’s ability to wander the vast landscape of more than a century of country
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music and bring something new to each era he’s visiting. It’s the difference between being stuck in the past and creating an alternative present when the emotional lushness of countrypolitan or the “party on, country dude” fun of hat acts can both thrive in the 2020s. With Neon Blue dropping on April 22, Hedley is eager to get back on the road, although he’s the first to admit that it will take some adjustment after two years at home with Robert’s as his primary stage. “We just played South by Southwest a few weeks ago, and I was sitting in the van after a show, and it dawned on me — I’ve not played outside a 10-mile radius of my house in two years,” Hedley says. “I had forgotten how to play for an entire audience who’s paying attention. I’d forgotten how to talk between songs — all of it. It’s different from being the background music at Robert’s, but it’s coming back, and I’m excited to get out on the road again.” As for the future, Hedley takes his self-declared position as a “singing professor of country and western” seriously by refusing to be stuck in the ’90s, the ’60s, or any particular stylistic period. “I have ideas galore,” he says. “I want to do an old-school duet record where
it’s just me and one other person, like a George and Tammy or Dolly and Porter or Conway and Loretta. I want to do a ’70s honky tonk record. I want to do a Mel Street cover record. I even want to do a hard jazz instrumental record. So there you go.”
Joshua Hedley’s Neon Blue April 22 via New West Records available at fine local record stores or joshuahedley.com instagram @joshuahedley facebook @joshuahedleymusic
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A Proper
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Place To Play Madisonians prioritize a new public park on Madison Station Boulevard BY LE S LIE LACH A N C E
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Scan to purchase tickets!
of visioning efforts that have led us to where we are today. It’s not exactly a new idea. We’re just starting to see the vision more clearly. I think the stars are aligning.” District 8 Metro Council Member Nancy VanReece, who serves the Madison community, hopes the proposed park becomes a reality within the next two years. “It’s been part of
the complete Madison Station vision for quite some time, and it’s already been designated as a priority in the city’s Capital Improvement Budget,” she observes. The need for a mixeduse park in downtown Madison was also noted in Plan to Play, Metro’s parks, and the greenspace master plan adopted in 2017. The future park is currently referred to as
Nashville
Join us for SipTN Wine Fest in Madison at the Amqui Station on June 4th, 2022 from 1-6 pm! 15 different wineries from across the state are coming together to bring you this unique tasting experience. Shop wines, browse artisan vendors, and enjoy live jazz music and food trucks for an afternoon filled with fun! Must be 21+ to attend. Visit SipTN.com/nashville for more information.
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3D renderings on pages 24-27 by HDLA; courtesy Civic Design Center
A
century ago, the open space behind the Madison Branch of the Nashville Public Library was filled with children at play. It served as the recess grounds for students at the former J. Taylor Stratton School, which once occupied the site. Today it’s a staging ground for construction equipment and materials to build the new Madison Station Boulevard and other nearby projects. The hope in Madison, though, is that soon the space will again be filled with people at play, folks of all ages. The new park promises to be a green-space jewel amidst ongoing mixed-use development. “The actual park idea in the downtown Madison area has been discussed since 2012,” explains Eric Hoke, the Design Director at The Civic Design Center, a local non-profit helping communities advocate for civic design that will improve quality of life. “There has been a series
Madison Station Park; however, another name is being considered. “I’ve reached out to the Sturdivant family [the descendants of famed country singer Kitty Wells], and they are on board with the idea of calling it The Kitty Wells and Johnnie Wright Park,” VanReece says. Naming the park for these two country music legends, who lived
in Madison, is in keeping to have a park that in some way celebrates the artistic heritage of the community. It would be a fitting commemoration for the famous couple. Wright died in 2011, and his wife Kitty in 2012. Together with other stakeholders in the Madison Station area, and with the support of grants from The Park Foundation and The
Memorial Foundation, the Civic Design Center has conducted a series of community meetings to gather ideas about what kind of park stakeholders desire. The group also worked with HDLA, a local landscape architecture firm, to generate schematic drawings, some of which accompany this article. What has emerged from these efforts is a thoughtful design that seems to have a little something for everybody, with open space, a walking path, shade, sports courts, playgrounds, native plants, and proximity to entertainment venues, businesses, and transportation services. The park is centrally located on Madison Station Boulevard, directly across the street from the Timberhawk Hall, the entertainment venue currently under construction, and close to Amqui Station, Nashville Fire Department Station 31, and FiftyForward, a lifelong learning and community center for adults over age 50. “We will be able to activate that park so easily between all of us,” Brandy Lamb,
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marketplace
NETHERANIUM PHOTOS For the weirdo, for the artist, for the unconventional human
catch me on IG under the same name
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“It has this nexus of the community already. I think it could anchor downtown Madison to make it a true community center” — Eric Hoke Director of FiftyForward, says. “It’s in the perfect spot. We’ll be able to immediately extend and enhance some of our programming through the park.” She’d like to see outdoor tai chi and yoga classes, and she’s excited that the FiftyForward walking club and other social groups will have a pleasant outdoor place to gather. Of course, there will be a basketball court, a tennis court, and perhaps a pickleball court and splash pad. “I love how they have thought it out so carefully and that it is not just a single-use kind of park. It’s made to be accessible, so that’s great for our members, of course. The Civic Design Center impressed me by keeping in mind what people wanted and making it a reality,” Lamb observes. “We’ll have
a little town center gathering place in Madison. I see it as such a benefit. It keeps checking all the boxes and making sense,” she adds. At least 6000 people are within walking distance of the park, and, as the area develops, it will serve even more. It’s also just a short walk from the busiest bus stop in Metro, which happens to be in front of the library. The new park will be close to many businesses along the Gallatin Pike corridor, like Madtown Coffee and Subway, and the new transit center proposed for the developing Madison Station area. “It has this nexus of the community already. I think it could anchor downtown Madison to make it a true community center,” Hoke observes. “And I think we’ve set Metro up
to implement this park fairly quickly, once approved. The stakeholders have been involved since the beginning; it’s their vision.” The matter involves getting the park to the top of the mayor’s priority list. The project carries a price tag of just over $6 million. “We’ve asked folks to let the mayor know they want it, and he’s heard loud and clear,” VanReece says. “I’ve recently had two long meetings with him to talk about its importance, and I have no reason to believe he’s not going to do the right thing. The last meeting we had was to help him see how the footprint of what is going to be the mall, Madison Square Station, fits into that project.” VanReece hopes to see shovels in the ground sometime next summer. “I’ve held elected office for over seven years, and this is one of the things I’ve been working on the whole time,” she says. “I feel very optimistic about it.”
For more information about the park, visit the project page at civicdesigncenter.org
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The Madison Square Story By Randy Fox
D
avidson County’s “ultra-modern” suburban shopping complex, Madison Square Shopping Center, began its life in July 1954 when the ground was broken on 30 acres of former farmland along Gallatin Pike, just south of Neelys Bend Road. Designed by Nashville architectural firm Marr and Holman, the L-shaped complex consisted of two buildings and a 2,300 space parking lot, costing over $2.7 million and requiring over two years to construct. The complex initially featured 170,000 square feet of retail space, besting the
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Madison Square in an aerial photograph circa 1957, looking west across Gallatin Pike. Courtesy Metro Archives.
recently opened Green Hills Center by 40,000 square feet. It was the largest shopping complex in Davidson County at the time. When it opened on Thursday, Nov. 29, 1956, Madison Square featured 26 tenants, with the first J.C. Penney store in Davidson County as its
primary anchor. Other major retailers included a Kroger grocery store, McClure’s Department Store, Walgreens Drug Store, Woolworth variety store, and Three Sisters and Levy’s Men’s and Boy’s clothing shops. Opening day activities included an army of “Santa’s Helpers”
dressed in red suits to guide shoppers and answer questions. A hovering helicopter over the parking lot would periodically “bombard” shoppers with candy. From the beginning, Madison Square proved to be a hit with shoppers, as it attracted customers from throughout Davidson and surrounding counties. The idea of suburban shopping was still new then. Still, with the rapid growth of suburbs in the 1950s, the convenience of shopping centers (and their soon-to-follow sibling, the indoor shopping mall) quickly began to supplant urban shopping districts. In 1959, the first Shoney’s Big Boy drive-in restaurant in the country opened at the northeast corner of the Madison Square parking lot, and an adjacent miniature golf course was also added. In January 1962, Madison Squares’ first large expansion was announced. Harvey’s Department Store had ruled Nashville’s downtown shopping district for almost two decades.
The store’s plan to open its first branch location in a new, purpose-built 60,000 square foot space in Madison Square was major news. Completed in eight months, the new Harvey’s opened on Sept. 24, 1962. In addition to the largest indoor aquarium in the state of Tennessee at the time, the store featured three floors with one of the largest record departments in Nashville and a full-service bakery that would fill the store with the odor of freshbaked pastries each morning. Over the next two decades, Madison Square continued to thrive as new and popular businesses took residence, and several shops developed unique gimmicks to attract shoppers. The Lazy Susan Restaurant opened in 1963 and featured a spinning turntable of dishes at each table, resulting in frequent clean-up of spills from young diners. Chester’s Department Store featured a talking and wolf-whistling myna bird that attracted its own fan following. In 1969, a second expansion was added in the
back parking lot that included a movie theater and more new shops. Perhaps the most popular (or notorious) of Madison Square’s attractions was Harvey’s “Talking Christmas Tree,” which the store added to their already dizzying array of Christmas decorations in the late ’60s. This large, chatty conifer featured a swollen, grotesque human face that interacted with shoppers, possibly leading to Madison having one of the highest rates of childhood dendrophobia in North America. By the 1980s, Madison Square was facing rocky times. J.C. Penney moved their location to Rivergate Mall in 1977, and Harvey’s closed in 1988 after the chain was sold to the Peebles department store. Over the next three decades, businesses came and went at the venerable retail center while different plans to renovate or rejuvenate the property failed to find traction. With the current plans for Madison Station park, “The Square” may, at last, be facing a bright future.
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T H E B E ST O F
Madison-Rivergate Best Place to Work:
King’s Daughters Child Development Center Best Customer Service: Restaurant:
Chick-Fil-A
Best Customer Service: Retail:
Garden Fresh Food Market
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Best Customer Service: Professional Services:
Nashville Neck & Back Best Community Involvement:
FiftyForward Madison Station
Best Storefront:
Best American Food:
Best Hair Stylist:
Best Hispanic Food:
Eastside Bowl Samantha Blackburn Best Coffee Shop:
Madtown Coffee Best Healthy Food:
Best Madison-Rivergate Neighbor:
Dr. Andy Roberts
Chef’s Market
Chef’s Market
Garden Fresh Food Market Best Asian Food:
China Cottage Restaurant Best Southern Food:
Bailey and Cato’s
The Madison-Rivergate Area Chamber of Commerce recently
announced the results of their annual “Best of” poll. Congratulations to all the Winners!
Best Fried Food:
Slow Burn Hot Chicken
Best Pizza:
Rock’n Dough Best Catering:
Best Steakhouse:
LongHorn Steakhouse
Crave Catering Best Baked Goods/ Desserts:
McGaugh’s Do-nuts
Best Soup/Sandwiches:
Panera Bread Best BBQ:
Whitt’s Barbecue
Best Breakfast:
SideKicks Café
Best Lunch Spot:
SideKicks Café Best Bar:
Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge Best Wine and Spirits:
Madison Beverage Warehouse Best Dining Experience:
LongHorn Steakhouse
Best Madison-Rivergate Landmark:
Amqui Station and Visitors Center Best Place to Work Out:
FiftyForward Madison Station
Best Place to Meet New People:
FiftyForward Madison Station
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Best Local Photographer:
Stacey Huckeba
Best Grocery:
Garden Fresh Food Market
Best Local Artist:
John Hamlin
Best Convenience Store:
Thornton’s
Best Local Musician:
Carlene Carter Best Family Activity:
Eastside Bowl
Best Gift Shop:
Miller’s Florist Best Women’s Apparel:
TJ Maxx
Best Eyewear:
America’s Best Best Jewelry:
Berry’s Jewelry Best Florist:
Miller’s Florist Best Auto Dealer:
Serra Chevrolet Buick GMC
Best Entertainment Venue:
Eastside Bowl
Best Men’s Apparel:
Dillard’s of Rivergate
Best Retirement Community:
Maybelle Carter Living
Best Kids’ Apparel:
Best Home Goods:
Best Shoe Store:
Nest 615 Antiques & Vintage
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TJ Maxx
DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse
Best Sporting Goods:
Academy Sports and Outdoors
Best Place to Register for Wedding Gifts:
Target
Best Store Mascot:
Shop Cat from Nest 615 Best Martial Arts Instruction:
Master Green’s Tang Soo Do Best Chiropractor:
Nashville Neck and Back Best Pharmacy:
Rams Pharmacy
Best Retail Concept:
Nest 615 Antiques & Vintage
Best Dentist:
Dr. Mark Thomasson, Thomasson Dental
Best Veterinarian:
Mobley Veterinary Clinic
Financial Advisor:
Ralph Ruby
Best Realtor (Commercial): Best Place to Get a Massage:
Mind Body Institute
Donna Shell
Best Realtor (Residential): Best Lawyer:
Bill Beck, Beck & Beck Attorneys at Law Best Bank:
Pinnacle Financial Partners Best Credit Union:
Old Hickory Credit Union Best Financial Advisor:
Edward Jones
Ashley Morrison simplihom
Best Insurance, Car, and Home:
Paul Corley, State Farm Best Private School:
Goodpasture Christian School
Best Day Care:
Goodpasture Great Beginnings
Best Pet Grooming:
My Puppy Parlor Best Cleaning Service:
Rivergate Muffler & Auto Repair
Servpro of East Nashville/Madison/ Goodlettsville
Best Plumber:
Best Non-Profit:
Best Mechanic:
Jack Ward & Sons Plumbing Co. Best Electrician:
Wm Massey Electric, LLC Best Moving Company:
True Friends Moving Company
FiftyForward Madison Station Best Civic Organization:
MadisonGoodlettsville Rotary Club Best New Business:
Eastside Bowl
Best Public School:
Neely’s Bend LEAD
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