| TIMELINE OF
NASHVILLE / DAVIDSON COUNTY Sheriff's Office references are highlighted in bold on each page of this timeline. |
1700s and Earlier | 1800-1849 | 1850-1899 | 1900-1949 | 1950-1999 (this page) | 2000+ List of Davidson County Sheriffs | Brief History of DCSO
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1950-1999 |
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| 1950 | Capitol Records becomes the first major company to locate its director of country music in Nashville. |
| 1951 | Belmont College opens. |
| 1953 | Thomas Y. Cartwright is Sheriff of Davidson County. The Nashville City Directory shows separate phone numbers for the Jail and for Radio Patrol. |
| 1955 | Kelley v. The Board of Education leads to a school desegregation plan in Nashville. |
| 1956 | Phone numbers in Nashville and Davidson County now have named prefixes. The Sheriff's Office telephone number is published as "ALpine 62674". |
| 1956 | Tom B. Cartwright is Sheriff of Davison County. |
| 1957 | Davidson County's population is estimated at 368,514 with 47% living in Nashville and 53% living in the unincorporated areas. Davidson County's assessed property valuation is $528,255,360, of which Nashville comprises 59%, with the remaining 41% in the unincorporated areas. |
| 1957 | The "L&C" (Life and Casualty) Tower is completed downtown. |
| 1960 | The Nashville Sit-In Movement leads to widespread desegregation of public facilities. |
| 1961 | Building permits issued in Davidson County total $67,693,222. |
| 1961 | Leslie E. Jett is Sheriff of Davidson County. The Sheriff's Office has added a Traffic Safety section and an Education Director. |
| 1961 | The Maxwell House Hotel is destroyed by fire. |
| 1961 | The municipal airport opens. |
| 1962 | Metropolitan government, to combine Nashville and Davidson County into one entity, is approved in a voters' referendum. |
| 1962 | Tennessee's first interstate highway, connecting Nashville with Memphis, arrives in Nashville. |
| 1963 | Metropolitan government is formally inaugurated on April 1. County Judge Beverly Briley takes office as the first Mayor. Within its 533 square miles, Davidson County is home to an estimated population of 423,150. |
| 1965 | Robert R. Poe is Sheriff of Davidson County. |
| 1966 | The Davidson County Jail is located at 110 N. Public Square, telephone 747-4389. |
| 1967 | Davidson County's voters approve liquor by the drink. |
| 1967 | John A. Frazier is Sheriff of Davidson County. |
| 1970 | The population of Davidson County is estimated at 469,400. |
| 1972 | Themepark Opryland USA opens in northeast Davidson County. |
| 1973 | Lafayette ("Fate") Thomas is Sheriff of Davidson County. |
| 1974 | The Grand Ol' Opry moves from the Ryman Auditorium into the facilities at Opryland. |
| 1975 | Congressman Richard Fulton is elected the second Mayor of Metropolitan Nashville/Davidson County. |
| 1976 | The United Nations comes to Nashville for its first meeting away from New York City. |
| 1978 | Amtrak passenger train service through Nashville comes to an end. |
| 1978 | Professional baseball returns to Nashville with the Nashville Sounds. |
| 1979 | Celebration of Nashville/Davidson County's bicentennial begins. |
| 1980 | The Tennessee Performing Arts ("T-PAC") opens. |
| 1982 | The first Summer Lights Festival is held. |
| 1983 | Riverfront Park opens on Broadway, January 10. |
| 1983 | The Sheriff's Office releases some inmates under a new state law authorizing up to 25% of some convicted misdemeanants' sentences to be credited for good behavior . |
| 1984 | Nashvillian Tracy Caulkins wins three Olympic gold medals. |
| 1986 | Union Station re-opens a hotel. |
| 1987 | Congressman Bill Boner is elected Mayor of Nashville/Davidson County. |
| 1987 | Nashville opens a new convention center downtown as well as a new airport in east Nashville. |
| 1990 | After 13 years of allegations and investigations, Sheriff "Fate" Thomas is indicted on charges of corruption. He later pleads guilty and is sentenced to five years in federal prison. He is released in late 1994. |
| 1990 | The population of Nashville/Davidson County is reported as 508,181. |
| 1990 | An immense statue of Athena is unveiled in the Parthenon. Over 4 stories tall, it is the largest indoor sculpture in the western world. |
| 1990 | Henderson ("Hank") Hillin is Sheriff of Davidson County. |
| 1990 | A Federal Judge mandates a maximum allowable population for the Davidson County jail system. |
| 1990 | The population of Nashville/Davidson County is reported as 508,181. |
| 1991 | Phil Bredesen is elected Mayor of Nashville/Davidson County. |
| 1992 | Al Gore, Jr., of Carthage outside Nashville, is elected Vice President of the United States, November 3. |
| 1993 | The Sheriff's Office Workhouse is closed as a correctional facility and remodeling begins to convert it to office space. |
| 1994 | Gayle Ray is Sheriff of Davidson County. |
| 1994 | The BellSouth Building opens, October 20. The public soon nicknames the structure "The Bat-Building" for its profile's resemblance to the fantasy hero Batman. |
| 1996 | Tennessee celebrates its bicentennial. |
| 1996 | The Metro Library Board approves a $125M plan to build a new 315,000 sq. ft. mail library and five regional branches. |
| 1996 | The Tennessee Bicentennial Mall State Park opens the celebration of the states 200th birthday, June 1. |
| 1997 | Opryland-USA closes with "Christmas in the Park" at year-end. |
| 1997 | The National Football League comes to Nashville as the Oilers move from Houston to Tennessee. |
| 1997 | The National Hockey League comes to the Nashville Arena with the Predators, September 25. |
| 1998 | The daily evening newspaper, the Nashville Banner, ceases publication with its final edition, February 20. |
| 1998 | Tornados strike downtown and east Nashville in the middle of work- and school-day, April 16. |
| 1998 | The Sheriff's Office Correctional Development Center-Male wins national accreditation by the American Correctional Association. |
| 1998 | Tennessee's NFL team changes its name from its old Houston name, the Oilers, to the Tennessee Titans, and adopts a new logo, December 22. |
| 1998 | The Southern Festival of Books, held annually in Nashville, holds its tenth anniversary celebration. |
| 1999 | Bill Purcell takes office as Mayor, September 21. |
| 1999 | Davidson County's becomes the first Sheriff's Office Jerry Newson Center to be awarded national accreditation by the American Correctional Association. |
| 1999 | The abandoned Central State Mental Hospital on Murfreesboro Road is demolished to begin construction of a Dell Computers manufacturing site. |
| 1999 | The 90-year-old Shelby Street Bridge closes permanently to vehicular traffic, and reconstruction begins to convert it to a pedestrian walkway to Adelphia Coliseum. |
| 1999 | Ground is broken for a new main library on Church Street, July 24. |
| 1999 | The first game is played in the new Adelphia Coliseum, August 15. |
| 1999 | The new Nashville Zoo at Grassmere opens. |
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