Clarksville Borough Breakdown - St. Bethlehem aka "St. B"

In this kickoff episode of the Clarksville Borough Breakdown series, host Josh Atkins dives into the history, identity, and evolution of St. Bethlehem—better known to locals as St. B. From its iconic spots along Wilma Rudolph Boulevard to its easily identifiable home styles, St. B is a hub of shopping, neighborhoods, and Clarksville character. Whether you’re new to town or a longtime resident, this episode unpacks the quirks, questions, and charm of one of Clarksville’s most talked-about areas.

Transcript

0:02

Hey y'all and welcome back to Clarksville Insider, the podcast that pulls back the curtain on the places, quirks and people that make Clarksville, Tennessee. Well, Clarksville makes it a little unique and I'm your host, Josh Atkins, like the diet. And today we're diving into a part of town that almost everyone in Clarksville knows about. If you're of a certain age or if you've been here a certain amount of years and I've heard it. And I've sort of had it explained to me, but I feel like there's more. I like there's more out there. And I'm talking about St. Bethlehem, or as the locals call it, and I guess I'm a local now, been here 13 years, St. B. That's about all I can do. That's all I know. And it's just really shorter. It's nothing really to it. And now I move back. I moved here back in 2012 and like a lot of people, I remember hearing someone say when I first moved here, yeah that's over in St. B and I really just nodded, oh okay great, well where's that? Meanwhile in my head I'm like okay is that an area, is that a town, is it just outside of Clarksville? I thought you said it was just down the road but you said it's in St. B, where is that, what is that? So in this episode... In this episode, I wanted to get to the bottom of it. What exactly is St. B? Why is it called that? What makes it unique? Is there any correct way to say Bethlehem without sounding like an out of towner? See right there, I probably did it. If there's a way to sound like an out of towner, I'm sure I do it. It even feels weird when I say y'all. I'm a you guys guy. so I'm trying and sometimes I even... text it and it's like, what am I doing? Who is that? Who am I? So I realize I don't go back far enough to the Saint B era. But what I can do is come at it with the level of curiosity. So this is almost like a term paper. I guess I couldn't describe it more boringly than that. So forget that. Throw that out the window. This is me exploring. This is me getting into a little bit of the history of the town that I do not know. And if it sounds like a term paper, if it sounds like I'm reading off a list of facts, probably because I am, I was looking through different things and trying to compile it into some sort of list and some sort of cohesive track. That way we can move forward through it because there's other parts of town I want to learn about. But this was the first one. And since I wasn't here when it was called this, but there's might be some of you out there that were. Let's see if I can get educated a little bit and maybe you can sit there and listen along and go, yep, I knew that, I knew that, and I knew that. So really what we're breaking down first, let's just figure out what it is. And it's not technically its own town anymore. Now it used to be, and again, I'm learning all of this. I learned it all as I was preparing for this episode. It was what was called an unincorporated community. It is on the East side of Clarksville until the eighties. When the city, Clarksville, officially annexed it, which my elementary understanding of the word annex is took it over, absorbed it, resorbed it for all you office fans out there. That means there are folks walking around today who say, I'm from St. B. Like it's a separate place entirely. And at some point it actually was. Now, geographically, when we say St. B now, we're usually talking about the stretch along Wilma Rudolph Boulevard. And it tends to break down around the 101st all the way up to Dunbar Cave Warfield. So if you're at Governor Square Mall, Target, Chick-fil-A up by exit four, you're in the heart of St. B. And there's an elementary school right there. And by the way, I guess we need to talk about the pronunciation. I've heard and I've read, and this is what I read, locals call it St. Bethlehem. Do you do that? Have you heard anybody say that? I'm not sure I believe that. I'm looking at it right here. I'm looking at the research. And I'm not sure anyone has ever or does continue to call it St. Bethlehem. Prove me wrong. I would say St. Bethlehem is probably the way it is. I guess I'm an out of towner and I just can't believe part of it. at least part of the history is part two. That was just kind of a basic breakdown. breaking it down. Now, part two. We'll call this a history lesson. We're trying to figure out, because what I wanted to know also was where did it come from? Where did the name come from? And first start digging into the episode, I found out that the name St. Bethlehem more than likely comes from a church that was one of the early landmarks of the area. St. Bethlehem Christian Church. One of the oldest churches in Montgomery County. His roots go on all the way back. And so over time, Clarksville actually grew from downtown. St. B became more of a residential commercial zone, especially in the 70s and 80s. My era, at least the 80s. And then, classic Clarksville fashion, the city looked around, saw all that sweet, sweet sales tax potential and said, you know what? We'll take it. You're mine. Gimme that. Oh, you, I think you should leave fans. Gimme that. Gimme that. So, annexation in the 80s made it official, but the name stuck. like a stubborn nickname. I'm sure we've all got some leftover from elementary high school or junior high or all three. So there's even signs that say St. Bethlehem, like you're entering a separate town, but it's one of those weird things that isn't really official, but everyone kind of knows where it is or at least kind of the area. And so if you looked at the vibe, what's the vibe of it? And this is for people that maybe don't live here or used to live here and go, oh yeah, I remember that. But what's it today? It's probably what we would call the most commercially dense part of Clarksville. I mean, this is Governor Square Mall. This is Target, Kohl's, PetSmart, Best Buy, Home Goods, Books a Million, Home Depot, Hobby Lobby, all of that. Every store you'd find in a normal American city, it's all right there. You could even call it the land of errands. And not errand, errands. And if you don't... plan to spend the whole day in St. B, but somehow usually you just do because you usually go to one place and go, oh, while I'm here, it seems like an event because it's definitely a while I'm here kind of place because it takes so much to get there. It's so much of a commitment to get to that area and stay there. It's like, well, I don't want to come back later this week. You may have said this and I say that it's like, well, while I'm over here, I might as well fill up my tank at Sam's club. Which is just north of that. While I'm here, I might as well run into Coles and grab something. While I'm here, fill in the blank. I'm sure you've said that. If you haven't, you're a liar. I see through you. But really, if you've ever tried to explain directions, it usually includes something with Wilma Rudolph. Just off Wilma Rudolph. Turn left off Wilma Rudolph at the Hobby Lobby and Home Depot. Okay, yeah, just... Past the Burger King on the right, you're going to turn left off of Wilma Rudolph. Wilma, it's the arteries, the place keeps it moving. Some they also call it the world's longest parking lot, but that's only on certain days that end with day. Now part four, housing, neighborhoods. What's that looking like? Josh, okay, enough with the housing. Okay, just because I work in real estate doesn't mean that everything has to be about it, but a lot of it. So here we go. Kind of homes are in St. B. Think of that era. Think of an 80s house, a 70s house. Think in brick. Think in ranch, split level. Getting a lot of cul-de-sacs. A cul-de-sac neighborhoods. And recently, if you've driven around in that era, you've probably seen some more town homes, modern apartment complexes. But really, it's the other things. It's all those brick ranch, split level, probably in a cul-de-sac or somewhere close to it. And it's close to Fort Campbell. It's got quick access off 101st. Get to 24. And I wouldn't really recommend or I wouldn't call it a walking area. I feel like there's not a lot of sidewalks. More modern, you know, modern towns, more parts of town, they're putting in a lot of sidewalks. But there I don't see a lot of any. if you're in there and you're like, my own neighborhood has a sidewalk. OK, apologies. Apologies to you. Prove me wrong. But for the most part, it's not as much known for its walkability. it's known for, it's got lots of shopping and close and really kind of in the heart of Clarksville. And so I also wanted to look up, so I looked up some fun facts or what I think are fun facts. And if you don't think they're fun facts, well, that's fine. You just don't have the same sense of humor and I feel sorry for you. Here are a few random things that I learned while kind of compiling and putting this all together. There's actually a subdivision called St. Bethlehem Estates. Now, when I think of estates and I think of 80s and I think of homes, it's weird. And we all have our picture. It's usually from movies that we've seen. I think of 80s. I think of estates, some sort of suburban neighborhood. And I think of the Griswold House from Christmas Vacation. That's what I imagine as an 80s house, just two-story and you know just all the things that's the kind of neighborhood that I'm imagining and so it's it's not fancy usually estates isn't necessarily a fancy term but that's what I think of it's got some classic 80s homes you know lots of brick and those kind of things but that's what I imagine maybe you imagine something else there but if you're thinking Dunbar Cave which is right in there one of the oldest natural landmarks in Tennessee and so it's right in there you can definitely check that out if you're looking for something to do that does not involve a credit card and a parking lot. And actually, before the mall opened in 1986, and this was brand new to me, Wilma Rudolph was mostly farmland. Now it's, of course, shopping central. So that is one of my questions. Do you remember Wilma Rudolph? Do you remember St. B as farmland? So you'd have to go all the way back to 86, even if I was living here. I'm not sure I would remember that because I had my fourth birthday in 1986. So, boom, dated myself right there. maybe you do remember that. Maybe you just remember that area and just how open it was. then one by one, it probably got taken over. And I was actually trying to figure out, and I had to look this up too, is there an official welcome to St. Bethlehem sign? And I could not find one. I tried to Google, I tried to find a picture of it, and it just doesn't exist. So there's no real spot where you know you're in it or you're leaving it. You just kind of know it when you're in there, if that makes sense. And so really, that's the scoop. That's it. That's all I could find on St. Bethlehem. This wasn't meant to be a long drawn out episode. This was a flash in the pan, a quick one. And this is I could find on St. B or at least all that I felt like sharing. And so it actually, it's a part of Clarksville, but it's separate. It's a part of history, but it's still very modern. And it's all of those things all at once. And for someone like me who moved here in 2012, it's easy to take places like St. B for granted because I just don't call it that. just, I actually, and this is probably what you do too. I'm going up to Wilma. I'm going up to Wilma to shop and that could be anything. And so that's usually what I call it if I'm going to the north end. And so when you dig into the history, which I did, and the identity, and the name, and all the little quirks, and you start to realize every corner of Clarksville has a story. This one happened to be taken over by Clarksville. Hopefully not aggressively. So next time you're stuck in Wilma Rudolph traffic, just remember, you're driving through what used to be its own town. It used to be farmland. And now look at you. Stoplight every 45. But if you've got a great Saint B story, this is what I'm interested in. If you remember Saint B as Saint B, as Saint Bethlehem, and I still don't believe that anyone actually calls it Saint Bethlehem, but whatever. If you've got a story, I'd love to hear it. Maybe you come on. We could do another Saint B stories episode. I feel like that'd be kind of fun. But really, if you've got one, you can reach out to me. You can drop it on our Instagram, Clarksville Insider. I say our like there's other people around. I'm talking to myself in an empty room. It's my. Reach out to me on Clarksville Insider. And I can actually look at it. can respond. Maybe we can get you on. I'd just love to hear it because I wasn't here. I don't know much about it other than what I was just reading here. So appreciate you. Thanks for listening. And I'll catch you next time for another deep dive into the people, the places. and the peculiarities of life here in Clarksville. Take care y'all, or you guys. Take care.