In the early 1900s, Jacob Schnell built the grandest mansion in Nashville at 1111 Sixteenth Avenue South, on what would come to be known as Music Row. Schnell was a successful grain merchant, but was reputed to have made his real money bootlegging.
He desired his daughters, Bertha and Lena, to be accepted into the elite society in Nashville and prepared to throw a party in their honor. Only no one attended. They were snubbed by the elite. Schnell vowed to never contribute anything to Nashville. He moved to live above one of his businesses and he instructed his daughters to never repair a thing to the house. And after his death, his daughters stayed on in the mansion, allowing it to fall in total disrepair and crumble.
When Lena died in the house, her body was left to decay for more than a week. Bertha died in the 1970s, living in the neglected mansion with no running water. Some say it was the family's way of getting revenge on the townspeople who snubbed them, by allowing their fine home to rot amongst other fine homes in the area.
Capitol Records purchased the property and tore down the mansion in order to build their new building. Since then, apparitions of the girls have been seen and things move on their own.
According to Nashville Ghosts and Legends by Ken Traylor and Delas M. House, Jr. "employees started noticing strange events in the Capital Records building: objects moving on their own, doors being locked from the inside, lights being turned on and off, windows found open that had been closed and locked. For a long time Capital found it difficult to keep employees, telling their supervisors they could not get used to the strange events, including posthumous visits by the Schnell daughters."
The photo to the right, courtesy Kathie Fuston (Columbia, TN), is of a large piece of ornately carved furniture from Germany called a Breakfront. This Breakfront was owned by the Schnells and came from their infamous home. I asked Mrs. Fuston if she experienced any posthumous visits from Bertha or Lena since the piece was added to her home. She informed me she had not, though she did find Christmas cards tucked away behind the drawer from the sisters from the 1940s.
A very skilled woodcarver created this work of art. Note the interesting background chiseled into the piece.
And you can't help but be a little spooked sticking your hand in the drawer pull that is the mouth of this beast!
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