• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Nashville's local news and NPR station

Search
Listen Listen
Give Now
  • Search
  • News
    • Arts, Culture & Music
    • Criminal Justice
    • Curious Nashville
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health Care
    • Housing
    • Metro Government
    • Race & Equity
    • State Politics
  • Schedule
    • WPLN-FM
    • WPLN International
  • Support
    • Give Now
    • Ways to Support
    • The Producers’ Circle
    • Donor Hub
    • Donate A Car
    • Give Stock
    • Business Support
    • Planned Giving
  • Shows + Podcasts
    • NashVillager
    • This Is Nashville
    • The Promise
    • Curious Nashville
    • See All
  • NashVillager
    • Podcast
    • Newsletter
  • Events
  • Giveaways
  • Donor Hub
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
This Is Nashville logo

This Is Nashville Pin Drop

We “drop a pin” on the map somewhere in the Nashville area — and explore the location’s significance and history.

Subscribe:

  • Apple Podcasts
  • Spotify
  • RSS Link

Thank you to our presenting sponsor: Music City PrEP

  • Episodes
  • Pin Drop
  • News Hits
  • Features
  • @Us
  • Citizen Nashville

Rivergate Skate Center is a neighborhood roller rink with a storied past

Steve Haruch

July 6, 2023

Listen

Like so many iconic spots around Nashville, the Rivergate Skate Center is located between two strip malls.

Filed Under: Pin Drop, WPLN News Tagged With: history, Madison, Recreation

The Woolworth building is a key civil rights site. Preserving that history has been fraught with uncertainty.

Steve Haruch

February 14, 2023

Listen

Whatever business prints 221 Rep. John Lewis Way on its business cards — now or in the future — the old Woolworth building in downtown Nashville will forever be connected to the 1960 sit-ins.

Filed Under: Pin Drop, Race & Equity, WPLN News Tagged With: civil rights, civil rights movement

‘It is built on a rock’: A historic Black church in Hendersonville reflects on the legacy buried in its foundation

Rose Gilbert

December 7, 2022

Listen

This Is Nashville producer Rose Gilbert reports from Sunday service at St. John Missionary Baptist Church, a historic Black church located in Hendersonville.

Filed Under: Pin Drop, Programs, Race & Equity Tagged With: Black churches, church, Emancipation

What an elusive island on the Cumberland tells us about Nashville’s first big business — buying and selling enslaved people

Andrea Tudhope

November 30, 2022

Listen

You wouldn’t know by looking at it today, but Hill’s Island has an important story to tell about Nashville’s role in the trade of enslaved people.

Filed Under: History, Pin Drop, Race & Equity, WPLN News Tagged With: Cumberland River, enslaved people, history

Native Americans were forced to travel through Nashville on the Trail of Tears. A remnant of the bridge they crossed remains downtown.

Steve Haruch

October 18, 2022

Native American historian Toye Heape, wearing a plaid shirt and a Native History Association T-shirt, stands in front of a railing; in the near distance, there is stone structure that was once part of a bridge.
Listen

Nearly 200 years ago, a thousand Cherokee people crossed the Cumberland River in Nashville on their way to modern-day Oklahoma. Now, very little remains of this portion of the Trail of Tears.

Filed Under: History, Pin Drop, WPLN News

The country’s first Black-founded fair started in Middle Tennessee. Its legacy lives on from Gallatin to Detroit.

Rose Gilbert

August 31, 2022

Listen

If you drive out to Gallatin and go down Blythe Street, you’ll come across an empty lot sandwiched between a housing development and a barbecue joint. It may not look like much, but this lot was the site of America’s oldest Black-founded fair.

Filed Under: Pin Drop, Programs, WPLN News

Middle Tennessee researchers are studying rare, wild ginseng in a secret location

Steve Haruch

July 28, 2022

Listen

“There’s kind of a legend about ginseng,” according to Ethan Swiggart, a plant scientist at Middle Tennessee State University. The legend goes something like this: Ginseng “shows itself to you.” And if you’re not ready? Then you won’t find it. I’m hoping that’s not the case today.

Filed Under: Pin Drop, WPLN News Tagged With: conservation, ginseng, Pin Drop, This Is Nashville

‘This is ours’: Promise Land, Tennessee, lives on through descendants of the formerly enslaved people who founded it

Andrea Tudhope

June 30, 2022

Listen

After emancipation, Tennessee did not make it easy for formerly enslaved people to realize their full freedoms. So, some took matters into their own hands.

Filed Under: Arts, Culture & Music, History, Pin Drop, Race & Equity

A mosaic project at Elizabeth Park honors African American women of North Nashville

Steve Haruch

May 20, 2022

The side of Elizabeth Park senior center, featuring a series of wood mosaics portraying African American women of North Nashville.
Listen

On Monday, five women were honored in a ceremony at Elizabeth Park, located at the intersection of Arthur Avenue, Jane Street and 11th Avenue North, in the historically Black neighborhood of North Nashville.

Filed Under: Arts, Culture & Music, Pin Drop, Race & Equity, WPLN News Tagged With: M. Simone Boyd, mosaic, North Nashville

Bass Street was home to Nashville’s first post-Emancipation Black neighborhood. Descendants want to keep its memory alive

Khalil Ekulona, Steve HaruchandAndrea Tudhope

April 4, 2022

Listen

The Bass Street neighborhood was first settled by some of the formerly enslaved people who had helped build Fort Negley and defend it against the Confederacy. Today, Bass Street is barely a street at all, a stretch of just a thousand feet or so.

Filed Under: Pin Drop Tagged With: Bass Street

Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Become a sponsor?
Become a sponsor?
Become a sponsor?

Footer

About

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Staff
  • Employment Opportunities
  • Impact Report
  • Financial, FCC and CPB Reports
  • WPLN News Transparency Report
  • FCC Public File
  • Board of Directors
  • Privacy Policy

Listen

  • Ways To Listen
  • Shows & Podcasts
  • iPhone App
  • Android App
  • Alexa Smart Speakers

Sister Stations

  • WPLN International
  • 91.ONE, WNXP
  • Nashville Classical Radio

Stay Connected

  • Contact News Department
  • Receive Our Newsletters
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
WPLN News, Nashville Public Radio
630 Mainstream Drive
Nashville, TN 37228

Phone: (615) 760-2903
©2025 Nashville Public Radio

on-air light On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM

Pop-Up Player : All Channels
Launch Streaming Player