Fall School

Fall School, on the northeast corner of Eighth Ave. S. (US Hwy. 31) and Chestnut St., is the oldest public school building still standing in Nashville. It was built in 1896, served as an elementary school until 1970, and was renovated into offices in the 1980s. The Fall School was built with a square classroom in each corner and an octagonal, three-story light well in the center. A smaller wing for classroom space was added to the rear in 1926. The building has housed the Nashville Church of Scientology and Celebrity Centre since 2009, and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Fall School was constructed of dark red brick under a hipped roof pierced by an octagonal glass cupola. String courses and pilasters between the second-floor windows give the building a Renaissance style. The school was built when the fancy excesses of Victorian architecture were being simplified, with architects looking to classical buildings for inspiration. A similar style classroom wing was added to the rear in 1926, using dark red brick and stone ornamentation. The wing is topped by a flat, rectangular roof.

The original, square building features a pedimented bay projecting slightly from the center of each side containing entrances leading to the central octagonal space. There is a fountain in the center of the light well on the first floor containing a bronze statue with a nautical theme. The fountain is surrounded by glass block flooring which lets light reach the basement level.

Fall School was built in 1898 to serve a growing local population. The school's namesake was Philip Slater Fall, a prominent local businessman and member of the Nashville Board of Education. In the school year 1909 to 1910, 239 boys and 278 girls were enrolled at Fall School. The school's principal was W.J. Myers; ten teachers taught grades one through eight. It looks like the eighth-grade classroom was set up in a hallway instead of a room, suggesting the school was overcrowded (according to a yearly report on the city's public schools). The building is the only pre-1900 Nashville public school still standing.

By the 1960s, population shifts made such a large school building obsolete. The former urban neighborhood near the south Eighth Ave. building became primarily commercial, with public housing. Fall School was merged with another school and became Fall-Hamilton School elsewhere (510 Wedgwood) in 1970. Fall-Hamilton School (510 Wedgwood Ave. at Rains Ave.) is now Fall-Hamilton Enhanced Option School. From 1970 to 1979, the Fall School building housed a local agency, the Metropolitan Action Commission. In 1980, the building was still owned by the City of Nashville and Davidson County.

The current owner, the Nashville School of Scientology, held a grand opening in April 2009. They restored the red brick exterior and the interior, including the fountain, coffered ceilings, and wood plank floors. They discovered and restored a set of stained glass "pocket doors" (that disappear by sliding sideways into the doorway frame).

Church of Scientology International. The Church of Scientology and Celebrity Centre Nashville, Nashville Church of Scientology: Inside our Church. January 1st, 2022. Accessed August 30th, 2022. https://www.scientology-ccnashville.org/inside-our-church/.

Nashville Board of Education. Annual Report of the Public Schools of Nashville, Tenn. Edition Scholastic Year 1909-1910. Nashville, TN. Baird-Ward Printing Company, 1916.

Paine, David. Reynolds, Ann. NRHP Nomination of Fall School, Nashville, Tennessee. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1979.