Features
Remembering Old Tent City
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If you were to drive one mile south of downtown and hang a left on Anthes Drive which snakes down to the Cumberland River, you would find over 20 acres of land that are now fenced off and flanked with barbed wire and “no trespassing” signs. Over the past 40 years, thousands of unhoused Nashvillians have called this land home. Before it was closed by city officials in June of 2025, the area was endearingly, and somewhat notoriously, known as Old Tent City. On my first visit to the camp in September of 2008, thick morning fog held around trees, emanating from the riverbank. I walked the well-worn footpath with other outreach workers past the Music City Star tracks along an old chain-link fence.
