ure a great Nashville event venue - or an event venue anywhere for that matter - begins and ends with a well designed and maintained space. With a newly built space, it stops there, and that's okay.
It gets complicated, however, with an historic building. How do you tell the story of an historic Nashville venue to those guests at events who are partial to design, architecture and history? At Clementine Hall we're constantly asked about the history of the building and what we did to the building during its restoration. The questions can get very specific. It's difficult even for me, the owner and designer, to remember every story we've been told or design decision made, so imagine our staff trying to uncover the answer to these specific questions.
Clementine Hall was built beginning in 1889. You can't be 135 years old without some interesting stories. And our restoration and repurposing of the church is another long story. Guests at events can feel the history and design from the moment they enter. As lovers of history and stories, we have tried to preserve and tell those stories to all who ask. But of course we're unable to be there to answer every guest's questions.
Recently, we finally figured out a way to preserve the history of Clementine and tell those architecture and history stories to anyone who was interested.
We installed museum-style plaques with QR codes throughout the building, in every room. The QR code takes guests to before-and-after photos of the space they're in, design issues we faced, and historical usage of the space. We think the photos and stories are pretty amazing. And they can engage the curious and start up some interesting conversations.
The founding story of the church, the saga of the pipe organ, and the case of the false facade are some of my favorites. But every room - form the Tiger, Bird and Flower Rooms to Little Bird Lounge are all represented. As we learn more, we add to the living ledger.
We hope that you share our appreciation for deign, architecture and history in our Nashville venue. The plaques are nice, but we'd still like to talk about the extraordinary design of Clementine Hall when you visit.
