District 13 Councilmember Russ Bradford presented a resolution to the Metro Council Thursday night asking the Metro Nashville Airport Authority to preserve the historic Colemere Mansion, home to restaurant Monell’s at the Manor.
MNAA owns the property, located at 1400 Murfreesboro Road, and told Monell’s in September it would not be renewing the lease for the restaurant after April 30. Councilmembers learned about the plans at a meeting with the airport board in February, and the airport also sent a letter to Bradford that month.
“I’m bringing this before us to get support from the body on something that's been happening in our city for decades — and that is losing parts of our city’s past, parts of our cultural heritage, due to progress and growth that is being left unchecked,” Bradford said during Thursday's council meeting.
Michael King, owner of the Monell’s restaurants, spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting. He said BNA officials are seeking to demolish the building, which would clear the land for future airport expansion plans.
“I want to make it clear it's not about Monell’s losing a lease there at the manor; it's about Nashville losing another historic property,” King said. “We’re fighting the airport because their response has been nothing to everything that we have done to [attempt to] move the building, to save the building, to renovate the building.”
At Mayor Freddie O'Connell's media roundtable event Friday morning, Nashville International Airport president and CEO Doug Kreulen said when asked about demolishing the building that it is in “bad shape." He added that after the Monell’s lease expires, MNAA at some point will “prepare” the property to accommodate flight activity for the airport.
“It's inside the airport operating area, and I'm supposed to maximize that use for flight activity, and that restaurant doesn't do that,” Kreulen said. He added that due to grant guidelines, the airport authority is not allowed to incur costs that don’t benefit the transportation of passengers.Â
O’Connell said Metro has seen "various preservation-oriented groups offer some level of funding commitment. I think if there were a third-party opportunity to fund something like that, we would help Councilmember Bradford do that.”
King said the resolution is important because "it is a speed bump to give us a break and breathing space to find a partnership."
Even though Bradford’s resolution passed the council vote, Kreulen gave no indication the airport would take action to extend the lease or save the building.
From 1977 until 2008, the building was New Orleans Manor, a buffet restaurant. Before that it was the Colemere Club, a private club known for hosting power brokers and an annual community Easter egg hunt. The estate, built in 1893, started as a mansion for L&N railroad tycoon Edmund William Cole. The 19th-century house was designed by architect William Crawford Smith (who designed the Parthenon in 1897). But the original home burned in 1929 and was rebuilt in 1931, becoming the Colemere Club in 1948.
Bradford made an appeal to the Nashvillians who have memories of the Colemere Club and New Orleans Manor in addition to the many weddings and events that have taken place since Monell’s began using the space.
“We’re being threatened with losing a part of our city’s soul, a part of our city’s character,” Bradford said. “I’m asking my colleagues to support this resolution so that we can stand as a body and strongly urge BNA to leave the manor alone to give more time so we can find a solution to protect this piece of our city’s cultural history.”
This article was first published by our sister publication, the Nashville Post.
