During lunch time, enjoyed outside on the Stahls’ open carport, we usually have a special presentation. We once had Vincent Wright from Indianapolis, a Sherlock Holmes chronographic specialist, help us understand where in London the actual 221B address would have been located. “Bobby Hawkins” intercepted Mr. Wright before he could inflict serious damage on our gathering with his strange interpretations of Sherlockian history.

Shannon Carlisle, local member and elementary teacher, presented a program about how her Franklin Special Elementary students did research on the safe mentioned in “The Red-Headed League,” the story from which we have derived our scion society name.

Our society archivist, Derek Martin, often brings a Sherlockian movie-theme presentation complete with graphics and videos. Derek also holds movie events in local theaters around Nashville. In addition he has, for several years, held the last Nashville Scholars event of the year—a potluck lunch with a Sherlock Holmes related film following.

Located on Old Hickory Lake, the home of Gael and Susan Stahl, with food and drinks served outside on their carport, makes for a special Nashville Scholars time of fun and friendship. This is a time when spouses who are not completely overcome with Sherlockian fanaticism come to a fun social time and “observe what otherwise normal people” do with a meeting devoted to Sherlock Holmes.

May Meetings

Another special event we now miss was the May Meeting at the home of Marino and Vicki Alvarez. We had lovely pot-luck lunches on their porch in the beautiful May weather. They moved to Florida in 2020, and we miss them and the fun we had in the merry month of May.

Part of the charm of the event was that Mrs. Hudson always showed up. She is the Alvarez’s pet, the cutest little puppy ever!

Gael Stahl shares a book he recently purchased, part of our Show and Tell.

Hermitage Hotel Christmas Dinner

We often have special dinners or movie nights in December, but the Hermitage Hotel Christmas dinner and tour in 2017, hosted by Tom Vickstrom and his wife Wanda, was an extraordinary evening. Tom gave us a special tour of the famous hotel, built in 1910. It was also the location of the passage of the Women’s Suffrage Act. On August 18, 1921, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment. Read about the Suffrage Movement in connection with The Hermitage Hotel.

Tom Vickstrom is the Director of Finance and Hotel Historian at The Hermitage Hotel, and a member in good standing with the Nashville Scholars. As hotel historian of The Hermitage, Tom was instrumental in getting this hotel history page (linked below) made for The Hermitage Hotel website. Hermitage Hotel History

When Susan and I were celebrating our 28th wedding anniversary in 2020, we decided to do something locally rather than fly anywhere. We settled on staying one night at The Hermitage. Tom found out that we had reservations, and he went to work setting up a clue-based hunt inside the hotel for the fabled goose from one of the Scholars’ favorite stories, “The Blue Carbuncle.”

When Susan and I arrived at the hotel, we had a note from Tom at the front desk that started our hunt for clues all over the hotel. It finally took us to a very special dinner and a specially prepared dessert made by the head chef.

What an extraordinary evening, and all due to a fellow Nashville Scholar. That’s the kind of people whom we get to meet with each month.

Special Christmas Meeting - December 2022

The Christmas Party in 2022 was held at the home of charter member Dave Price. In addition to being a teacher and school principal, Dave was a circus performer for much of his life, doing the important job of advance advertising in cities where the circus was to perform. He has a museum in his home filled with circus-oriented posters and memorabilia. He also has an impressive collection of Sherlock Holmes ephemera. Here is the photo we took of Nashville Scholars who attended this special Christmas gathering.

To see many of the Sherlockian items in Dave Price’s collection, click here.

In 2012 the Nashville Scholars attended the Nashville Children’s Theater production of The Final Adventure, adapted by Colin Peterson from the William Gillette play, Sherlock Holmes. Gillette’s play premiered in the Star Theater (Buffalo, NY) in 1899.

We wore Victorian outfits and had our photo made with the cast following the play. See the Children’s Theater website for more about Colin Peterson’s play, The Final Adventure. Go to the website to see what we saw.

The history of how the Nashville Scholars began to explore the Sherlockian world at large is here.

Friendships formed among our society are strong and long-lasting.