The Estes Kefauver Federal Building and Annex at 801 Broadway has been a fixture in the heart of downtown Nashville for decades.
Its prominent location is befitting of its namesake: Estes Kefauver, a mainstay in Tennessee and U.S. politics in the mid-20th century.
Kefauver, a Democrat, served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1939 to 1949 and in the U.S. Senate from 1949 until his death in 1963. In-between, he even launched a presidential run, albeit unsuccessfully.
Kefauver may be best known for dominating the American airwaves in the early 1950s as chair of the Senate Special Committee on Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, which investigated organized crime that crossed state borders. After the committee was established in 1950, it went on to hold hearings in 14 major cities across the country, drawing on testimony from more than 600 witnesses.
That committee’s hearings weren’t the first to be televised, but they became the most widely viewed congressional hearings to date, drawing millions of viewers. It was that acclaim that made Kefauver a household — and soon after, a building — name.
Construction on the building that became his namesake began in 1948, and the building was occupied by 1952. The nine-story annex was added 22 years later in 1974.
For much of its history, the building was a courthouse for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. That changed in 2021, when construction wrapped on the nearby Fred D. Thompson U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building and the courts and other federal offices housed in the aging Estes Kefauver building moved out.
Now, the building’s final chapter housing federal government offices appears to be drawing to a close. About a week after it was included on a list of government properties on the chopping block for closure this year, the federal Office of Management and Budget approved it for divestment.
That means the building is set to be sold and the remaining federal agencies that have stayed in the building as tenants will exit — a move the federal government says could save $484 million. The timeline for that sale, for now, is unclear.
Austin Hornbostel is the Metro reporter for The Tennessean. Have a question about local government you want an answer to? Reach him at ahornbostel@tennessean.com.
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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Downtown Nashville federal building braces for closure