ABSTRACT
Throughout the 1920s, McKissack & McKissack’s clientele grew. Calvin McKissack produced designs for numerous Nashville residences and became especially noted for his churches. His designs were typically in the Colonial Revival and NeoClassical styles, reflecting the period’s most popular architecture. Primary among his ecclesiastic designs is the Capers Congressional Methodist Episcopal Church in Nashville, a Neo-Classical structure completed in 1925. Calvin McKissack’s and the firm’s reputations continued to grow. One of the firm’s most prominent commissions came from the Na-tional Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc., to design the Morris Memorial Building in downtown Nashville. Completed in 1924, the 4-story Neo-Classical-style office building features a limestone exterior and is one of Calvin McKissack’s finest designs. In the late 1920s and into the 1930s and 1940s, Calvin McKissack designed numerous educational buildings for the City of Nashville and State of Tennessee, including the Martha M.Brown Library and other Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State College buildings. As the firm’s reputation grew, Calvin McKissack became a leader in the African American business community. He served as president of Nashville’s Negro Board of Trade in 1925, and later served as national president of the NATIONAL TECHNICAL ASSOCIATION from 1951 to 1952.
