Trauger & Tuke is the principal occupant of the historic Southern Turf Building in downtown Nashville, which was purchased by the firm in 1991. The Queen Anne-style building was constructed in 1895 by a wealthy bookmaker, Marcus Cartwright. The four-story brick structure possesses ornate detailing and rich textures with bay windows, a distinctive turret, and ironwork railing. Located at 222 Fourth Avenue North (then Cherry Street), The Southern Turf was once one of the city's most elegant saloons, decorated with mirrors, bronze statuary, fine paintings, and marble halls. For decades the building housed an enduring Printer's Alley fixture, Skull's Rainbow Room.
It was around the turn of the century--the twilight of the Victorian Era--conservative and upright by day, that gambling and quiet prostitution were the order by night in what was known as Nashville's "Men's Quarter." Downtown, in the shadow of William Strickland's stately neo-classical State Capitol Building, gambling, liquor establishments, and houses of ill repute did a steady business. The only laws that were being violated by the gambling, drinking, and prostitution were moral ones. The Men's Quarter was so much a male domain that no "decent" woman entered the area if she could avoid it. The Southern Turf operated at full tilt. Well-informed sources report that the saloon occupied the first floor, a gambling parlor enlivened the second floor, and a bordello was on the third floor. The Southern Turf was "a veritable glittering palace of mirth and merriment."
The glitter faded, however, when growing prohibition began to effect its operation. In 1909 statewide prohibition passed, and the heyday of The Southern Turf and the Nashville Men's Quarter came to an end. Cherry Street became Fourth Avenue and turned respectable.
Throughout this period, Ice Johnson had managed The Southern Turf for Marcus Cartwright and resided on The Southern Turf's third floor. When the saloon closed in 1916, Ice Johnson shot himself to death in his third floor apartment rather than leave his longtime business and residence. Between 1916 and 1937, The Southern Turf was the home of one of Nashville's leading newspapers, The Nashville Tennessean. The old printing presses were located in the basement, allowing newsboys to pick up their papers in Printer's Alley.
After 1937, many different businesses occupied the building. It housed a billiard hall, a restaurant, a shooting gallery, a clothing store, and a paint store. Between 1916 and 1982 the building underwent several unfortunate "remodelings." The interior was stripped of its formerly opulent furnishings and part of the facade was covered with unsightly modern materials. In 1982, the building's new owners undertook a project to restore The Southern Turf to its former respectability and architectural appeal.
