The large mid-century office building clad in striking red granite and grey limestone at the corner of Houston Street and McCallie Avenue has an unassuming name but an interesting past.
540 McCallie, as it is known today, became a part of UTC’s campus in 2013, though it was originally constructed as a new headquarters for the Interstate Life and Accident Insurance Company. Founded in 1909 by a group of local businessmen, the company acquired the McCallie Avenue property in 1922. After outgrowing several other spaces around town, the company broke ground for the structure in 1949.
Prominent Nashville architecture firm Hart Freeland and Roberts designed the building, and Mark K. Wilson was the general contractor. It was completed at an estimated cost of $1.75 million and dedicated in 1951 to great fanfare. The public was invited to an open house and a local newspaper marveled that it was “a masterpiece of engineering skill” and “perhaps the most modern insurance structure in the country.”…