“STATE OF EMERGENCY”: EDGEHILL, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE AND THE FIGHT AGAINST DISPLACEMENT FROM URBAN RENEWAL TO GENTRIFICATION

Abstract

Gentrification and displacement have become increasingly important terms within the fields of historic preservation, urban planning, geography, and social justice in late twentieth- and early twenty-first centuries. Urban neighborhoods have changed rapidly as developers purchase properties at low cost in order to renovate, demolish, or rebuild and sell at higher prices. Historic preservation offers organizations, both professional and grassroots, the tools to share the history of neighborhoods at risk of gentrification and the stories of the people at risk of displacement. Utilizing the Edgehill neighborhood in Nashville, Tennessee, this dissertation explores the impact of residential segregation, through both federal urban renewal and the Model Cities program, to understand how gentrification is the next step of this long legacy. ALSO, the dissertation analyzes how grassroots organizations within Edgehill utilized public history methodology in the form of historic preservation and material culture to celebrate the neighborhood’s significance and make the case against gentrification in the wake of the 21st century corporate development of Nashville as a whole.