In 2012, the four neighborhoods surrounding Jefferson Street: Hope Gardens, Buena Vista, Germantown, and Salemtown came together to collectively brand themselves as ‘The Capitol District.' The Capitol District was formed by neighborhood members in 2012 in an effort to come to a united front regarding development in the area. Once known locally as the Sulphur Dell, the Black Business District, and the Market District, it was almost completely filled with industrial businesses, African American homes and businesses, and rundown shanties until 1949 when Nashville launched the first postwar urban renewal program in the country, the Capitol Hill Redevelopment Project. Carey (2001) states, “In 1950, Capitol Hill was two-thirds slums and dilapidated commercial structures and one-third littered streets and dismal alleyways”. The Capitol Hill Redevelopment District Established in 1952 ensures appropriate development in the area surrounding the Tennessee State Capitol and it automatically renews every 10 years.

 

The Capitol Hill Redevelopment project deeply affected the North Capitol neighborhood which also including a large part of the African American community. The Capitol Hill Redevelopment Project came at a high cost: the loss and destruction of Nashville's African American housing and community. The redevelopment project included the addition of I-40. From the 1950s to the 1960s urban expressway constructions commonly resulted in the dislocation of families and businesses, especially within the African American community (Rose & Raymond, 2012).

 

In 2012, the Capitol District sensed a possibility for redevelopment growth in their area. At this time, the state was considering several sites for a new Sounds baseball stadium, and one location under consideration was the site of the historic former Sulphur Dell baseball park. State Representative Jason Powell, then-president of Hope Gardens neighborhood association, said that the ‘Capitol District’ was formed so that the neighborhoods would not be a dividing force, but solidified and supportive.