Three neighborhoods share this stretch south of downtown, with I-440 along the bottom. 21st Avenue South — Hillsboro Pike — is the dividing line: Hillsboro–West End’s homes are west of it, Belmont–Hillsboro’s are east of it, and the Hillsboro Village shops sit on it. Belmont–Hillsboro runs east to 12th Avenue South, the old Granny White Pike and the spine of 12 South, whose residential streets east of 12th go by their official, historic name, Waverly–Belmont. Belmont Boulevard has a small strip of its own across from Belmont University.
All three grew up along streetcar lines. Belmont–Hillsboro’s oldest sections were subdivided in 1890–91, a street-railway franchise on Belmont Boulevard followed in 1901, and the southern blocks were built out by about 1940; its houses are mostly bungalows, cottages, American foursquares and Tudors on hilly streets. Hillsboro–West End took off when the Hillsboro streetcar reached Blair Boulevard in 1910: mostly 1910–1935 Craftsman, Tudor and Colonial Revival houses on a flat grid of 50- to 60-foot lots, with brick the most common exterior. Waverly–Belmont was subdivided from the 1890s on; more than half its historic houses are bungalows, with Victorian-era houses next, on lots about 50 feet wide, and starting around 2005 new houses went up there, many of them replacing historic homes.
All three now have Metro conservation overlays — Belmont–Hillsboro since 2005 (expanded through 2017), Hillsboro–West End since 2006 (expanded in 2014) and Waverly–Belmont since January 2016, after a contested hearing — so new buildings, additions and demolitions that can be seen from the street go through the Historic Zoning Commission (in Belmont–Hillsboro’s overlay, paint, fences and landscaping are not reviewed). Most of the lots facing 12th Avenue South itself fall outside the overlays on both sides, and that frontage is where newer mixed-use buildings have gone up.
Daily life is on three strips. On 12th Avenue South the 12 South association counts more than fifty businesses, and Sevier Park anchors the south end, with Sunnyside, a house from about 1852 that is now home to Metro’s historical commissions, a community center rebuilt in 2014, and the 12 South Farmers Market on Tuesday afternoons from May to October. Hillsboro Village has the Belcourt Theatre (1925), Pancake Pantry, Fido, Biscuit Love and Brown’s Diner, with Fannie Mae Dees “Dragon” Park nearby on Blakemore Avenue. Belmont Boulevard has Bongo Java, Proper Bagel and International Market across from Belmont University, and the neighborhood holds the annual Belmont–Hillsboro Neighbors home tour. Downtown is about three miles from any of them, roughly 10 minutes outside rush hour, with Vanderbilt and Music Row closer still.