In 1917, Dr. Boots Brown had a livery station down the hill from the public square in downtown Nashville on First Avenue North.
Each work day, Horton Early would ride to work in his carriage and horse from his home, Ponotoc, in East Nashville. He customarily crossed the river on the Woodland Street Bridge and proceeded to Dr. Brown’s livery station on First Ave. North near Broadway, where he left his horse, The Emperor, and buggy before walking up the hill to his harness and horse goods store Early-Cain at 715 Second Avenue North. He continued doing this well into the 1920s when modern paving hurt The Emperor’s hooves and forced Early to use an automobile.
In 1917, a three story parking garage was built on 5th Avenue North across the street from the Central Church of Christ. It featured parking inside and on its roof. About the same time, George Cole built a parking garage at 1619 Broadway for horseless carriages. Soon the eight story 7th Avenue Parking Garage was built on the west side of 7th Avenue north between Church and Commerce Streets. It advertised itself as “The largest parking garage in the South.” Later, Lem Stevens owned it.
The Cole and 7th Avenue parking garages were torn down years ago but the 5th Avenue Garage still is operational. I drove up to its roof on June 28, 2024. I noticed parking was advertised at a cheap $10. Two blocks away, there was a huge crowd on Lower Broad. At 3 p.m. on the 28th, there were no cars on the top four levels, and there were 58 cars on the lower four levels. A homeless woman was sleeping on a thin mattress on one of the empty levels.
Several of the narrow inclines to the next level were two-way so to be safe drivers needed to honk before proceeding.
On June 25 at 10 a.m. there were about the same number of cars in the garage. There was no attendant and to pay you needed to have a cell phone, which I don’t have.
My conclusion is that, with no attendant, four empty floors, and a person sleeping on one of them, a single lane to the second floor and limited pay options, the 107-year-old garage should be closed and replaced with a modern building.