The Toll House

From Civil War soldiers to ladies in the oldest profession, FBI's new Nashville headquarters has seen it all.

First let's talk about that name. No, it doesn't have anything to do with elves or cookies. There are actually two stories about why, for over 20 years, there was a sign hanging in front of the building that announced to the world, "Toll House."

The first story came from former owner, Charles Ritzen, who reported the building was used as a Toll House around 1900 for people traveling from Nashville to Murfreesboro. About this time, roadway companies were charging for the use of roads they owned to pay for the clearing and expansion of new ones, so this is a definite possibility about the name. The second story came from a former tenant of the building who claimed the property was once used as a Toll House back in the 1800's for people with heavy loads wishing to cross the Cumberland River by barge. We've yet to find proof for either of these explanations, but they haven't been disproved, either.

But, we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's start at the beginning:

• The earliest record of the property goes back to the late 1700's when a land grant was given to a veteran soldier of the Revolutionary War from North Carolina. No doubt the grant was for a much larger track of land and the place was originally either a plantation or farm.

• Records from Nashville's Register of Deeds office show that in October 1829, the land around the Toll House was subdivided into lots. These records also indicate that a building already sat on the property where the current Toll House sits. So, is it the same building? Well, parts of the foundation might be from 1829, although the brick half of the building, built over the 1829 structure, is most likely from the 1840's.
• The current building looks like it was once two separate houses now joined together. But in truth, they probably were never separate buildings. The brick half of the Toll House (closest to downtown, Nashville) was built first, most likely in the 1840's, and a second house was built off a small "extension" of the brick structure. You can see this extension in a picture taken in 1864. Why would a separate home be built yet connected to the first? Probably because one house belonged to a father, the other to a son, and both generations lived in a "family compound" just as some families still do today.
• Speaking of the brick half of the building that came before the wooden half, in the previously mentioned photo taken in December of 1864, the "brick half" and its extension weren't brick. It was wood. The brick was added to the exterior after the Civil War, probably to distinguish one house in the "compound" from the other.
• In 1864, after the battle of Nashville, wounded Union soldiers were taken to many homes, schools and churches in the South Nashville area. We're sure soldiers were housed in buildings both in front of and behind the property. So, could the Toll House itself have been used as a place for injured Union troops, a make-shift hospital or barracks? Possibly. There's little question a soldier or two from the period didn't visit the place.
• When you stand in back of the Toll House, it looks as if additions or "wings" were added on both sides giving the building a "square horseshoe" shape. These "wings" look somewhat new. But in truth, they're not. According to records from the Nashville Fire Department, the current shape of the building has been the same since 1908.
• By the late 1940's and into the '60's, the place was no longer a family residence and had been converted into a boarding house where tenants would occupy one room. The back of the structure had first and second floor balconies that ran the length of the building and emptied into a side staircase, and doors replaced back windows to be separate entrances for the tenants. During this time, the surrounding neighborhood was tough. In fact, a double homicide happened in the back alley just yards from the Toll House in 1947.
• In the 1970's, the one room boarding house had deteriorated into a notorious brothel until the police finally shut it down. After that, the place sat empty and forsaken for several years.
• In the early 1980's, Charles Ritzen bought the property and refurbished it, turning it into office rental space for small businesses. Businesses ranging from substance abuse counselors to a film production company occupied the offices.
• Then in 2006, Frank/Best Properties bought the joint, refurbished it again, and there you go. During recent remodeling around and under the building, over 50 artifacts from the Toll House's past were excavated. The oldest of these, it is believed, dates back to May of 1807.

There are still a lot of unanswered questions about the building. Like, was it really a Toll House? Or, there was clearly a fire in the building, but nobody knows when or what was the cause. And what's up with all those rather large bones that were unearthed in the crawl space? A doctor from Vanderbilt examined the bones and most of them were the remains of farm animals. But there were also a couple that were "suspect." Hhmm, interesting. These and other mysteries will probably be revealed in good time. But one thing's for sure, the Toll House has enjoyed a long and colorful past, and with the FBI crew roaming its halls, it's got a creative and bohemian future.

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