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Jay Brothers

Sharp-Crabb Home: One of first in Hillsboro Village

1701 18th Ave. South Nashville, TN

Circa 1911. 2-story Dutch Colonial Revival style with stepped gable ends


Robert Sharp (1851-1920) and Mary Taylor Sharp (1845-1917) built their home just north of the Belmont estate.

The home was one of, if not the first, home built in the new Hillsboro Village area in 1911. It was lonely for years until the late 1920s when the growth of Hillsboro Village took off. Peabody College was relocated to east of Vanderbilt University and north of Hillsboro Village in 1911, and the Vanderbilt Univ. School of Medicine moved to the main Vandy campus in 1925. Those events brought many Vanderbilt personnel to the neighborhood.


Sharp was renowned and influential architect who designed a number of Nashville buildings. Sharp designed Hume School, Fogg High School (later merged in 1912), Lindsley Ave. Church, and others.


About 1927, the owners were Dr. Alfred Leland Crabb (1884-1980) and Bertha Gardner Crabb (1885-1979). They wed in 1911. Dr. Crabb was the Professor of Education at Peabody College and wrote many novels. In 1927, Peabody invited him to become a professor, and he remained so until 1949. From 1932 -70, Dr. Crabb was editor of the Peabody Journal of Education. He was best known for a trilogy of historical novels: Dinner at Belmont, Supper at Maxwell House and Breakfast at The Hermitage. The novels covered 40 years of Nashville history from the eve of the Civil War to 1897. Their son also went into education and resided in Kentucky.





Sources:

Nashville Architecture: A Guide to the City, Carroll Van West, 2015, p. 135



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