From the Southwestern Archives: Buildings Edition #1
This series is the first in many dedicated to the Nashville buildings that have housed the Southwestern main offices since its origination in the mid-1800s. The addresses of the buildings are easily identifiable (even from the early days); however, tracking down the physical location of a 19th-century address takes a bit more digging. This is the case with the original building Southwestern operated from. No known Nashville maps prior to 1888 show recorded street numbers. In that same year, a new numbering system was created, which makes the old street address locations impossible to identify. The map above, from 1889, shows the closest approximation of what we can identify as the first Southwestern Publishing House building. It likely stood on the corner of what is now 2nd Ave North and Gay Street (behind the Davidson County Courthouse). Unfortunately, the original buildings on this block no longer exist.
The South-Western Publishing House
South-Western Publishing House emerged in Nashville after the city was established as the capital of the state in 1843 and before being seized during the Civil War in 1862. During this time, the city was becoming a vibrant, bustling town filled with activity: horse & buggies, storefronts with all the latest wares, home goods, and clothes-making supplies, photography studios, schools, churches, and a burgeoning publishing industry.
Reverend James Robinson “J.R.” Graves
Reverend James Robinson “J.R.” Graves had been involved in the industry for years before becoming the associate editor of a religious publication called Tennessee Baptist. In 1857, he became sole proprietor, and at the time, the publication is said to have had 14,000 subscribers. The first address associated with the South-Western Publishing House appears in an ad in the 1859 Nashville Business Directory as “No. 59 North Market Street.” Market Street would eventually become 2nd Ave North, and the best approximation of the cross street of that building is Gay Street.
“First Impressions of the South-Western Publishing House,” a Review
A portrayal in an 1860 issue of the Tennessee Baptist describes the equipment at work in the “Press Room” of the building. The author does their best to illustrate “a scene of life and activity … that far surpasses [their] powers of description.” The article details cutting-edge equipment such as Hoe’s large cylinder presses, “printing … at twelve to fifteen hundred copies an hour,” while Chamber’s folding machine was taking them as they came from the press and putting them into “that neat compact shape in which they reach the reader’s hands.” An Adams printing press was hard at work, “striking off with great rapidity and precision” a children’s book.
“We stood almost bewildered and confounded in the midst of all those potent agencies – of steam engines, spindle wheels and printing presses, all in the full glow of their activity …”
A storefront is also depicted in the building as being the “scale of wholesale magnitude that betokened a large and thriving business.” Found inside were a range of works (both printed in-house and by others) that included Science, Theology, Literature, and Education. The article concludes by affirming that South-Western Publishing House is a “great institution” producing works of great value to the community and the country.
(Photo: Hoe’s large cylinder press – Courtesy of the Library of Congress)
Nashville is Overtaken by Union Soldiers and Graves Moves to Memphis
It’s hard to imagine what Nashville looked like as it was overtaken by Union soldiers in 1862 (when Graves was forced to leave the city). With dedication and refusal to give up, he moved his operation to Memphis and set an example of tenacity, a pillar of Southwestern tradition that persists today.
Stay tuned for “Buildings Edition #2” when the company returns to Nashville.
Image Citations:
• “Catalogue of Books.” Tennessee Baptist, 5 Feb. 1859.
• R. Hoe & Company. Catalogue of Single and Double Cylinder and Type Revolving Printing Machines … &c. [New York, F. Hart & co., printers, 1860] Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/06015651/.
• “Market Street,” Calvert Brothers, Library Photograph Collection, Drawer 18, Folder 184, 3563, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Tennessee Virtual Archive, https://teva.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15138coll25/id/1421, accessed 2024-11-23.
• “Nashville. Plate 2 from G. M. Hopkins’ Atlas of Nashville (1889),” G.M. Hopkins & Co., 1889, Hopkins Atlases, 44773, Tennessee State Library & Archives, Tennessee Virtual Archive, https://teva.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15138coll23/id/10091, accessed 2024-11-25.
