301 Church St. in Cheatham Building

The brick building on the southwest corner of Church St. and Third Ave. N. is part of three connected buildings called the Cheatham Building, constructed around 1852. The building with the corner entrance at 301 Church St. is the focus of this entry. By 1853, 301 Church held a grocers and liquor wholesale business owned or partly owned by the Cheatham family. An electrical contractor's business was at 301 Church by the 1910s. The Cheatham Building became a National Register listing in 1980; it is one of the few antebellum commercial buildings left in Nashville. The building now houses medical offices of Complete Health Partners.

The southwest corner of Church St. and "College" (now Third Ave. N.) Ave. was owned by John W. Walker after its 1841 purchase from the Porter family for $6,000. Walker is thought to be the one who had the corner building and two adjoing buildings on Church constructed. By the time the property was sold next, in 1863, Porter received $45,000 from W.W. Berry.

The Nashville City Directory from 1853 placed E.S. Cheatham & Co. at this corner (as a tenant); the company wholesaled liquor and groceries. By 1866, R.B. Cheatham Company, wholesale grocers and dealer in "fine brandies, wines, domestic liquors, tobacco, cigars, etc.," was situated on this corner of Church and "College." The company advertised in 1866 that it constantly kept in stock 100 bags of choice Rio Coffee, 200 boxes of Star Candles, 5,000 imported Havana cigars, and 10,000 bushels of cotton seed. Cheatham & Woods, a wholesale grocers and liquor dealer, was the name of the firm on the corner of Church and College by 1870. Charles M. Hays, one of the partners of the firm (formerly known as Cheatham, Woods & Co.), retired in 1869; the remaining partners were R.B. Cheatham and R.F. Woods. Woods bought out Cheatham in 1874 and ran the business until 1877. Ryan & Ryan were the tenants by 1880 and continued the wholesale liquor business.

In the 1910s, a contracting firm named The David Drewer Company occupied 301 Church St. (note that the building with this address is nineteenth-century Nashville was located further west, at the corner with "Vine" (now 7th Ave. N.); the company did electrical, plumbing, and heating work. The owners by the late 1970s, the accounting firm Tongate, Ryan, Connelly, and Shaub, renovated the building and located their offices within. The firm also owned the other buildings that form part of the Cheatham Building NRHP nomination - 305 and 307 Church St; in the 1910s, the interconnected buildings held Ambrose Printing Company.

The three parts of the Cheatham Building complex have three separate rooflines; the flat roofs are stepped, following the uphill slope of Church St. The corner of the building near the street corner has been cut at an angle (chamfered) to accommodate the entrance door, a treatment typical of some 1850s buildings. The doorway was flanked by brick pilasters (flat columns) with stone capitals and bases; a missing one was replaced in 20th-century renovations. The "ghost" outline of a former building behind 301 Church was still visible if you looked at the south elevation; an 1880s photo of the city showed the building that used to stand here, on Third Ave. N.

Anonymous. Plumbing and Heating News: Tennessee. Plumbers' Trade Journal, Steam and Hot Water Fitters' Review. September 15th, 1917. 415 - 416.

Cheatham & Woods. "Announcement." Nashville Union and American (Nashville) January 6th, 1870. Classifieds sec, 3-3.

Complete Health Partners. Downtown Nashville Urgent Care & Walk-in Clinic, Complete Health Partners. August 17th, 2022. Accessed August 17th, 2022. https://completehealthpartners.com/nashville-walkin-clinic/.

Dalton, R. B. Church, Barbara Hume. NRHP Nomination of Cheatham Building, Nashville, Tennessee. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1979.

R.B. Cheatham & Co. "R.B. Cheatham & Co., Wholesale Grocers." Daily Union and American (Nashville) April 4th, 1866. Classifieds sec, 4-4.