Preston Taylor

Preston Taylor was born a slave on November 7, 1849 in Shreveport, Louisiana. He served as a drummer boy in the Union Army during the siege of Richmond, Virginia. After the Civil War, he secured a contract to build several sections of the Big Sandy Railway from Mt. Sterling to Richmond, Virginia. Taylor came to Nashville around 1884 and three years later purchased thirty-seven acres of land at Elm Hill Pike and Spence Lane. A year later, he established Greenwood Cemetery, Nashville's second oldest cemetery for African Americans. Continued: Founding minister of Lea Avenue Christian Church, Taylor, an undertaker, also founded Taylor Funeral Company, the African-American undertaking business in the city. A founder of the Citizens Savings Bank and Trust Company, in 1905 he established Greenwood Recreational Park, the first park for African Americans. Taylor was among those instrumental in Nashville securing Tennessee A & I State Normal College. Twenty years after his death, the Preston Taylor public housing complex was named in honor of one of Nashville's most powerful African-American leaders.