At 12:10 a.m. on November 5, 1912, the southeast quadrant of the Eighth Avenue South Reservoir broke apart. A 175-foot V-shaped breach opened in the massive limestone wall, and 25 million gallons of water — half the reservoir’s capacity — poured down Kirkpatrick’s Hill toward South Nashville and the State Fairgrounds.
The reservoir had been completed just 23 years earlier, in 1889. It cost the city $364,525.21 — about $10.2 million today. The walls were cut limestone, quarried from what is now Rose Park, standing 33 feet, 9 inches high. The elliptical interior measured 603 by 463 feet, divided into two basins holding 25.5 million gallons each. The engineers who built it felt “sure beyond all peradventure” that the natural rock foundation would “forever shut out all danger of settlement.”
Forever lasted until 1912.
There had been signs. Before the collapse, observers noticed a large stream of water running down the gutter on 8th Avenue. The clay strata beneath the wall had been dissolving — leaking water eating away at the foundation until the thin ledges of stone couldn’t hold. The wall didn’t fail from water pressure. It failed because the ground underneath it quietly disappeared.
The flood washed five homes completely off their foundations and damaged dozens more. Families were floated out of their houses in their beds. Granite blocks the size of automobiles tumbled down the hillside.
And nobody died. Not a single person. The only recorded casualties were a few chickens.
Property damage ran between $75,000 and $100,000 — roughly $2.5 million today. Arthur Cooney, who owned seven properties near the reservoir, received the largest settlement: $11,000 from the city. The ledger of his damaged items is still in the Metro Archives.
The wall was repaired by 1914. You can still see the patch today — lighter-colored stone where the breach was filled. In 1921, the interior was relined with gunite and waterproofed. The reservoir was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
It’s still there. It’s still working. Nashville’s largest and oldest reservoir, sitting on the same hill where Fort Casino stood during the Battle of Nashville in 1864, holding about 21 million gallons of treated water for the “city low” service areas. The gatehouse on top still stands, though it’s just storage now. A nine-foot walkway with sidewalls still runs around the rim.
The site of Fort Nashboro was chosen because of the availability of pure water from a nearby spring. The city’s first water system was built in 1833 by 24 enslaved people owned by the city. The reservoir on 8th Avenue was the next chapter — Nashville’s ambition to control and distribute water on an industrial scale, carved in limestone and mortared with confidence.
One hundred and thirteen years later, it holds. The patch is visible. The hill remembers.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons