From today’s Tennessean:

June 24, 2008

Former nursing home to become residences for the deaf

Cornelia House, a former nursing home at the corner of Porter Road and Eastland Avenue in East Nashville, will become a residential complex for deaf adults in Tennessee.

Cornelia House was closed in 2007 after a series of violations.

The vacant building was purchased by a company controlled by Forrest Preston of East Tennessee, who wanted to donate the facility to a nonprofit organization.

Preston invited more than two dozen local nonprofits to tour the property and submit development proposals. He awarded the property to Urban Housing Solutions, which proposed to convert the building into a residential community for deaf adults and to provide additional amenities and services for the neighborhood, according to a press release from Urban Housing Solutions.

“Urban Housing has both the best concept for the building’s use and the ability to make it happen,” Preston said in the release. “I am delighted to provide this building to create a model community for deaf adults.”

Executive director Rusty Lawrence said Urban Housing Solutions will convert the nursing home into a total of 35 apartments, creating the first purpose-built residential community for deaf adults in Tennessee.

Approximately two-thirds will be reserved for deaf adults; the rest of the apartments will be designed as “live-work” spaces for working artists and artisans. The concept also calls for a cultural center that will be used for neighborhood art exhibitions, performances, and meetings, as well as activities sponsored by the League for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, which may relocate its offices to the building.

In addition, the old nursing home cafeteria will be converted into a coffeehouse environment with possible performance space for songwriter nights, local musicians, and other performance artists.

Seven of the prior nursing home rooms will be converted into small retail spaces that will be focused on the creative arts and possibly dessert-oriented shops. The spaces will be offered at discounted rents so that neighborhood artists and entrepreneurs can get involved. The idea is to create the equivalent of a “farmers market” for artisans.

“We hope this project will be transformative,” said Lawrence. “We think the intersection at Porter Road and Eastland Avenue will soon become an interface between the hearing and deaf cultures, a place where the neighborhood can come together and learn from each other through the creative arts.”