NASHVILLE — Late last month, a modest duplex on DeFord Bailey Avenue in Edgehill was listed for sale, with marketing materials advertising it as a prime development opportunity. The few people who knew the anonymous structure’s backstory jumped into action.
“It’s time to make sure that everybody knows the history of this building,” Mark Schlicher, a filmmaker and vice president of the Friends of the Edmondson Homesite, told the Nashville Banner. “It’s this forgotten piece of WSM history that’s hiding in plain sight.”
The radio station WSM was founded 100 years ago, with what would become the station’s Grand Ole Opry show launched that same year, and the Edgehill building was home to the station’s first transmitter. Schlicher first encountered the building’s history in 2022 while researching the neighborhood as part of work on a documentary about William Edmondson, the sculptor whose now-preserved homesite is just around the corner from the WSM building. He recently drove past the site and saw the for-sale sign, so he sent a note about the structure that has circulated in Nashville history circles.
WSM transmitted its programming via the Edgehill building until its larger, iconic tower was built in Brentwood a few years later. The Edgehill transmitter then served as a backup before it was converted to a residential property.
No historical marker stands at the building, which helped broadcast early performances by DeFord Bailey and the Fisk Jubilee Singers while popularizing country music. Its exterior appearance remains similar to how it looked when it was operational. Some of the original interior elements remain, though there is no evidence of its history as a radio facility.