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The Olde Bartley House is located on the corner of State Road 135 and Franklin Street.
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Recognize this face? Frank Hohenberger was a Brown County resident for 40 years and photographed the daily country life.
There’s a new business bracing the streets of Nashville. The Olde Bartley House located in Frank Hohenberger’s historic home on the corner of State Road 135 and Franklin Street is scheduled to soft open next Wednesday and Thursday.
The business will be serving breakfast and lunch from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesdays through Sundays.
Owner Phil Wolter told the Democrat that the business will be a combined Frank Hohenberger natural history museum with a coffee and donut shop.
Frank Hohenberger was a photographer and journalist who lived in the home in Nashville and photographed the hills of Brown County from 1904 through 1948. He popularly photographed people, local customs and landscapes.
Wolter said that Hohenberger’s photos will be displayed as well as his original camera and other memorabilia. He is also working with the Brown County Schools to bring Hohenberger’s photos to life.
“The students are involved in the educational process,” Wolter said. “Some are learning about Frank, they didn’t know about him before. It’s an educational process for a lot of people.”
Wolter said that they spent a lot of time preparing the building itself. They wanted to properly preserve the building and spent time evaluating how to balance preserving, preparing and renovating the space in line with historical structures.
“When I came in I had no contact whatsoever, but started building with local craftsmen and now I have over 100 people that have helped work on the building,” Wolter said.
General Manager Dietrich Gosser said that the atmosphere of the building is set up as fine dining, but the shop will focus primarily on simple products executed at a high level.
“It’s really a one item rest stop,” Gosser said. “We will have a pastry we are calling a volant. We will be serving excellent coffee and variations of the one thing.”
The volant is a french american flavored pastry unique to the Olde Bartley House. They will also have coffee variations and non-coffee caffeinated drinks.
“I think my idea started years ago when I came to Nashville with my parents when I was a little tyke,” Wolter said. “All those years I thought there were so many crowds and wouldn’t it be nice is there were a little place where people could come to rest. I used that as a business model, a place where people can come in and sit down. They can get something cold to drink or a small bite, get off their feet and relax while listening to music and then go back out into the world of shopping. I think that’s the big ticket. We have so many restaurants next door, all the way around us. What we’re doing is probably going to open their seats for what they want, bigger items.”
Gosser said that they believe they are in a great location to become a rest area for people looking for drinks or pastries. “We are well located and set up,” Gosser said. “I think that we are additive in that we are not taking restaurant business. Finally seeing Phil’s vision coalless is excellent. I keep using the phrase ‘historical fantasia’. He is using Brown County country charm as a jumping off point and bringing a modern feel to it.”