Vanderbilt

The Vanderbilt area is a good neighborhood that is quite busy during the day and the night. There are numerous things to do in the area and a number of the country music stars will shop in the small shopping stores in the area. You can purchase items for the patients in the childrens hospital that is only few blocks away as well as purchasing items for someone that you know that attends the Vanderbilt University.

The Vanderbilt University is where a number of the residents live who are working in the Children's Hospital as well as the other medical center buildings of the Vanderbilt Medical Center. Many of the patients are patients who suffer from cancer or who are long term patients.

Posh is a cute little boutique that is located just 2 blocks away from the Children's Hospital. This store is well known and carries a number of different styles available for any size. The store is across the street from a store that specializes in stationary.

If you are looking for a place to enjoy a good meal, you may want to check out the Pancake House. The pancake house is a great restaurant that keeps pretty busy all hours of the day. Usually there is a line out the door and down the block. The food here is what calls residents from all over Nashville and other areas to the restaurant for.

Located inside of Children's Hospital is a food court in which you can sit down and eat either Taco Bell or Pizza Hut as well as Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream as well as Subway. A short distance over at the medical center is the McDonalds. There are a number of other restaurants that you can sit down and enjoy a meal at as well in the area.

If you live in Nashville for any length of time, Vanderbilt will eventually touch your life. You or someone you know will work there. Your kids will attend music, athletic, or scholastic competitions hosted on the Vandy campus. Or some evening you’ll be inching along cursing the traffic on West End, when suddenly you realize the problem: the Commodores had a home football game that night! (Most of us plan alternate routes on Vanderbilt football nights.)

Since it's going to be part of your life anyway, you might as well get to know the Vandy area. And it turns out that it's very much worth getting to know.

For one thing, the campus itself is gorgeous. I spent a year or more trekking across the Vanderbilt campus every day on my way to a job in one of the shops on 21st Ave. My morning "commute" was a walk past white oak, dogwood, redwood, and other trees and flowers too numerous to name. Then there was the wildlife: one morning a redtail hawk swooped down right in front of me as it tried to catch one of the local squirrels for breakfast! All this, in the middle of a bustling urban area!

In addition to the campus, the shops around Vandy are also worth a visit. Even if you don’t count the (thoroughly excellent!) bagel bakery where I worked – since there is a small chance that I’m biased – some of Nashville’s best shops have sprung up around the university. Restaurants, coffee shops, book stores, clothing stores, sports outfitters, comic shops, music stores - you name it, that area has it. Just check the hours before you go: some of those places depend so heavily on the student business that they close early when classes aren’t in session. And plan to do some walking - parking is at a premium around the campus.

The bad news? When it comes to living there, the Vandy area is out of many peoples' price range. Most of the rentals around Vanderbilt are at rates that seem extravagant unless you're a student splitting the bills with three roommates. (There are exceptions, but they are rare.) And I haven’t bothered to price the area for home purchases; I'm afraid to find out!

The bottom line, though, is that if you don’t know Vanderbilt, you don’t know Nashville. Whether or not you can afford to live in that neighborhood, the Vandy area is still worth checking out.

I have lived on 18th Ave. South in Nashville for a long time. I alternately say I live in the Vanderbilt, or Hillsboro Village, or Music Row area. They all run into each other. There are plenty of big old homes, as well as new trendy condo buildings. There are also a couple of really nice retirement buildings in the area too.

I initially bought my condo here because it was close to where I worked at Vanderbilt University--I only had to walk a few blocks to my office. But over the years, I have grown to love the area for more than convenience. I love the energy, the sidewalks and real neighborhoods, the intellectual energy, and the fun restaurants and stores. I have heard it said that if you live in the Vanderbilt area, you are within walking distance of 40+ restaurants, and I believe it. I think I have walked to 39 of them.

You can catch a performance of something or other at Vanderbilt, Belmont, or the historic Belcourt Theater. Or walk your dog at the dog park in Centennial Park, or visit our own Parthenon.

Eakin Elementary is considered one of the best public schools in town, and right across the street from Vanderbilt is University School of Nashville, one of the premier private schools in town.

I agree with one of the other reviewers in that the area is pricey. I bought a condo here, but I would not be able to buy a house in my own neighborhood.