Well, it wasn't called a museum, just the Musicians Hall of Fame. However, it was just as much a museum -- to an aspect of what brings in income to Music City USA -- as is the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. The Musicians Hall of Fame sat just two blocks up the hill on Demonbreun street from the CMHoFaM.
"Sat" is the operative word. It sits there no longer. It's gone. A facility that celebrated musicianship and its history and development is itself now "history". Toast. Gone.
Other buildings in the block and adjacent blocks are also toast. Such as Rockettown, where aimless and at-risk teenagers were ministered to. Like a garage that specialized in foreign-made cars like BMW or Volvo.
You see, dear reader, the "city fathers" of Nashville -- Mayor, Council, Chamber of Commerce -- chose to ignore an expert from San Antonio who supplied data that Nashville did not need to build another convention center. San Antonio may well be the most experienced convention and tourism metropolis in these United States. Nevertheless, the "city fathers" ignored an expert from there, and voted in favor of erecting another convention center. To replace the existing one downtown, which (they say) is inadequate.
Surprised as I was that Nashville ignored an expert, I was even more surprised that Gaylord Corporation, which runs a second and huge convention center out at what used to be called the Opryland Hotel (and Convention Center), are silent in their opposition to this potential competitor. And so buildings have fallen near the CMHoFaM. And the earth-moving machinery is beginning the task of digging deep, deep into the ground for the underground portion of the new convention center.
Meanwhile, Nashville teens have lost an entity that could have helped them cope with the challenges of juvenile life of the 21st Century. And those who would have honored the people who helped make this Music City USA have lost a facility where they could have.
Such is what they call "progress". . . .
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