**If the event has sold out, please email jessica.reeves@nashville.gov to be added to the wait list.**
DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER, THIS EVENT HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED FOR APRIL 24. ALL LECTURES IN THE SERIES WILL BE MOVED ONE WEEK: APRIL 10- DAVID PAINE, APRIL 17- KEM HINTON, APRIL 24- SANDRA SHELTON. IF YOU HAVE A TICKET FOR A PARTICULAR SPEAKER'S LECTURE AND YOU CANNOT ATTEND THE NEW DATE, EMAIL JESSICA.REEVES@NASHVILLE.GOV TO CANCEL YOUR RESERVATION.
In recognition of Ann Roberts’ years of leadership of the Nashville Historical Foundation, and the critical importance of modern architectural design in the decades after the Second World War, the Nashville Historical Foundation will present a series of three lectures given by members of the board on the topic of modernism and how it was manifested in Nashville.
Each lecture will take place in the stone outbuilding at Sunnyside in Sevier Park. The recently-renovated Sunnyside mansion is home to the Metro Historical Commission and Historic Zoning Commission, and the park features mutiple outbuildings, interpretive panels, and other amenities. Free parking is available to guests in the lot adjacent to the Kirkwood Avenue entrance.
Part Three of the Lecture Series will take place on April 24: Examples of Nashville Modernism in Photographsby with Sandra Shelton.
Sandra is a lifelong Nashville resident. She attended Hillsboro High School and graduated from Vanderbilt University with a BA in Art History. After careers in the computer field and social work, she got a Paralegal degree and ran the Pro Bono Program for the Nashville Bar Association. In 1987 Sandra opened Pangaea, a store on Belmont Blvd. Two moves later it was in Hillsboro Village. Pangaea closed in 2019 when Sandra retired. She always had a passion for art, photography and architecture. She has combined these interests by recording Nashville architecture and exploring its history. And Sandra grew up in a mid-century house.
About Ann Roberts:
Ann Roberts grew up in Little Rock, attended Rhodes College in Memphis where she majored in English, then moved to Nashville in 1970. A few years later, in 1976, she made a lucky phone call to May Dean Eberling, first Executive Director of the Metro Historical Commission, who hired her to oversee publicity, publications, and public events. She followed May Dean as Executive Director in 1982 and continued in that role through 2008. In 2012, she, Ann Eaden, and Tim Walker founded the non-profit now known as the Nashville Historical Foundation as a friends group to the Historical and Historic Zoning Commissions. Starting as secretary, she became president at Ann’s death and was succeeded by Jill Meese at the end of 2024. She continues to serve on the board.
In her decades in preservation, she has seen appreciation of Nashville’s architecture history evolve from its few late 18th century examples through the next 150 years until finally reaching mid-century modern architecture. While her Little Rock years were spent in a 1930s slightly Tudoresque Revival house, her children grew up in a mid-century ranch house in Nashville.
