**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 17. 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 Two of the Lecture Series will take place on April 17: Midcentury Modernist Architects Practicing in Nashville by Kem Hinton.
Kem Hinton is an architect, urban designer, visual artist, historian, public speaker, and author. He was born in Nashville and raised in nearby Murfreesboro. Kem received the Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Tennessee (recipient of Torchbearer Award) and Master of Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
In 1984, he joined with friend Seab Tuck to establish Tuck-Hinton Architects. Kem’s most known accomplishments as lead designer are the Tennessee Bicentennial Mall, Civil Rights Room and Votes for Women Room (both in the Nashville Public Library), Tennessee World War II Memorial, and Tennessee State Library & Archives. After the retirement of Seab Tuck and purchase of their firm in 2019, Kem established a sole-practitioner studio. He is a frequent lecturer on architecture, urban design, and religious structures. Author of several books, Kem’s most recent is Tennessee’s Bicentennial Mall, a 180-page hardback volume produced by Grandin Hood Publishers.
Kem lives with wife Marilyn in their LEED Platinum Home, the first in Williamson County. They have one grown son, T.J., PhD. In their family, T.J. is “Dr. Son” and Kem is “Mr. Father.”
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.
