Local
Lorenzo Washington’s Jefferson Street museum remains open after founder’s death
Lorenzo Washington, who turned his Jefferson Street home into a museum documenting Nashville’s Black music history, has died at 83. The museum at 2004 Jefferson Street remains open, with supporters urging visitors to carry on his work.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Lorenzo Washington, founder and curator of the Jefferson Street Sound Museum, has died at 83, leaving behind a collection dedicated to a pivotal chapter of Nashville’s Black music history.
Washington, a lifelong Nashvillian, died this week after battling cancer, according to reports. In 2011, he opened the museum in his home at 2004 Jefferson Street. Its collection has grown to include thousands of photographs, instruments, posters and other artifacts connected to the city’s Black music scene.
The National Museum of African American Music said Washington grew up amid the clubs and ballrooms that made Jefferson Street a cultural center. The neighborhood’s music scene drew performers who collaborated, competed and built careers. Construction of Interstate 40 and other urban renewal projects disrupted the Black community and altered the corridor.
Washington spent much of his later life preserving memories of the neighborhood and its musicians. In 2024, the National Museum of African American Music featured him in a gallery exhibit, “Living Legends: Lorenzo Washington.”
The Jefferson Street Sound Museum remains open. “The best way to honor Lorenzo is to keep walking through the door he opened,” the National Museum of African American Music said in a statement, encouraging people to visit and continue Washington’s mission.