You’d think that a street filled with neon bar signs wouldn’t take issue with the red exterior lighting outside the bar, however the Historic Zoning Commission passed a policy back in August 2017 banning coloured exterior lights in districts with historic overlays. Basically, old buildings can’t have coloured lights on their outside walls.
The Complaint argues that Ole Red was only approved for white exterior lighting, not red.
Downtown business owners and preservationists have clashed in the past over the enforcement of historic guidelines in downtown Nashville, which has been undergoing an enormous tourism boom in recent years that has resulted in the destruction of a number of historic buildings and the restoration of others. The building that houses Ole Red dates back to 1926.
~ chris lukas
