Three years ago, a group of developers and real estate agents were brainstorming on rebranding a post-industrial area northwest of downtown. Someone threw out the name City Heights.

"It stuck," said developer John Eldridge, whose E3 Construction Services has built 30 homes and plans 300 more for the area, some in the $400,000s. "Once I heard it, I went with it."

For Eldridge, City Heights conjures what he considers beautiful views of downtown, and adds some cache to his slice of Nashville real estate. The rebranding also reflects how developers, agents and some residents are reshaping identities of Nashville's gentrifying neighborhoods during a booming real estate market. But critics say renaming risks diluting neighborhood identities, especially in longtime African-American communities.

"It's part of the natural evolution of a city," said Davidson County historian Carole Bucy. "But any time you change a name, you do lose a part of our historic fabric that's worth preserving. Those names do tell us in many ways more than we actually know about a particular place."

North Nashville or City Heights?

To Steve Westmoreland, whose family has lived in the area for decades, it’s simply North Nashville. Walking near the “27N. at City Heights” town home development, Westmoreland recalls his father paying $9,000 in 1989 for a single-family home near the corner of 26th and Clifton.

"If that's what (Eldridge) wants to call it, I'm still going to call it North Nashville," Westmoreland said. "With North Nashville, you probably throw up some red flags."

► More: City Heights 'a hidden gem' in West Nashville

Once a thriving hub of Nashville’s African-American community, North Nashville was a mecca for blues and jazz during the mid-20th century. It's home to several historically black universities. But in recent decades, the area has suffered from a disproportionate share of the city’s crime and poverty.

Today, many lots and buildings sit empty in the area Eldridge calls City Heights — from 16th Avenue North near downtown to Interstate 440 and from Charlotte Pike to Herman Street. Swaths of the district are still zoned for industrial use, although they’ve been dormant for many years.

Under the right circumstances, renaming can help with economic and social development. The Los Angeles City Council officially renamed South Central Los Angeles after race riots fueled its stigma as a dangerous, volatile area. The council voted to call it South Los Angeles in 2003. Since then, the area has been transformed. Crime fell dramatically and residents have cleaner streets and more shopping options.

Near the City Heights development, David Swett, owner of the iconic Nashville soul food restaurant Swett’s, understands why Eldridge would use the new name.

"In my opinion, he's doing what he has to do to sell his product that he's putting into this community," Swett said. "What these developers are doing isn't at all a bad idea. It brings more people in the community, more residential here, and it upgrades and makes the community a better place to live."

Rebranding comes hand in hand with gentrification

Perhaps the most recognizable renaming is New York City’s Soho, which is short for “South of Houston Street” and a reference to the neighborhood in London’s West End. The Manhattan section was home to so many decrepit, fire-prone buildings in the 1960s that it was known as “Hell’s Hundred Acres.” Artists founded the Soho Artists Association in 1968 and began moving in, ushering in the first wave of gentrification.

One of the most rapidly gentrifying areas of Nashville’s urban core is Edgehill, where resident groups last year erected signs marking the neighborhood’s boundaries. Developers had begun rebranding sections as “Gulch South” and “12South,” after glitzier adjacent areas. The minimalist metal signs state “Edgehill” below a silhouetted polar bear, a nod to quirky statues that have been in the neighborhood since around 1930.

“We needed to mark our boundaries to prevent some encroachment,” said Rachel Zijlstra, board president of the Edgehill Village Neighborhood Association. “What developers do (with names) doesn’t make the neighborhood. It’s about the people that come together.”

► More: Edgehill renames street, honors late Rev. Curtis Goodwin

Neighborhood activist Paulina Jones, who’s lived in Edgehill since 1977, said she’s proud of the area’s history and will always identify with the name. In the early to mid- 20th century it was home to African-American doctors, lawyers, professors and other professionals.

“They did a lot for the neighborhood, and brought prestige to the neighborhood,” she said.

Now, developers are looking to create their own version, she said: “It makes them feel better, like this is more upscale, a name with more prestige to it. I’m always going to call it Edgehill. They can call it whatever they want.”

Names can be historical, created by residents, and fluid

Neighborhood names are often more organic, owing to the history of an area. Many place names in Nashville, as elsewhere, reflect geographic features or prominent families that once lived there. Others take their moniker from churches or subdivisions.

Bucy, the county historian, pointed to a few examples. Antioch and Salemtown were named after churches in those neighborhoods. Green Hills came from a view of the area’s verdant, rolling hills. Cane Ridge resulted from the first settlers finding cane growing in that area. Goodlettsville and Hendersonville were named after postmasters.

Neighborhood names fluctuate over time, and can even vary from resident to resident. Even before the recent development around “City Heights” there was no consensus on that neighborhood’s name. Swett, the restaurant owner, calls it West Nashville. He also says it’s been known as the McKissack area, which pays homage to the African-American family of architects who designed many churches and other buildings around North Nashville.

In some cases, residents themselves have pushed for a name change or have sought to formalize names. In Cane Ridge, residents in the 2000s wanted to break away from Antioch and its reputation at that time for high crime and low real estate value. The U.S. Postmaster General's district office in 2007 recognized Cane Ridge at the urging of residents, as an alternate city address for mail service.

"When neighbors feel they want to be called something else to lift the esteem of the community, I don't think it's a bad idea," said the area’s former Metro Councilman Sam Coleman, now a General Sessions judge.

When a rebranding meets resistance

Occasionally the new names don’t stick or neighbors successfully resist the rebranding efforts.

Around 2008, a group of real estate agents tried to rebrand The Nations neighborhood as Historic West Town. With development spilling over from neighboring Sylvan Park and Sylvan Heights, real estate agents Alice Walker and Angela Pickney O'Neil saw that area as the next logical growth spot. But they felt The Nations’ growth potential was being stifled by its name and preconceived notions of it being an unsafe and neglected community.

"We were trying to find something that was historically legitimate and relevant to the area,” Walker said. She read somewhere that The Nations at one point had been called West Town.

But the name never really caught on. Today “The Nations” is its own buzzword in real estate circles, a hot spot for infill residential development.

► More: The Nations: one of Nashville's hottest urban hubs

"As the neighborhood grew and development continued, the positive aspects overshadowed any preconceived ideas or thoughts," Walker said.

Renaming also can backfire, as in New York’s Harlem neighborhood earlier this year. There, real estate agents pushed the name SoHa, for South Harlem, to set a section apart. But some residents protested, arguing it was an attempt to erase the area’s rich African-American cultural history. A state senator introduced legislation barring the renaming of neighborhoods without community input.

How to do it right

Randall Gross, a Nashville-based economic and development consultant, said keeping historical reference is important, whether or not a neighborhood is renamed. "The more that they can draw on the history of the area, the more resonance the name will have with existing and future residents and people who want to invest there," he said.

Eldridge, the City Heights developer, is taking a different tact. He wants to play off the excitement of downtown Nashville, a relatively new phenomenon. Just 20 years ago many wouldn’t even think of going out there at night.

“It has ability and the potential to be such a destination location in downtown,” he said. “That’s why I thought it was important to enhance it with a new name fitting the area.”

Reach Getahn Ward at 615-726-5968 and on Twitter @getahn.

Reach Mike Reicher at 615-259-8228 and on Twitter @mreicher.



