The History of Lockland Springs Park
Robbie Jones, Architectural Historian, Preservation Planner, and East Nashvillian.
In 1890, James B. Richardson purchased the Lockeland Mansion, built from 1790 to 1810 for Robert Weakley (1764-1845), a prominent politician. Located three miles from downtown, the large, brick, Federal-style mansion was named for Weakley’s wife, Jane Locke (1769-1838), daughter of General Matthew Locke from North Carolina and a signatory of the Declaration of Independence. Richardson’s purchase included eight acres containing the Lockeland Spring and a “Spring Park,” located in the rear yard and about 400-feet south of Woodland Street. A native of Alabama and Confederate veteran, James Benagh Richardson (1848-1912) was a local businessman and civic leader who discovered that drinking the spring water that bubbled up from a rocky hillside seemed to improve his health. His friends also drank the spring water and news of its curative powers soon spread. Around 1900, Richardson constructed a Queen Anne-style sterilizing and bottling plant at the “Lockeland Spring Park” and began selling the table water throughout Nashville. A limestone springhouse allowed the water to be caught in a tank directly from the hillside, where it filled vessels through a faucet, helping to eliminate the possibility of contamination. The bottled water was distributed daily, except Sundays, by water wagons to residents and drugstores for a cost of fifty cents for on gallon daily. In 1904, the bottled water from the Lockeland Spring received a medal for its mineral composition and “salubrious quality” at the World’s Fair held in St. Louis.
Before a devastating tornado ripped through the city in March 2020, Lockeland Springs Park was a small oasis dense with trees sheltering a gentle spring-fed stream. Locals lovingly refer to it as the “Fairy Forest” because of the dozens of tiny fairy houses tucked into nooks among the trees and the stone ruins of its historic springhouse. School children frequented outdoor nature classrooms to learn about ecology, history, and biology.
The park—located in a dense residential district just three miles east of downtown— is home to the natural springs that give the neighborhood its name. Historic stone ruins still remain from the early 20th century spring-water bottling operation, providing a rare window into the East Nashville of long ago. Unfortunately, the tornado carved a direct path through the park and leveled neighboring homes. What was once a lush urban escape was gone. Only a handful of spindly broken trees remained.
Richardson’s Lockeland Spring Sterilizing and Bottling Plant with a Stone Springhouse (right), Nashville American, 1907
Located at the end of Woodland Street along the streetcar line, Richardson’s Lockeland Spring Park became a popular tourist attraction where out-of-town visitors drank the spring water and residents held picnics, outings, and celebrations. Water coolers were furnished at no cost. Richardson published full-page advertisements in local newspapers promoting the health benefits of his Lockeland Spring Water, including preventing typhoid fever. The spring was also influential in the development of the Lockeland Spring streetcar neighborhood, which was advertised as a “garden spot” containing hundreds of comfortable homes.
Richardson’s Lockeland Spring Park and Bottling Plant, Nashville American, 1907
James B. Richardson died in 1912 and was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery. Upon his death, operation of Richardson’s Lockeland Spring Water was taken over by his son William Evans Richardson (1883-1946). In 1914, the fire engine in the new Neoclassical Revival-style brick fire hall on Holly Street was named for James B. Richardson. By 1920, the Lockeland Spring Water Company was managed by Carl L. Howe, owner of Howe’s Distilled Water Company. In 1925, William Evans Richardson sold the Lockeland Mansion to his uncle Harry W. Evans and moved to an apartment in Nashville. In 1932, William Evans Richardson moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where he became president of the E.E. Taylor Corporation.
Richardson’s Lockeland Spring Park, Nashville American, 1907.
Upon acquiring the Lockeland Mansion in 1925, Harry Williamson Evans (1866-1927) subdivided the eight surrounding acres for redevelopment. After he died in 1927, his widow Marie Horton Evans (1868-1953) lived in the Lockeland Mansion until 1939, when she sold the 130-year-old mansion to the City of Nashville. The City quickly demolished the historic landmark and redeveloped the property with a new Lockeland School. In 1925, William Evans Richardson sold the Lockeland Spring Water Company and Lockeland Spring Park to Carl Livingston Howe (1896-1944), who operated Howe’s Distilled Water Company. Howe continued to sell bottled drinking water from Lockeland Spring until 1935, when he switched to carbonated seltzer water in siphon bottles. Used as a mixer for alcoholic drinks, the sparkling seltzer water came from the Lockeland Spring. The repeal of the 18th Amendment in 1933 ended prohibition and made mixed alcoholic drinks legal, which popularized seltzer water once again. By 1935, Howe was also distributing Mountain Valley Mineral Water imported from Hot Springs, Arkansas. In 1941, Howe switched to bottling Canada Dry Spur Cola, and by 1943, he operated a local franchise of the Schlitz Brewing Company.
Advertisement for Richardson’s Lockeland Spring Water, Nashville Banner, 1903
After Carl L. Howe died in 1944, the Howe Water Company was acquired by Hugh Stallworth. In September 1947, Stallworth sold the Howe Water Company to Bertram H. Chalfant and a group of associates. The following year, in 1948, Chalfant switched bottled water production in Nashville to a new plant that manufactured Canada Dry sparkling water and ginger ale.
After Howe’s death, the 2.2-acre Lockeland Spring property went through a series of owners, including J.E. and Gladys Graves, William B. and Myrtle Henderson (1945-1946), Alto Lee and Addie Paschall Snell (1946-1947), Robert Steele Patterson (1947-1966), Clarence H. and Ethel Louis McIntyre (1966-1967), B.B. Doubleday Jr. (1967-1969), William A. and Mabel J. Moreland (1969-1972), William C. and Sue Gifford (1972-1976), Ed M. and Avolyn P. Culver (1976-1982), Phillip J. and Joanne I. Price (1982-1987), Ed M. and Avolyn P. Culver (1987-1995), and the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency (1995-2010). In December 2010, the MDHA transferred the Lockeland Spring property to the Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County government for use as a public park.
The 1947 deed specified that Robert Steele Patterson (1874-1966) was “to occupy the Spring House Building on the premises, rent free for the remainder of his life, except that Patterson is to pay all taxes on the property.” Patterson died on July 28, 1966, at the age of 92. His death certificate stated that he sold rubber stamps for a living. He had married Mary Belle Masters Patterson (1882- 1966) in 1913; however, they had divorced by 1940. They had no children. Historic aerial photographs indicate the buildings at Lockeland Spring were demolished between 1966 and 1980.
In 1995, Ed M. Culver donated the 2.2-acre Lockeland Spring property to Metro Nashville for use as a mini-park. Culver had purchased the property twice in 1976 and again in 1987 at public auction with the intent of developing it into a retirement community with one-bedroom cottages. However, he never got around to developing the property and gifted it to the city on his 92nd birthday instead.
Advertisement for Lockeland Spring Water, Nashville Banner, 1920
Advertisement for Howe’s Sparkling Seltzer Water, The Tennessean, 1935.
Sources available HERE.