Davidson County · Middle Tennessee
Living in Lockeland Springs
Lockeland Springs is the large residential district running east from Five Points toward Shelby Park. It has the historic character people come to East Nashville for, but under a conservation overlay rather than a preservation one, which means noticeably fewer restrictions than Edgefield.
- County
- Davidson
- Distance to downtown Nashville
- ~2 miles
- Design review
- Neighborhood Conservation overlay, the lighter tier
What’s actually there
- Part of the East Nashville Historic District, listed on the National Register in 1982, covering 22 blocks and 352 buildings
- Late Victorian, Neoclassical and Bungalow housing, with Beaux-Arts, Stick, Eastlake and Queen Anne examples
- Shelby Park and Shelby Bottoms on the eastern edge
- Lockeland Design Center, a Metro school campus and a neighborhood landmark
- Streets laid out after the 1886 Woodland Street Bridge and the electric streetcars that followed
The housing stock
Late Victorian, Neoclassical and Bungalow stock built as middle-class housing once the streetcars arrived, annexed into the city in 1905. There is real renovation quality variation here and there is also documented tornado damage, because the March 2020 EF-3 came through multiple Lockeland streets and hit the historic Holly Street Fire Hall. Zip 37206 showed a median sold price of $644,500 in May 2026 according to RealtyTrac, across the wider zip rather than this pocket alone.
Getting around
Roughly two miles to downtown, eight to ten minutes off-peak. Shelby Bottoms Greenway on the eastern edge connects into the wider greenway network for cyclists.
Things to do in Lockeland Springs
Places worth knowing before you decide whether you want to live here.
Lockeland Table
Community kitchen at 1520 Woodland Street in a 1939 corner building, serving dinner Monday through Saturday.
Shelby Park
300 acres at 2401 Fatherland Street, with a dog park, a 9-hole and an 18-hole golf course, Sevier Lake, a boat ramp and a community center. Open dawn to 11pm.
Shelby Bottoms Nature Center
Nature center and greenway trailhead at 1900 Davidson Street, part of a park system exceeding 1,200 acres.
Lockeland Springs Park
A 3-acre wooded wetland on the site of a former spring-water bottling plant, currently in Metro Parks master planning for trails and interpretive signage.
Checked against each business as of August 14, 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 Lockeland Springs
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 plat is spelled Lockland, without the middle E
A one letter difference that hides three quarters of the neighborhood from a title or tax search.
- The recorded plat is indexed LOCKLAND. A parcel search on Lockeland returns about 22 records. The same search on Lockland returns about 93.
- So searching the spelling everyone uses misses roughly three quarters of the parcels.
- Metro’s own historic zoning list spells the overlay Lockland Springs-East End, while the ordinances say Lockeland Springs. One of the 2014 ordinances refers to Lockland Drive.
- If you are running a title search, a tax history or a comparable set here, run both spellings. This is the most practically useful thing on this page.
The original additions
Platted between 1887 and 1902, with one later wave in the 1920s.
- Lockland recorded May 20, 1890. Ordway Home Place recorded June 16, 1888. Weakley Place Eastland recorded June 4, 1904. McEwen Place recorded September 26, 1910.
- The neighborhood association records subdividing beginning in 1887 and continuing through 1902, with the Springside Mansion grounds subdivided in 1925 into what became Woodland, Holly, 15th and 16th.
- About 156 parcels carry a McEwen legal description. Of the 93 Lockland parcels, 80 are under a quarter acre.
- A second McEwen plat carries a placeholder date in Metro’s records rather than a real one, so I am not printing a year for it.
The Lockeland Springs and East End conservation overlay
A conservation overlay, not a historic one, and the difference decides what you can do to your own house.
- It reviews new construction, additions, demolition and relocation. It does not review exterior repairs, alterations, signage or interior work. Materials and paint are not reviewed.
- That is materially less restrictive than the Edgefield historic overlay a few blocks west, which does review repairs and materials.
- Built across four ordinances: BL2003-1369 effective May 24 2003 covering 48 acres from South 10th to South 14th between Woodland and Shelby; BL2004-477 effective January 22 2005 covering 13 acres near South 18th to 20th; BL2014-737 effective May 23 2014 covering about 26 acres north of Eastland; and BL2014-812 effective July 25 2014 covering about 40 acres north of Shelby.
- The 2003 ordinance describes itself as extending an overlay that already existed, so there is an earlier creating ordinance. I could not locate it and I am not going to guess at it.
East Nashville Historic District, National Register
Covers much of this ground, and restricts nothing.
- Listed on the National Register on April 15, 1982, reference number 82003960. You will see December 1981 quoted locally; that was the state review board, not the listing.
- The nomination describes the major part of twenty-two rectangular blocks, bounded by Eastland Avenue, South 16th and South 14th Streets, Fatherland Street, and South 11th Street and Gallatin Road.
- The nomination also records that subdivision began in 1875 with the blocks south of Woodland Street and moved northeast, with Edgewood Place and Eastland Avenue subdivided between 1901 and 1921.
- National Register listing is honorary. Only the conservation overlay reviews anything here.
Shelby Park and Shelby Bottoms
The permanent edge of this neighborhood, and Metro’s own pages disagree on how to describe it.
- Shelby Park is about 300 acres, two miles from downtown along the Cumberland. Shelby Bottoms Greenway and Natural Area is about 960 acres, with roughly three miles of river frontage and more than five miles of paved accessible trail.
- Together they are over 1,200 acres. Metro’s Shelby Park page reads as though Shelby Bottoms is inside the park, while the Shelby Bottoms page calls it adjacent. Two adjoining Metro Parks properties is the safe description.
- Shelby Park itself carries a historic preservation landmark overlay, ordinance BL2015-1187, effective August 14, 2015. That is a designation on the park, not on nearby houses.
- This much public ground next door is not going to be developed, which is worth more over time than any amenity a builder can put in.
Schools
Metro Nashville Public Schools
Look up an address with the district →
Served by Metro Nashville Public Schools, assigned by address, with a separate choice and magnet application alongside zoned assignment. Metro is actively redrawing zones in this part of the city, so confirm the specific address in the district’s 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 overlay here is the reason to look at Lockeland Springs instead of Edgefield. It is a Neighborhood Conservation zoning overlay, extended by ordinance in 2003, and it reviews only new construction, additions, demolition and relocation. Routine exterior repair is not reviewed, so replacing windows or siding does not require a preservation permit the way it does four blocks west. You get the historic street and a far lighter permitting burden. Two cautions. Overlay coverage varies lot by lot, so verify the parcel. And the eastern edge runs down toward the Shelby Bottoms floodplain, so run the address through Metro’s flood tool before you go firm.
Common questions
How is Lockeland Springs different from Historic Edgefield?
Mostly the rules. Both are historic, both are close in, but Edgefield has a Preservation overlay that reviews routine repairs like windows and siding, and Lockeland Springs has a Conservation overlay that reviews only new construction, additions, demolition and relocation. If you want a historic house without a preservation commission weighing in on your window order, that difference is the whole answer.
Do I need permission to replace windows in Lockeland Springs?
Under the Conservation overlay, routine exterior repair and replacement is not reviewed, so generally no. Additions, demolition and new construction are reviewed. Verify the parcel is actually inside the overlay first, because coverage varies lot by lot after the 2003 extension.
What is near Lockeland Springs?
Shelby Park is on the eastern edge and it is genuinely large, 300 acres with two golf courses, a dog park, Sevier Lake and a boat ramp, plus the Shelby Bottoms Nature Center at 1900 Davidson Street. Lockeland Table at 1520 Woodland is the neighborhood dinner spot, and Five Points is a short walk west.
Thinking about Lockeland Springs?
What are some of your must haves to make it a perfect home for you in this neighborhood?