Recently, Joy’s Flowers, a local florist with a history that goes back to 1877, moved from its long-time location on West End near Vanderbilt University to new digs on Gallatin, in a building that once held Wayne’s Unisex, a beauty salon. To liven up their stone facade, Floral Designer Lori Warren painted the five doors that punctuate that wall, notably the one above. It’s not just a pretty collection of plants and animals, but also a catalogue of sorts of a number of Tennessee state symbols. Naturally, the mural includes the two state flowers, the iris, the state’s cultivated flower (really a group of related flowers) and the state wildflower, the purple passionflower. An eastern box turtle, the state reptile is seen near the bottom, as well as the state amphibian, the Tennessee cave salamander. Along the border of the door, we find the state tree, the tulip poplar (a tree with many other names), in which sits a mockingbird, the state bird. Warren has also included a couple other species that are not state symbols but are found in Tennessee: the blue-tailed slink and the tiger lily (that name is used for a lot of different flowers, but I could not find one specific to Tennesee – however, there are orange and red lilies native to Tennesee, such as this one).
The other doors are decorated more simply. Right to the left of the door above is an abstractly colored door with “East Nashville” emblazoned on the bottom, while the main entrance of the building there are hand painted letters spelling out “JOYS.” (Look close at that door, and you’ll see the mail slot still reads “Wayne’s Unisex.”) The remaining two doors have similar abstract coloring. In the slide show below, the doors go left to right, or west to east.
UPDATE: These have been painted over.
Located at 400 Gallatin Avenue, between East Nashville Magnet High School and a Firestone. Parking is a little complex – it’s plausible to park in the little alley between Joy’s and the school. Also, you can park on Ordway Place across Gallatin.
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