CLEMENTINE HALL

Much Happens in 135 Years

The story of Clementine begins in 1889 with the founding of the West Nashville Methodist Church.
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This historic stretch of Charlotte Avenue fronting Richland Park was platted by a real estate development firm in 1889 to be a separate town called West Nashville, but soon referred to as New Town. It was then separate from Nashville, but the two quickly grew together. Richland Park was intended to be the town square. A parcel was granted to a church to build on every block fronting the square. One of these, a beautiful building built in 1890, was razed several years ago for new apartments at the corner of 46th Street (Murphy Rd). The Dark Horse Theater is the only other remaining corner church that still stands (at 47th Street).

We believe that our church, the West Nashville Methodist Church, was the first building built in West Nashville. The congregation went door-to-door in the neighborhood raising money for its construction and giving donors paper cache bricks in return. The church was added onto many times after 18899. The addition of the transept (now the Side Stage) and orger were added in 1905, the five rooms that comprised what is now Little Bird Lounge and the lower level beneath in 1915, and Memorial Hall for its social events in 1947. Memorial Hall was built to commemorate those members of the congregation who gave their lives in WW2 and is now Hathorne restaurant.
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G.W. Winn (George Washington) was the church's first minister. His maternal grandfather fought under Lafayette in the Revolutionary War and his paternal grandfather was converted to the Methodist Church in Wales by one of it's founders, John Wesley. As a boy, he met Andrew Jackson which made a great impression on him and it was claimed that he was a Jackson type character. Rev. Winn was one go General Morgan's favorite scouts (and it was said spy) and rather than surrender during Morgan's raid into Ohio, he swam the Ohio River on horseback. Rev. L.C. Bryan, the only surviving member of Winn's Conference of 1840 said of him at his funeral in 1895, "He seemed born with a martial spirit. His face was of the Andrew Jackson cast - features strong and firm. He had a fine physique, a clear, blue eye that never quailed and feared no man. He espoused the Confederate cause and made a brave soldier as a member of Gen. Morgan's command, and preserved his Christian integrity through all the temptations of war. As a flower, slow in unfolding, he developed into a strong preacher. As a pastor he was faithful, trying to find every member."