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Bishop Robert K. Hargrove House

Updated: Sep 30

5001 Park Ave. Nashville, TN

Circa 1888. 2-story brick Italianate style


Bishop Robert Kennon Hargrove (1829-1905) and Harriet Cornelius Scott Hargrove (1832-1894) built their home on 5001 Park Ave.


Six years earlier, in 1882, the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, had elected Hargrove bishop. In 1886, the Methodist Episcopal Church South which had founded Vanderbilt University 9 years earlier named Bishop Hargrove to the Board of Trust, and then from 1889-1905 he served as president of the Board of Trust. (The Central University of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South had been organized in 1872, and then changed its name to Vanderbilt University after Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt’s large gifts totaling one million dollars.)


Harriet was very involved with home missions and her home became the headquarters of the Home Mission Society. After Harriet died, Bishop Hargrove wed the Missouri widow Ruth Eliza Scarritt (1845-1918).


In 1905, suffering poor health, Hargrove resigned as Vanderbilt University President. Two years earlier, In 1902, he sold the house to Judge John Lawrence Nolen (1853-1908) and Susan “Susie” Blackman Hamlett Nolen. They wed in 1874. (Nolensville was named for John’s grandfather William.) Later Emanuel Weise (1864-1923) and Nettie Leibovitz Weise (?-1942) owned it. Weise was a Nashville merchant.


Then it evolved to a boarding house before being torn down. Currently, a Shell gas station and Nashville Cash and Carry operate on part of the property site.

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