Curious Nashville: What is this grassy mound at BNA trying to hide?

An earthen mound on a corner of the Nashville International Airport property caught the eye of listener Sonia Fernandez LeBlanc after she’d been driving by it for decades.

I want to know what the grass covered mound that is clearly and building in disguise at the corner of Thompson Lane and Vultee Boulevard, next door to the big gold International Plaza … I know it’s probably mundane, but they are working hard to make it just blend in with nature. 

Curious Nashville ventured out with LeBlanc to inspect the hidden hill surrounded by barbwire fencing. A rock wall covered with brush until recently faces traffic. Concrete stairs lead up the side. Antique-looking electric poles, complete with climbing rungs, poke from the top.

Courtesy Google Earth

This screenshot from Google Earth shows even the top of the mound is covered in grass.

Wheel valves and air vents are visible from the street. But from satellite imaging, there’s not much to look at.

The primary clue to the purpose of this man-made mound is an illegible sign, cracked up from decades of exposure. With close inspection, the words appear:

Department of Water and Sewer Services Airport and Reservoir Pumping Station.

Disguised by design

According to Metro Water Services, this is a decommissioned reservoir that now sits empty. But the history is rich.

The concrete structure, built in 1941 by the Works Project Administration, holds 2 million gallons and was built to serve the city’s newly constructed Berry Field (Berry is the “B” in BNA, named for Col. Harry Berry who headed the WPA in Tennessee). The area was fairly rural at the time, so the reservoir solely served the airport and its fire suppression needs.

Grass didn’t grow because of neglect. The natural look was by design, “part of the camouflage,” Metro Water deputy director Brent Freeman said on “This Is Nashville” (watch on YouTube).

Blake Farmer WPLN News

According to Metro Water Services, this sign is more than 80 years old, which explains the extreme weathering.

“There was a very good reason to ensure that civil infrastructure that was important to the community wasn’t readily obvious from the air,” he said. “In 1941, World War II was currently ongoing.”

There are no plans to return the reservoir to service. Gravity generates much of the pressure in the water system, and the reservoir’s height isn’t sufficient for the pressure needs of the growing area, he said.

A much newer pumping station has been built for the airport and is paired with another redundant pumping station that serves the area and the airport in case of outages.

While not covered in grass, neither of those are easily identifiable from the air or satellite images.