The Boyd House, located on a corner of Fisk University’s campus in Nashville, was nearly torn down last year. While demolition was halted then, the fundraising effort to pay for a $1.1 million renovation now faces a deadline next month.
The Boyd House was built in the 1930s by religious publisher Henry Allen Boyd and his wife Georgia, who was a prominent suffragist. Henry Allen was the son of R.H. Boyd, who founded the National Baptist Publishing Board (now Boyd Publishing), Citizen’s Bank and the Nashville Globe newspaper. Henry Allen served as president of the bank and publisher of the influential Black newspaper.
In 1938, he gave the home to Fisk, where he was a trustee. The two-story brick structure is on the National Register and sits on the corner of Fisk’s campus. But the school was ready to tear it down for its own development plans, until a petition drive was launched by Tennessee State University history professor Learotha Williams.
More: Petitioners Balk At Fisk University Plan To Demolish Historic Home
“Every brick, block, shingle and beam that continues to hold up this house is a testament to their lives and stands as a monument to the triumphs, joys and sorrows that define the African American experience in Nashville. This home is a sacred part of North Nashville’s built environment and should not be demolished,” he writes.
Boyd Publishing stepped in to help promote a fundraising campaign. CEO LaDonna Boyd says they’re roughly a quarter of the way to the goal and have a mid-September meeting with Fisk to determine the next steps.
“Just the history, in and of itself, deserves to be preserved,” she says. “There’s not a lot of HBCUs that I’m aware of that have historic mansions.”
Boyd, whose great-great-uncle was Henry Allen Boyd, says her family paid for a smaller renovation once before. But Fisk failed to maintain the property during years of financial struggle.
A broader fundraising effort should help raise awareness of the home’s significance in Nashville’s business history, Boyd says, and promote the space to be used by more local business groups if they can save it and complete renovations into an event space.
Fisk did not respond to multiple requests to comment for this story.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM