Until 1992, the old Tennessee State Penitentiary, a Gothic Revival prison complex dating from the 1830s, operated on this site west of downtown Nashville, near where you are now. The original state prison was established in 1831, one of the oldest in the South. The dramatic stone Gothic building most Nashvillians picture was constructed beginning in 1898 and was in many ways a monument to the convict leasing system — the post-Civil War practice in which Southern states leased imprisoned people, disproportionately Black men, to private companies as forced labor that replicated many conditions of slavery.
Tennessee's convict leasing system operated mines, farms, and construction projects under conditions of extreme brutality. The penitentiary closed in 1992 after being condemned as inhumane. The vacant ruin became a location for film productions — including The Green Mile — before portions were demolished.
Redevelopment proposals have circulated for decades. The history of who was imprisoned here, why, and what was done to them is one Nashville is still working to honestly confront.