By John Balch
News-Leader staff
You can learn a lot about local history just by walking down Nashville’s Main Street with Jonathan Canaday.
He has a story or historical tidbit about practically every building you pass, and more than likely, he’s been inside that building, taking pictures and poking around for more history.
Whether he realizes it or not, Canaday has become somewhat of an authority on the history of Main Street and he has documented some of that history in his first book on the subject entitled, “Where Mine Creek Meets Main Street.”
Canaday’s fascination with Main Street and local history stems from not that long ago when he started visiting and taking pictures of old and abandoned buildings.
“I just got real interested in taking pictures of these old things and then researching and exploring them,” he said, adding that he loves researching topics of interest.
He uses all mediums for his research, including old newspaper articles, historical books and fire maps produced by a company that sold them to municipalities for location services and insurance purposes. He also utilizes the micro-film housed at the Howard County Library and his handy copy of the Howard County heritage book.
The local fire maps were commissioned in 1900 and Canaday said it appears Nashville only bought the maps up to 1930. The maps note locations in general terms, such as “drugs” or “grocery” and do not have the specific business name listed, which for Canaday, means more research.
Canaday was able to determine from the fire maps that the building that formerly housed Nashville Drug (Main and Howard), and the one that houses Integrity Printing (200 N. Main) are the two oldest buildings on Main Street. The Nashville Drug building appears on a 1900 fire map.
“(The fire maps) give you a good idea and also puts a timeline on it,” he said.
The architecture of the old buildings also interests Canaday and he noted that a building on Main Street has the “widest crown molding” with a pressed tin ceiling he has ever seen.
Canaday said his book is just the start of a more ambition project to write a full book on the whole entire Main Street – every building.
“I have not researched everything,” he said. “There’s still some buildings I don’t know anything about.”
Canaday will be on hand with his books to sell at the Nashville Chamber of Commerce’s Fall Festival on Saturday, Oct. 24 or the books can be purchased by visiting and searching “Nashville, Arkansas” at blurb.com/bookstore. Books can also be purchased directly from Canaday by contacting him on Facebook.
