A NASHVILLE PILGRIMAGE - HARVEY'S NATIVITY SCENE

-


  In Nashville during the 1950's and 60's Christmas was a big deal for me. I loved the sights and smells of the season. It was cool when my mother drove us through downtown Nashville to check out the city Christmas decorations. Then there was Christmas shopping at all of the downtown stores such as Harvey's, Cain-Sloan, W.T. Grants, Castner-Knott, Woolworths and McClellann's. Daddy would give us five dollars to shop with and I was able to buy everyone in the family something. Then there was the inevitable trip to Harveys monkey bar for lunch and a visit to their Santa Claus for pictures. No Christmas was complete, however; without a trip to the Parthenon in Centennial park to see Harvey's nativity scene. I don't know if any city in the U.S. had anything to equal it. 

  Fred Harvey Sr. thought of the idea for the nativity scene on a visit to the Bavarian Alps at Christmas time. He was impressed by the beauty of a much smaller nativity scene. Fred thought “how beautiful a larger replica of the scene would look on the mall beside the Parthenon in our own Centennial Park.” Guido Rabacini designed the nativity scene and it was manufactured by the Chicago Silvestri Art Manufacturing Company for about $20,000. In 2019 dollars that is almost $193,000 dollars. I believe that Harvey displayed the Nashville nativity scene for the first time in 1953 and the last time was Christmas of 1967. When Harvey went to have it set up in 1968 he discovered that many of the figures had been badly damaged in storage. Soon after he sold it to an advertising firm in Chicago. The nativity scene had a total of 123 figures, 78 animals and 45 people, The nativity scene covered an area 280 foot wide and 75 foot deep.









Circa 1950's
Harvey's Nativity Scene



Fred Harvey Senior

Comments

  1. anonymousNovember 23, 2020 at 2:54 PM

    LOVED this!! Never knew where Mr. Harvey got the idea, so I learned something. It really was a treasure.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJune 19, 2022 at 10:01 AM

    Thanks for publishing this my mom just told me about it and it was nice to show her the pictures you posted.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE DEATH OF JAYNE MANSFIELD

-
Image
Jayne Mansfield   Jayne Mansfield died way too young on June 29, 1967 at the age of 34 in a gruesome car wreck, She was killed instantly but contrary to urban legend she was not decapitated. Jayne was called the poor man's Marilyn Monroe. She had enjoyed about a four year stint of popularity on Broadway and in Hollywood from 1954 until 1958. Her career was in decline in the late 50's and early 60's but she was still popular in Europe and on the nightclub circuit. She took her last name from her high school sweetheart Paul Mansfield when she married him at the age of seventeen. Her second husband was a former Mr. Universe named Mickey Hargitay who was from Norway. The third and last husband was Matt Cimber. Mansfield was highly educated, attending Southern Methodist University, the University of Texas and U.C.L.A. She supposedly had an IQ of 163 and was called the smartest dumb blonde ever. Of course she couldn't be too smart. In 1966, a year before her death, while
Read more

CARNTON PLANTATION

-
Image
   My first association with the Carnton Plantation in Franklin was when I would see the old house while hunting for Civil War relics in the early 1970's. There is a subdivision near Carnton today in the area where I hunted when it was primarily farm land. I knew it was an antebellum home but I wasn't aware of how historic Carnton was. It was in a horrible state of disrepair and I have learned since then that a farmer was using the house as his hay barn. In 1977 the owner of the property donated the house and ten acres to the Carnton Association and they have done a fantastic job of restoring the plantation to it's former glory. Originally the McGavock's owned 1400 acres. It was built by Randall McGavock in the 1820's. He was mayor of Nashville and a close friend of Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk. Jackson on several occasions was an overnight guest in the home.    His son John took over the plantation in 1843 upon the death of Randall. In 1848 John mar
Read more

NASHVILLE AND JESSE JAMES

-
Image
The James brothers with their mother Zerelda James   Most everyone has heard of the notorious outlaws Jesse and Frank James, however; did you know that they lived in Nashville from 1875 until March 1881? Jesse's oldest son Jesse James Jr. was born in Nashville along with his sister Mary. Jesse Jr. was born at 606 Boscobel Street on August 31, 1875. Mary was born on West Hamilton Road in Bordeaux on July 17, 1879. Jesse Jr. went by the name Tim and as far as he knew his last name was Howard. He and his sister would not know their real last names until after Jesse was killed in 1882. Jesse and his wife Zerelda would also lose two male twins in infancy.  Jesse's brother Frank lived on Clarksville Pike. While living there he and his wife Annie Ralston James gave birth to a son named Robert Franklin on February 6, 1877. For a time he would be dressed as a girl and go by the name of Mary. Why his parents did this I do not know.  The brothers were on the run. Nashville was
Read more