Race, Religion, Healthcare, and Architecture: Benjamin McAdoo's Pagoda of Medicine

Abstract

The Pagoda of Medicine, a mid-century modern building, sat on the northern outskirts of Nashville, Tennessee. Located within the Seventh Day Adventist Church's Riverside Sanitarium/Riverside Hospital campus, the building was designed as the medical offices for the African American doctor Carl A. Dent. At its core, the building looks like an International Style box, however its roofline adds a more organic and striking feature that has interested the preservation community in Nashville for years. In addition to its unique structure, the building's African American history increases its historical significance. This paper seeks to identify the site's origins and influences and argues its design resulted directly from three intersections: from the need to symbolize modernity for African American healthcare facilities, from the design style of African American architect Benjamin McAdoo, and from the religious and modern architecture of the Seventh Day Adventist church.