Downtown Presbyterian Church and the 100th Annual Waffle Shop

With only four official floors, Downtown Presbyterian Church (Rep. John Lewis Way and Church St.) used to be one of the tallest buildings in Nashville. Now dwarfed by skyscrapers, her history is way bigger than her small stature.

DPC has hosted US presidents. It’s been a hospital during the Civil War and has been on both the right and wrong side of civil rights. Today it houses a small, active congregation as well as nonprofits and artists — and the building itself is one of the best remaining examples of Egyptian Revival architecture. In this episode, as they celebrate what is most likely the longest-running fundraiser in town, we hear all about this historic downtown church.

The Downtown Presbyterian Church’s 100th Annual Waffle Shop takes place on Thursday, December 5, 2024, from 11 am -2 pm.

This episode was produced by Tasha A.F. Lemley.

GUESTS

• Erin Bell, co-chair, Waffle Shop and Missions & Community Engagement
• Jim Hoobler, historian, Retired curator of the TN State Capitol and Museum
• Zach Sasser, DPC pastor
• Tom Wills, DPC member, The Contributor co-founder

Tasha A.F. Lemley

Downtown Presbyterian Church, 2017

“We are a Downtown Church.  Some regard this as a handicap.  I look upon it as an asset.  Give me a church where life is densest, and human need is greatest – not a church in some sequestered sylvan retreat, not a temple in some lonely solitude far removed from the walks of life and attended only by the children of privilege and leisure, but give me a church whose doorstep is on the pavement, against whose walls beat and lap the tides of labor, whose hymns mingle with the rattle of cars and the groans of traffic, whose seats are within easy reach of men falling under heavy burdens, and whose altars are hallowed by the publican’s prayer.  God grant that this old church on the busiest corner of town may increasingly be this kind of church!” ~ Rev. Dr. James I. Vance, on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the First Presbyterian Church of Nashville, 1914