On Monday at noon, the Green Hills branch's read-aloud group met, as it does every week. This time it was on Lealand Lane, at the Sevier Park Community Center, and it is still listed under Green Hills on the library's calendar.
The building at 3701 Benham Avenue has been closed since January 4 for its first full renovation in 25 years. The Nashville Public Library expects it to reopen in early 2027. In the meantime, Green Hills hasn't simply been handed a substitute library. Its programs meet at three different addresses this month. Its book return is closed. Its collections and teen makerspace are spread across branches in different parts of the county. The library's own notice sends patrons to Edgehill, about three miles away, but for a household that used everything Benham Avenue offered, Edgehill covers only part of it.
Three programs, three addresses, one calendar label
The Green Hills location page still lists the branch's programs, and each one's detail page shows where it actually meets during the closure. In the first two weeks of November, the branch's programming spreads out like this:
- Reading Aloud Together, Mondays from noon to 1 p.m., meets at Sevier Park Community Center, 3021 Lealand Lane. The listing describes it simply: "Take turns reading aloud from selected works or just sitting in." It is on the calendar again for November 9.
- Tai Chi and Qigong Introductory Workshop, led by Tai Chi River, met on Wednesday, November 4, at the Second Presbyterian Church Activity Center, 3511 Belmont Boulevard. That is the location the listing names "during Green Hills Branch Library closure for renovation."
- Quiet in the Library Open Mic is Saturday, November 7, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Bordeaux Branch. The sign-up sheet goes out at 1:30, a house guitar and keyboard are available, and the coffee is free.
The open mic's listing says it is "popping up at the Bordeaux Branch" this month, which suggests the venue moves around. So the location label doesn't tell you where to go. The address on each event's detail page does, and it's worth checking that page on the library's events calendar before each session.
The read-aloud group and the tai chi workshop stayed fairly close to home, on Lealand Lane and Belmont Boulevard. The open mic, for this month at least, went much farther, to a branch on the far side of the county. The farther a program moves from Green Hills, the more the closure costs the people who used to walk or make a short drive to Benham Avenue.
No single branch carries the whole Green Hills kit
The Green Hills location page lists four features beyond the shelves: a board game collection, the Metro Arts Lending Library Collection, meeting rooms and Studio NPL, the teen makerspace. The location pages for five nearby open branches show how those features are now divided:
| Branch | Address | Sunday | Mon–Thu | Fri | Sat | Studio NPL | Board games |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edgehill | 1409 12th Avenue South | Closed | 10 a.m.–6 p.m. | 10 a.m.–6 p.m. | 10 a.m.–5 p.m. | No | Yes |
| Edmondson Pike | 5501 Edmondson Pike | 2–5 p.m. | 10 a.m.–8 p.m. | 10 a.m.–6 p.m. | 10 a.m.–5 p.m. | Yes | Yes |
| Bellevue | 720 Baugh Road | 2–5 p.m. | 10 a.m.–8 p.m. | 10 a.m.–6 p.m. | 10 a.m.–5 p.m. | Yes | No |
| Richland Park | 4711 Charlotte Avenue | Closed | 10 a.m.–8 p.m. | 10 a.m.–6 p.m. | 10 a.m.–5 p.m. | No | No |
| Hadley Park | 1039 28th Avenue North | Closed | 10 a.m.–6 p.m. | 10 a.m.–6 p.m. | 10 a.m.–5 p.m. | No | Yes |
All five list meeting rooms. The Metro Arts Lending Library Collection is listed on the Green Hills page and on none of these five.
Edgehill is the branch NPL names, and it is close. It also closes at 6 p.m. every weekday, is closed Sundays and has no Studio NPL. Edmondson Pike is the only branch in the table that offers all three: the teen makerspace, the board games, and evening and Sunday hours. For a family with a teenager who used Studio NPL after school, Edmondson Pike comes closest to the old Benham Avenue routine, even though it is not the branch the closure notice points to.
If you were returning books through the Green Hills drop box, you'll need another option. The outdoor book return on Benham Avenue is closed during the renovation, and items can be returned to any other NPL location.
Why both libraries were dark at the same time
Last winter, the closure stung more than the timeline alone suggests. When Green Hills closed in January, the Main Library downtown was already closed. A fire in the parking garage next door the previous June had caused smoke damage throughout that building. The minutes from the January 20 meeting of the library board record that the board went ahead with Green Hills anyway:
"While it is not ideal to have both Green Hills and Main closed, the renovation process was too far along to stop. If the process was put on hold, it would make the renovation more expensive over time."
The overlap has since ended. WSMV reported on March 27 that the downtown library would reopen that Monday after staff spent nine months cleaning and refurbishing more than 269,000 books. The board's September agenda put its October meeting at the Main Library. So for most of this year, Green Hills patrons have had the central library available again.
What the wait is buying
The renovation came out of a public input phase that drew more than 600 participants. NPL says the plan includes improvements the community asked for, "such as a new children's area, additional meeting spaces, and more." Capital Project Solutions, the project's owner's representative, gives a fuller list:
- A new dedicated children's area
- Updated and expanded community meeting spaces
- Dedicated cafe-style areas
- New interior furnishings and enhanced public art
- Upgraded staff spaces and restrooms
Barge Design Solutions is the architect, and Nabholz Construction Company is the construction manager at risk. Metro's capital planning documents list "Green Hills Library Branch – Renovation" at $4,341,000 among the FY2023-24 projects. Metro's January 2026 purchasing report records the Nabholz contract separately, with an estimated contract life value of $3,450,000. The two figures measure different things, the capital plan's line for the project and the value of one contract within it, so neither should be read as the final cost of the building.
The planned features match the gaps in the table above. Meeting space is the one thing every substitute branch has, and the Green Hills programs still left the library system to meet in a community center and a church activity hall this month. A branch with more meeting rooms is a branch whose read-aloud group and tai chi workshop can come back to Benham Avenue, and a cafe-style area gives an open mic a better reason to settle at Green Hills.
Getting around Hillsboro Pike in the meantime
Some of the drives to Edgehill or Edmondson Pike begin on a Hillsboro Pike that is also partly under construction this fall. According to Metro's project page for the Crestmoor Road intersection, the realignment that lines up Crestmoor Road with Glen Echo Road was finished in July. Paving on Crestmoor began the week of October 26. Permanent pavement markings and bike-lane delineators come next, followed by paving on Hillsboro Pike from Graybar Lane to the entrance of the Mall at Green Hills. That stretch of Hillsboro Pike is on the route for many trips to Benham Avenue's temporary substitutes.
The next date on the Green Hills calendar is Monday, November 9, at noon, when the read-aloud group is scheduled again. It met at Sevier Park Community Center on November 2.
We follow the places that shape daily life in Green Hills as closely as we follow the market, and the branch on Benham Avenue is one of them. If you'd like to talk about the neighborhood, or about anything else on your mind this season, C&S Residential would be glad to hear from you. Get in touch.
