Harvey's | Memories of Nashville | NPT

and now a program segment from the NPT production of Nashville Memories now back then downtown, as it is today, was the center of business, it was also a prosperous time for shopping, retailers, restaurants and the entertainment place when you went downtown, like when you flew on a plane you dressed elegantly you didn't wear jeans well I don't think people had jeans back then but you put on your gloves and your little hats if you had them the nice clothes Sunday your heels and your stockings if you were old enough or your socks and your velvet shoes if you weren't and you went downtown then you look good and if the men look good everyone in the center looks good you dressed smartly it was a event because if you come from the neighborhoods, I mean, it was a little complicated, so you spent the whole day shopping until you were tired, if you were going to buy, you went to the center of the city, to the department stores there with harvest and cane.

Sloane cast or not, there is a Lodge of three, but we would take the bus to the center and we would get off, we would walk depending on what we were going to Bob, it was just the place you went to buy clothes, there were restaurants in the center and there were movies on The center was the center of commerce. government as it is now people love to go downtown downtown was kind of the center of commercial life, so that's my father's restaurant was downtown on Saturdays even the young girls wore their dresses with gloves go downtown to lunch go to the movies travel to National Arts and for most African Americans downtown, National was again a time of doing your best, so you dressed up to go downtown and buy, you will see very well dressed people.

We lived in the Hermitage Hotel because the restaurant was on 6th Avenue right at the end of the street and it was a lot of fun, my brother and I would run across the street, play in the park and run through the streets, go to the movies and spend a good time. Well, the restaurant was called Cross Keys when I was a kid. I took the city bus after school often and went downtown to see my dad and go to the movies, I went to see the Harveys carousel and you needed to fool around and that was all part of your playground.

I suspect my mother would take me downtown and we would go shopping. I'd like to go to Candyland, which was where all the kids wanted to go because you walked in the front door and walked past all that wonderful hand-dipped chocolate they served. and that chocolate smell would hit you the moment you walked in the door, and you came back and sat in these wonderful little booths of dark wood, like teak wood, and you could order a chocolate milkshake or a nice grilled cheese sandwich. or what else. kind of sandwich, you might want to have fries or whatever.

I mean, it was more like something a kid would want to do. You went downtown, though in time for Easter and Christmas, and back-to-school shopping, buying clothes has never necessarily been. It's been one of the most fun things to do, but if you could do other things like the trip to Candyland, it was worth doing, so we would always look forward to the opportunity to go down and do that and see the other things. downtown was always a bustling place, everything was articulated at Christmas time, we were always full of people because it was one of the main shopping places, it was a tradition to shop at Akane's Long, I mean, they were old nationals, their store was attractive and the owners were the floor, who sewed it, it gave you a kind of warm and fuzzy feeling, but nothing like a visit to the harvest, I mean, you walk into Harvey's, I mean, you were in what you were in what would happen.

Harvey's was definitely a thing, it wasn't. only a department store was a place where anything could happen with their signature carousel horses and real monkeys at the monkey bar, sometimes even an entire circus parading through the store you never knew what to expect at Harveys it was the first place in town It had escalators and of course you know when you were a kid you thought it was cool to be able to go up and down you wanted to go shopping just to go down the escalator Fred Harvey was an innovative entrepreneur and he came to Nashville with the idea of ​​creating a store that It was different to go up the escalators and see the figures on the carousels and see a clown strutting around and see Fred Harvey himself dragging his slippers from floor to floor was fantastic.

My great aunt and grandmother, who were sisters, were both shoppers at Harvey's department store downtown. I spent many hours playing at Harvey's. I remember the horses on the carousel. There was plenty to do if you spent the day there just for fun, you could go riding. carousel and you could go to the monkey bar and you could see all the different things in the toy department, so there were a lot of things that kept your interest when you were a kid, it seems more fun than Toys R Us probably is now because it was more magical . the dolls and the boxes of dolls piled up and the little trains and the displays and, of course, everything that was advertised on television, he had it, it was there.

Harvey's would have it because Harvey's had it, but I remember when I was a kid, the toy department was higher. how tall and bigger than big and Barbies and everything and a girl that a little boy could really want Harvey's always had that prestige you always knew that Harvey's has it and you always knew that Harvey's was a store that never saw its end Fred Harvey had the carousel which was wonderful and was run by Max, who had been imprisoned as a prisoner of war in a concentration camp in Germany and had a tattoo. He had actually survived quite a bit and he was the sweetest person and the monkey bar of course was something that no one today can believe.

I'm sure the health department would just have a stroke, but there were monkeys in a cage and they were auctioned off and the monkeys were jumping around and looking at the funny people. I guess Harvey's had a wonderful bakery and they were famous for their apple pie. I remember Fred Harvey specifically took me and let me choose what he wanted to eat from the pastry department and he was just a sweet person. I really, of course, was a little girl. You know she liked him. You know, walk with me and see different things, sir. Older Harvey, as they called him, was very kind.

My grandfather for many years was head of the carpet department at Castner's, so he had ambivalent feelings about buying anything from Fred Harvey, but I did it and bought a bunch of apple pie from Fred Fred.

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mr. Harvey had trained at Marshall Fields and then was an aggressive bargain retailer and did things like put up merry-go-round horses as decorations inside the store and open a monkey bar where there were lab monkeys in a cage. I think it lasted a long time, but it was there and I think the problem was that monkeys are disgusting and it didn't work.

You know, I didn't really worry. I don't remember how long it was there, but I remember that everyone wanted it. come in and see you and it was new different and fred was no different he was a real entrepreneur you