Davidson County · Middle Tennessee
Living in Belmont-Hillsboro
Belmont-Hillsboro is the residential neighborhood wrapped around Belmont University, about three miles from downtown, running roughly between 21st Avenue, 12th Avenue South, I-440 and Wedgewood Avenue. It is the piece most people walk through without naming: Hillsboro Village is at one shoulder, 12 South at the other, and the streets in between are a 1890s to 1940s streetcar suburb that has been protected by its own zoning for twenty years.
- County
- Davidson
- Distance to downtown
- About 3 miles
- Historic status
- National Register historic district since 1980
- Zoning
- Neighborhood Conservation Zoning Overlay, adopted in phases from 2005
- Character
- Streetcar suburb built out from the 1890s to the 1940s, around a university
What’s actually there
- The Belmont University campus, and the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts on Belmont Boulevard
- Belmont Mansion, an 1850s house museum on the campus
- The Belmont Boulevard commercial strip, walkable from most of the neighborhood
- A Neighborhood Conservation Zoning Overlay covering most, though not all, of the neighborhood
- Belmont Hillsboro Neighbors, Inc., founded in 1971 and incorporated in 1975
- Hillsboro Village on one side and 12 South on the other, both walkable
- E.S. Rose Park, a 24 acre Metro athletic complex just north
- I-440 along the southern edge, which is how you leave the neighborhood in any direction fast
The housing stock
Bungalows, American foursquares, Tudors and Prairie style houses, built from the 1890s through the 1940s on streetcar suburb lots, which means narrow frontage, deep yards and alleys behind many of the blocks. The price spread here is wider than the neighborhood name suggests, because it turns almost entirely on lot size and whether the house has been taken back to the studs or is still original. I have not published a median for this neighborhood because the sample is small enough that any single quarter’s number would mislead you. Ask me for the comparable set on the specific block and condition you are looking at, which is the only number that means anything here.
Getting around
About three miles to downtown, ten to fifteen minutes off peak. Belmont Boulevard, 21st Avenue and 12th Avenue South all run north toward town, and I-440 sits on the southern edge, which puts I-65 and I-40 within a couple of minutes. The practical traffic here is local rather than regional: campus event nights and the Hillsboro Village and 12 South dinner rush are what actually slow your street down.
Things to do in Belmont-Hillsboro
Places worth knowing before you decide whether you want to live here.
Belmont Mansion
1907 Belmont Boulevard, on the Belmont campus. Built by the Acklen family in the 1850s as a summer garden estate, and the museum describes it as the largest home built in Nashville before the Civil War. Open for tours Monday through Saturday from 10 and Sunday from 11, with last admission at 3:30.
The Fisher Center for the Performing Arts
2020 Belmont Boulevard. Opened September 14, 2021. A 1,700 seat horseshoe concert hall with side ballroom spaces and a three story grand lobby that holds 900 for events.
Belmont University
The campus sits at the center of the neighborhood and sets its rhythm, including the Curb Event Center. Move-in weekends and event nights are the two times parking on the boulevard gets genuinely difficult.
Bongo Java
2007 Belmont Boulevard. Open since 1993 and still operating out of the same house across from campus.
International Market
2013 Belmont Boulevard. The Thai restaurant that has been feeding this part of town since the 1970s, now in the Michelin Guide.
Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint
3108 Belmont Boulevard. Whole hog barbecue at the southern end of the boulevard.
E.S. Rose Park
A 24 acre Metro complex just north of the neighborhood on the Edgehill side: a 750 seat turf baseball field, a 250 seat softball field, a 300 seat track, soccer, basketball courts, a playground and a walking track. Belmont plays there under an agreement with Metro Parks.
Belmont Hillsboro Neighbors, Inc.
The neighborhood association, founded in 1971 and incorporated in 1975. The association describes itself as the oldest neighborhood organization in Tennessee. It is the group that drove the conservation zoning.
Hillsboro Village and 12 South
The two commercial districts this neighborhood sits between, both close enough to walk to from most addresses here.
Checked against each business as of August 18, 2026. Nashville loses restaurants faster than most cities, so if something here has closed since, tell me and I’ll get it corrected.
Subdivisions and named developments in Belmont-Hillsboro
Once you are actually looking, you stop searching by city and start searching by subdivision. These are the names that come up, and what is true about each one that will still be true in three years. No prices, no dues, no days on market, because those change and this page would go stale telling you about them.
The conservation overlay, and its 2017 addition
Two ordinances, five years apart, and they do not share a boundary.
- The district itself is ordinance BL2012-134, Metro case 2012NHC-001-001, effective May 21, 2012, covering roughly 329.9 acres.
- A second ordinance, BL2017-901, case 2017NHC-005-001, took effect October 27, 2017 and added about 6.7 acres more.
- Both are neighborhood conservation rather than historic preservation. New construction, additions, demolition and relocation are reviewed. Paint, routine repair and window replacement are not.
- Because the district was assembled in two pieces, houses on the same block can sit on opposite sides of the line. Confirm the parcel rather than trusting a neighborhood-level answer.
The National Register district
An honor, and it restricts nothing you do to your own house.
- The Belmont-Hillsboro Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places under reference number 80003784, listed in 1980. Its nomination form is dated December 31, 1979.
- National Register listing is a research record and a recognition. On its own it does not regulate what a private owner does with a private house.
- What regulates you here is the Metro conservation overlay, a separate instrument with a separate boundary and an actual review body.
- Listings cite the National Register because it sounds either like a credential or like a constraint. It is neither. Ask about the overlay instead.
Belmont Land Company
The largest single plat name under this neighborhood.
- Recorded in plat book 421 at page 34, with resubdivisions in books 4470, 5190, 6050 and 6200. About 463 parcels countywide carry a Belmont Land Company legal description and 438 of them sit in zip 37212.
- Its lot numbers run past 200, which tells you it was laid out as a full subdivision rather than a few blocks.
- Zone lot divisions were later recorded against it in plat book 6200. A zone lot division is the mechanism by which one platted lot legally became two dwellings.
- It is the most common of these names in 37212, so it is the one most likely to appear in your title commitment on the streets between Belmont Boulevard and 12th Avenue South.
Blair’s Revised Plan of Belmont Heights
The plat behind a spelling problem that will cost you search results.
- Recorded in plat book 332 at page 117. The assessor abbreviates it, so the legal descriptions read BELMONT HGTS rather than BELMONT HEIGHTS.
- A search on BELMONT HGTS returns about 160 parcels. A search on BELMONT HEIGHTS returns about 13. Same ground, two spellings, and one of them looks nearly empty.
- George W. Blair’s name sits on several of the resubdivisions, including a resub of lots 76 and 77, a resub of lot 23, and a 2014 resub of lots 147 through 149.
- Belmont Park Place carries his name too and it is a separate plat, even though the two sit alongside each other. They are not interchangeable in a title search.
Victoria Place
A name people routinely attach to the wrong zip code.
- Recorded in plat book 332 at page 10, with lot numbers running past 240. About 200 parcels countywide carry a Victoria Place legal description.
- Of those, 190 sit in zip 37212 and 10 sit in 37204. It is a Belmont-Hillsboro plat rather than a 12 South one, by a factor of nineteen.
- Its resubdivisions include C. V. Eckhart’s subdivision of lots 94, 95, 126 and 127, a resub of lots 160, 161 and 128 through 131, a 2013 resub of lots 207 through 212, and a 2015 resub of lots 162 and 163.
- Zone lot divisions were recorded against it in plat books 6250 and 6900, which is the mechanism behind the attached pairs along Paris Avenue.
Belmont Terrace, Belair and the rest
The other names carrying this ground, none of which appear on a street sign.
- Belmont Terrace is recorded in plat book 421 at page 101 and runs to four annexes. About 218 parcels countywide carry the name, 215 of them in zip 37212.
- Belair is a separate plat carrying about 252 parcels countywide, including J. L. Davis’s subdivision of Belair and the Scruggs subdivision of lot 33.
- Linden Place carries about 54 parcels and Bransford Realty Company’s Westmoreland Place about 83. Sunset Park fills in more of the same streets.
- A buyer who has never seen these names assumes the title work is wrong. It is not. This is what a neighborhood assembled from eight separate plats looks like on paper.
Schools
Metro Nashville Public Schools
Look up an address with the district →
Belmont-Hillsboro is served by Metro Nashville Public Schools. Zoning is assigned by address rather than by neighborhood, and Metro publishes its own zone finder, so confirm the specific address there rather than relying on a subdivision name or a listing remark.
I publish district and school zoning as published fact and nothing more. No ratings, no rankings, no comparisons. School zones are set by the district, assigned by address rather than by subdivision or city name, and they change. Confirm any address with the district itself, and evaluate the schools yourself against what matters to your family.
What a buyer needs to know here
The thing that will cost you money here if nobody tells you is the overlay, and specifically which kind it is. Belmont-Hillsboro carries a Neighborhood Conservation Zoning Overlay, not a historic preservation overlay. The difference is the whole ballgame. A conservation overlay puts new construction, additions and demolition in front of the Metro Historical Zoning Commission. It does not review your paint color, your repairs or your window replacements the way a full preservation overlay does. So if you are buying to renovate the inside and keep the envelope, the overlay barely touches you. If you are buying to pop the top, build out the back, or scrape and rebuild, it is the first call you make, before you write the offer. The second thing, and this one catches people: the overlay was adopted in two pieces. Ordinance BL2012-134 created the district effective May 21, 2012 across roughly 329.9 acres, and ordinance BL2017-901 added about 6.7 acres more effective October 27, 2017. Not every parcel in the neighborhood is inside it. Two houses on the same street can sit under different rules. Confirm the specific parcel rather than assuming the neighborhood answer applies to it. Third, this is a university neighborhood. That is an amenity and a constraint at once: walkability and a real commercial strip on one hand, event parking and a rental component on the other. Both are worth seeing in person on a weeknight before you decide.
Common questions
What does the Belmont-Hillsboro conservation overlay actually restrict?
New construction, additions and demolition go to the Metro Historical Zoning Commission for review. A conservation overlay does not regulate paint, ordinary repairs or window replacement, which is what a full historic preservation overlay does. If your plan is an interior renovation, it is a light touch. If your plan changes the footprint or the roofline, it decides your timeline and your budget, so find out before you write the offer.
Is every house in Belmont-Hillsboro inside the overlay?
No, and this is the part people get wrong. The overlay was adopted in two pieces: ordinance BL2012-134, effective May 21, 2012, covering roughly 329.9 acres, and ordinance BL2017-901, effective October 27, 2017, adding about 6.7 acres. Parcels on the same street can fall under different rules. Confirm the specific address rather than trusting a neighborhood-level answer.
How is Belmont-Hillsboro different from Hillsboro Village or 12 South?
Hillsboro Village and 12 South are commercial districts. Belmont-Hillsboro is the residential neighborhood between them, built out as a streetcar suburb from the 1890s to the 1940s and organized around Belmont University. People often shop one of the districts and end up buying here, because this is where the houses are.
Thinking about Belmont-Hillsboro?
What are some of your must haves to make it a perfect home for you in this neighborhood?