Going Up! Elevator Murals Enliven Castner-Knott Updates

Thanks to the creativity of two local artists, elevators in the recently renovated Castner-Knott building open onto unexpected “views” of downtown Nashville and history. That’s not to say there are actual windows inside the enclosed elevator cars of the department store-turned-office-building, but artists Jess Peoples and Sarah Clinton have painted murals that give illusions of looking out onto sunny scenes of urban life, along with subtle hints of history from the building’s 120 years on Church Street.

Both members of the local Chestnut Group of plein air painters, Peoples and Clinton filled their artspaces with impressionistic landscapes. One elevator opens onto the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge spanning across the Cumberland River, while another opens onto a view of a musician in nearby Church Street Park, across the street from the Nashville Public Library Main Branch.

Between those two scenes of People’s signature plein-air brush strokes, the center elevator opens onto what appears at first to be a grid of bookshelves framing smaller windows with views of the East Bank. Into this trompe l’oeil design, artist Sarah Clinton embeds playful Easter eggs of Nashville’s history and culture.

Look closely at the spines of the books on the shelves, and you’ll find titles of bygone buildings and businesses – including Utopia Hotel and Nashville Athletic Club – along with original street names, such as Market, College and Cherry. One shelf catalogs historic architecture that remains intact, including The Hermitage Hotel, while another shelf lines up the names of new civic structures, including sports sites and concert venues on the modern-day skyline.

Peoples’s and Clinton’s murals are finishing touches on a renovation of the Castner-Knott building by Ohio-based GBX Group, which acquired the building in 2023 and partnered with Historic Nashville to protect its historical exteriors with preservation easement agreements. Built in 1906 to house the expansion of Castner-Knott Dry Goods Company (founded in 1898), the landmark department store building at 616-618 Church Street was an early cornerstone of Nashville’s retail environment and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.