East Nashville

East Nashville is the side of the river the city grew back into. It covers three zip codes — 37206 closest to downtown, 37216 to the north around Inglewood, and 37207 along Dickerson Pike and Ellington Parkway — and it reads as a collection of neighborhoods rather than one: the early-1900s bungalows and Victorians of Lockeland Springs, Historic Edgefield and East End; the mid-century ranches on bigger lots in Inglewood; and the new construction that has filled in Cleveland Park, McFerrin Park and the blocks off Gallatin Pike over the last decade.

Daily life runs along a few corridors. Five Points is the center of gravity for restaurants, bars and coffee; Riverside Village serves Inglewood the same way on a smaller scale; Gallatin Pike and Main Street carry the groceries, hardware stores and everything in between. Shelby Park and the Shelby Bottoms Greenway run along the river at the southern edge, and most of the older neighborhoods are sidewalk neighborhoods — people walk to dinner here, which is still unusual in Nashville.

Getting around: three bridges connect East Nashville to downtown (Woodland Street, Korean Veterans Boulevard and Jefferson Street), so Five Points to Lower Broadway is about two miles and a five-to-ten-minute drive outside rush hour. Ellington Parkway and Briley Parkway get you to the interstates and the airport; Gallatin Pike is the north–south spine, slow at peak hours and lined with the bus routes WeGo runs into downtown. From Inglewood, add five to ten minutes to any of that.

What has changed: prices and construction. Infill “tall-and-skinny” homes — two detached units on one lot, sold separately — are now a standard housing type here, alongside full renovations of the original housing stock and new condos and townhomes along the corridors. The trade-offs between those three are most of what my East Nashville buyers end up talking through, and it is why the sub-neighborhood matters more than the zip code.