John Wesley Work House

The Queen Anne style house at 1030 17th Avenue N. is the John Wesley Work House, a historic building on the Fisk University campus. The 2.5-story residence dates to 1878 and was built next to the Fisk campus by a dean, Adam K. Spence; the upper story and a half date to after 1914 and the porch used to be on the south side of the building. Decades later, the house became the residence of John W. Work III, a music teacher at Fisk beginning in 1937 and director of the Jubilee Singers. Work was a composer who specialized in the study of rural African American folk music. An award-winning restoration of the building was conducted in 2011 by a major African American owned and operated architectural firm, Moody-Nolan of Columbus, Ohio. The John Wesley Work House is one of the historical buildings that make up the Fisk University National Register Historic District, listed in 1978.

Both John Wesley Work III (1901-1967) and his father, John Wesley Jr. (1871-1925) spent time as the director of the Jubilee Singers at Fisk University. John Jr.'s father was born enslaved in Kentucky and became a church choir director in Nashville. John Jr. graduated from Fisk in 1895 and was one of the first African Americans to study and collect African American folk songs and spirituals; he married Agnes Haynes in 1899. John Jr. was hired as a Latin and history instructor by Fisk in 1904. The Song and Story Club was founded at Fisk in 1917 with John Jr. as its director and John III as vice-president. The plan for the club was to tell the story of a good man's life at each meeting, or for inspiring songs to be sung and their meaning explained. The boy's club met in John Jr.'s home on Fridays at 4:30. at the Training School, or in Livingstone Hall. The club's slogan was "Be Kind, Be Brave, Be Good, Be Truthful, Be Clean." John Jr.(age 47) and his wife, Agnes (42) lived at 1607 Harding St. in 1920, with their children John III (18), Merrill C. (14), Helen E. (11). Julian C. (9), and Frances S. (2). A widowed roomer, Philip Horner (77) also lived in the home, which was owned by John Jr. In 1923, John Jr. left his position at Fisk to serve as president of another Nashville school, Roger Williams University. He died in 1925.

John Wesley Work III was born in Tullahoma, Tennessee in 1901. His mother also was involved in music; she helped her husband train the Jubilee Singers. A graduate of the Fisk University class of 1923, Work III received a master's degree from Columbia University in New York City in 1930. His thesis was on American Negro Songs and Spirituals. He began teaching music at Fisk in 1937 and moved into the house at the corner of 17th Ave. N. and Meharry Blvd. He later became chair of the University's Department of Music. Work III created over 100 musical compositions, mainly in choral and solo-voice music. He directed the Fisk Jubilee Singers from 1948 to 1957. The group is credited with funding the financially struggling college through its performances across America and Europe in 1871. The singing group returned to Europe in 1956 and gave 54 concerts in nine countries.

During the summers of 1941 and 1942, Work III and two colleagues from Fisk - sociologists Lewis Jones and Charles L. Johnson - collaborated with the Library of Congress to conduct a study of folk culture of African Americans in a part of the Mississippi Delta. One of the Blues singers was a then-unknown who went by the nickname Muddy Waters. Work III also gathered recordings of vocal performances he titled Negro Folk Songs of the American Southeast at the Fort Valley Music Festivals in Georgia. Since folk songs were often performed a little different each time, it was a challenge to transcribe the lyrics and notes; Work III considered the process to be collecting variants of a song. In 1963, Fisk awarded Work III an honorary doctorate. He retired three years later and passed away in 1967.

The sons of John W. Work III, John and Frederick, lived in this 17th Ave. N. house when they were growing up. In 1940, John was 7 and Fred was 4; their father was 38 and their mother, Edith M., a South Carolina native, was 37. John III owned the house in 1940, which was valued at $6,000. Frederick Work is notable for being one of the first students of color at nearby Vanderbilt Law School. In 1977, the house was still owned by John III's widow, Edith, who resided there. The 2.5-story house was covered with asbestos shingle siding and featured stacked porches (added after 1914, based on the Sanborn map of a one-story brick house with a wooden porch facing south). A 2011 restoration project involved replacing the roof and repairing the crumbling stone foundation and brick chimney. The building is still part of the Fisk campus; there's an historical marker on the front lawn.

Anonymous. "Fisk Helping the Boys." Nashville Globe (Nashville) December 15th, 1911. Christmas ed, 1-1.

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Lanum, Mackenzie. John Wesley Work III (1901-1967), Blackpast. May 31st, 2011. Accessed November 8th, 2022. https://www.Blackpast.org/african-american-history/work-john-wesley-iii-1901-1967/.

Library of Congress. John Wesley Work, III (1901-1967), Biographies. Accessed November 7th, 2022. https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200196580/.

Phelps, Colleen. From a Mountain to a Little Light: Three Men Named John Work..., Nashville Classical Radio. July 16th, 2020. Accessed November 8th, 2022. https://91classical.org/post/from-a-mountain-to-a-little-light-three-men-named-john-work-traced-a-century-of-african-american-music/.

Pilsk, Berle. Looney, Percy. NRHP Nomination of Fisk University Historic District. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1977.

Remember Our Music. Born July 15, 1901 John Wesley Work "Rise, Shine, for Thy Light is a Comin'", YouTube. July 15th, 2016. Accessed November 7th, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7Ik9ask19U.

U.S. Census Bureau. Household of John W. Work at 1607 Harding St., Nashville Ward 3, Tennessee, dwelling 187, family 187. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1920.

U.S. Census Bureau. Household of John W. Work at 1030 17th Ave. No., Nashville District 99-24, Tennessee, dwelling 198. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1940.