Features

I’ve been thinking about change a lot lately. Not the kind that rattles in your pocket, but CHANGE. The big kind. The kind that’s always waiting around the corner like a discarded banana peel ready to send you for a tumble; the kind that you might dodge for while or force back temporarily but will return — perhaps in a different form.

Davidson 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.

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.

In mid-January, a group including District 8 Councilperson Nancy VanReece, local historic preservationists, and reporters from The Madisonian were given an inside look at the former Starday-King Sound Studios in Madison.

When Jay Vorhees signed on as pastor of City Road Chapel United Methodist Church in Madison nearly eight years ago, it was clear that his congregation and campus were at ground-zero for the homeless community in Madison.

Driving South on a sparsely occupied stretch of Dickerson Pike between Old Hickory Boulevard and Briley Parkway, you’ll whiz right past the dilapidated, mid-century commercial building at 3557 Dickerson Pike. The tall, decaying cement block building behind it probably won’t even register — just one more abandoned commercial property awaiting the arrival of the wrecking ball.

After languishing for years in real estate limbo, the former Memorial Hospital site at 612 Due West Boulevard appears to have a bright future.