Davidson County · Middle Tennessee
Living in Jefferson Street
Jefferson Street is a business and institutional corridor in North Nashville rather than a residential neighborhood, running historically from the old Hadley place west to the Cumberland River. Three universities sit on or beside it, it carries a documented music history, and it is inside an MDHA redevelopment district that runs to 2035, which is the part that affects what you can build.
- Type
- Business and institutional corridor, not a residential district
- Redevelopment district
- MDHA Jefferson Street, created 2005, runs through 2035
- Tax district
- Urban Services District, $2.814 per hundred for 2025
What’s actually there
- Fisk University, founded in 1866 and incorporated as a university in 1867
- Meharry Medical College, founded in 1876
- Tennessee State University, across from Hadley Park
- The Jefferson Street Sound museum at 2004 Jefferson Street
- Hadley Park and the Hadley Park Regional Community Center
- Woodcuts Gallery and Framing at 1613 Jefferson Street, open since 1987
- Interstate 40, built across the corridor in 1968, which is why the street is physically severed today
The housing stock
The corridor itself is commercial and institutional frontage, with housing on the side streets around it. No corridor-specific median is published. The nearest sourced figure is for North Nashville as a whole, $538,000 in July 2025 at $271 a square foot across 121 sales with 78 days on market per Redfin, and that geography is much larger than this corridor.
Getting around
The eastern end of the corridor is under a mile from Public Square and the Twenty-first Avenue North end is close to two. Interstate 40 crosses it, which is a fast connection and also the reason the street no longer runs continuously the way it did before 1968.
Things to do in Jefferson Street
Places worth knowing before you decide whether you want to live here.
Fisk University
Founded as the Fisk Free Colored School on January 9, 1866 and incorporated as Fisk University on August 22, 1867. Jubilee Hall was built with funds raised by the Fisk Jubilee Singers, whose 1870s touring introduced spirituals to international audiences and raised nearly fifty thousand dollars. Fisk Memorial Chapel dates to 1892. The Carl Van Vechten Gallery is on campus.
Meharry Medical College
Founded in 1876 and relocated to a site west of Fisk by the 1930s.
Tennessee State University
Campus built across from Hadley Park.
Jefferson Street Sound museum
2004 Jefferson Street. Founded by Lorenzo Washington and open since 2011. Saturdays 11am to 4pm and Tuesday through Thursday by appointment. Added to the U.S. Civil Rights Trail in February 2026.
Hadley Park
2901 Jefferson Street, with the regional community center at 1037 28th Avenue North: fitness center, indoor pool, gym, dance studio and computer lab. Metro Council renamed the park Hadley-Lillard Park in 2022.
Woodcuts Gallery and Framing
1613 Jefferson Street, established 1987, and a hub of the Jefferson Street Art Crawl.
Club Baron building
2614 Jefferson Street. Owned by Elks Lodge Pride of Tennessee No. 1102 since the early 1970s and used mainly on Fridays and Saturdays and for events. It is not currently operating as a music venue. The Tennessee State Review Board approved it for the National Register on January 23, 2026, and a preservation foundation formed in late 2025 to support restoration.
Checked against each business as of August 16, 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 Jefferson Street
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.
There is no plat named Jefferson Street
The corridor runs across other people’s subdivisions.
- The ground under the corridor is platted as McGavock’s Town North Nashville, recorded in plat book 21 at page 23, which carries about 171 parcels.
- Also here: D. T. McGavock’s Addition to North Nashville, book 10 at page 606, and D. T. McGavock 1st Addition, book 10 at page 604. Those are among the lowest book numbers in the county.
- North Nashville Real Estate Company, book 21 at page 105, covers much of the rest.
- Smaller names turn up in title work too: McNairy, J. L. Brown, Jowett’s subdivision of Harding and Lytle, Long and Ashworth, Meneese’s subdivision of Boyd McNairy, and Samuel Haslam’s Plan. None of them appear on a sign anywhere.
The abbreviation that hides two thirds of a plat
A search that returns a third of the truth and looks complete.
- Metro records the North Nashville Real Estate Company plat under at least two spellings in the legal description field.
- A search on NORTH NASH REAL EST returns about 108 parcels. A search on the full NORTH NASHVILLE REAL EST returns about 48.
- Together they come to about 156. So searching the full name finds roughly 31 percent of the plat.
- Anybody pulling comparable sales on this ground with one spelling is quietly working from a third of the record. This is the most consequential data trap on the corridor.
The modern plats that do carry the street’s name
Consolidations, not subdivisions, and the difference matters.
- Six are recorded: Jefferson Arms Apartments in 2007, the Bristol Germantown Jefferson Street property in 2009, Lot 1 at 5th and Jefferson in 2014, the 1821 Jefferson Street development consolidation in 2016, the 1708 and 1712 Jefferson Street consolidation also in 2016, and The Heritage at Jefferson consolidation in 2017.
- A consolidation plat combines parcels rather than dividing them. Six of them in a decade is a record of assembly, which is what precedes a large building.
- The names on the plats and the names on the buildings do not always agree. 2714 Jefferson Street is legally Lot 1 Jefferson Arms Apartments and its owner of record trades as Jefferson Flats.
- When the plat name and the marketing name disagree, the plat name is the one that follows the property.
There is not one condominium on Jefferson Street
Every multifamily building on the corridor is a single-owner rental.
- Ten parcels with a Jefferson Street address carry more than four dwelling units. Every one of the ten is a single tax parcel under a single LLC, limited partnership or trust.
- They run from 54 units at 941 Jefferson down through 43, 28, 18, 14, 12, 12, 10, 8 and 6. Not one of them is divided into separately deeded units.
- Widen the search to every building in zip 37208 carrying more than forty units and you get about 38 parcels, including Meharry, several MDHA properties, and large private buildings at 1501 Herman Street, 1226 2nd Avenue North, 1420 Adams Street and 808 Garfield Street. All 38 are one parcel, one owner.
- So there are no large for-sale condominium buildings anywhere in 37208. If somebody offers you a condo on Jefferson Street, ask to see the unit’s own tax parcel before anything else.
Two Germantown historic districts, and the street is the edge of both
Same name, different boundaries, and only one of them has teeth.
- The Metro instrument is a historic preservation overlay, ordinance BL2007-19, Metro case 2007Z-167U-08, effective June 2, 2008, covering about 120.35 acres. Note the year: a 2007 bill with a 2008 effective date.
- A preservation overlay is the strictest instrument Metro has. It reviews materials and routine repairs as well as new construction, additions and demolition.
- The National Register district of the same name covers roughly 46 acres, and its nomination describes the boundary as Jefferson Street on the south, the Cumberland River on the east, 8th Avenue North on the west and Hume Street on the north.
- The Metro overlay is roughly two and a half times the National Register district. They are not the same boundary and should never be described as one. Jefferson Street is the southern edge of both, which means which side of the street a property sits on can decide whether it is regulated at all.
Schools
Metro Nashville Public Schools
Look up an address with the district →
Metro Nashville Public Schools serves the corridor. Metro assigns by address and runs choice and magnet applications alongside zoned assignment, so confirm any address through the district Zone Finder.
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 is invisible on the zoning map is the redevelopment district. Property here sits inside the MDHA Jefferson Street Redevelopment District, created in 2005 and running through 2035, and MDHA maintains a land use plan, design guidelines and a design review committee that determines whether a project is appropriate. If you are buying a commercial or mixed-use building and you price the project off base zoning alone, you can find MDHA design review governing what actually gets approved, on top of Metro Codes. That is a schedule item and a budget item, and most buyers never price it. Confirm district status and pull the applicable land use plan and design guidelines before you go under contract. One more thing for commercial buyers a block north: the Buchanan Street Commercial Compatibility Overlay took effect March 27, 2026 and permanently forecloses several categories of new business on about 15.6 acres between Twenty-first Avenue North and I-65. Existing businesses are grandfathered, but that grandfathering does not necessarily survive a change of use.
Common questions
Can I still hear music on Jefferson Street?
Not the way the history suggests. The Del Morocco, the New Era, Maceo’s and Club Stealaway operated in the 1940s through the 1960s and are gone. Jimi Hendrix, Etta James, Ray Charles, Little Richard and Otis Redding are all documented as having performed on the corridor. What is open today is the Jefferson Street Sound museum at 2004 Jefferson, which joined the U.S. Civil Rights Trail in February 2026. The Club Baron building is still standing and still used, but it is not currently a music venue.
What is the MDHA redevelopment district and does it affect me?
It is a Metro Development and Housing Agency district created in 2005 and running through 2035, with its own land use plan, design guidelines and a design review committee. If you are developing or substantially changing a building inside it, that review is in addition to normal codes and permitting. It does not show on the face of the zoning map, so ask specifically.
Thinking about Jefferson Street?
What are some of your must haves to make it a perfect home for you in this neighborhood?