Welcome to the Thistle Castle dream!
This page will take on more life in the glorious process of dreams coming true.
This is a vision to restore The Castle into a destination for people to experience vibrant manufacturing facilities, luxury residences, interactive experiences, world class music, and inspired trails so that every stone will share the story of how Love heals. Every visitor will shop, eat, learn, and be inspired by the truth that love is the most powerful force for change in the world.
The historic Tennessee State Prison stands as one of Tennessee's most recognizable landmarks and enduring symbols of incarceration. Built in the late 1890s; its prime architectural feature was a forbidding, Gothic, fortress-like structure which led locals, inmates and their families to call it The Castle. It contained 800 small cells, each designed to hold one man. On its first day of operation, February 12, 1898, it admitted 1,403 prisoners, immediately establishing the severe overcrowding that would last its entire existence, until it was closed in 1992, and inmates moved to the nearby Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.
Before that occurred, thousands of men died there – well more than the 125 executed in the electric chair. In 1980, inmates filed a suit Grubbs v Bradley, alleging conditions so inhumane they amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. In 1982, the district court found that the conditions within Tennessee's adult penal institutions were unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment and ordered the defendants to establish remedies and submit them to the court. That suit was the beginning of rehabilitation in Tennessee’s prison system and can be the hallowed ground upon which we write a new chapter. We hope to honor the legacy of Governor Bill Lee and transform one of Tennessee’s most tragic prison landmarks into a place where women who have survived trafficking, incarceration, and addiction, secure a future with dignity, purpose and possibility.
Thistle Farms, the largest justice enterprise of its kind in the US with the largest network of long-term beds for women survivors, can lead the effort alongside the state to transform this historic property. Thistle Farms currently works in twenty-three countries and is ready to lead a world-class destination that preserves Tennessee's history while creating pathways to freedom and environmental stewardship.
This project represents the restoration of an entire historic landscape. The Thistle Castle will preserve the iconic facade and create a campus that revitalizes structures, native ecosystems, and creates vibrant public spaces. These will be spaces where long term residents, hundreds of workers creating millions in revenue in bath products, thousands of cafe patrons month, famous musicians playing live, and hundreds of thousands of visitors gather, learn, inspire, and create trauma informed economics while hiking along the river.
The campus will serve as a living model where survivor leadership, workforce development, justice enterprise, regenerative agriculture, storytelling, education, and environmental restoration, intersect to create measurable economic, environmental, and social returns. As one of the only campuses of its kind in the world, it will position Tennessee as a leader in restorative justice, innovation, environmental stewardship, and human-centered economic development.
Thistle Castle will be the home of the International Storytelling & Creative Arts Center, a signature destination that reflects the mission of Thistle Farms and Nashville's identity as one of the world's great creative cities. Rather than serving as a traditional museum, it will be interactive and immersive so that survivors, authors, artists, musicians, filmmakers, journalists, educators, and community leaders come together to create, preserve, and share stories that inspire change. The Center will host artists in residence, festivals, performances, podcasts, documentary productions, leadership institutes, youth literacy programs, creative entrepreneurship, and national conferences. Visitors will experience history and the future possibilities through the voices shaping communities now.
Thistle Castle will create lasting value for the State of Tennessee by:
- Preserving and activating one of Tennessee's most significant historic landmarks.
- Restoring acres of historic land through native landscapes, environmental corridors, pollinator habitats, and environmental stewardship.
- Reconnecting the community to the Cumberland River through greenways, trails, gardens, and outdoor spaces.
- Establishing a year-round destination that expands Nashville's tourism economy through conferences, festivals, performances, recreation, retreats, and educational experiences.
- Creating hundreds of construction jobs and more than 500 permanent jobs across manufacturing, hospitality, agriculture, education, behavioral health, facilities, tourism, conservation, and administration.
- Expanding workforce participation and creating pathways to family-sustaining employment and entrepreneurship for individuals facing barriers to economic opportunities.
- Supporting Tennessee businesses, farmers, artisans, universities, healthcare systems, conservation partners, and employers through strategic partnerships.
- Positioning Tennessee as the global leader in survivor-led justice enterprises, storytelling, workforce innovation, environmental restoration, and restorative community development.
- Generating significant long-term economic activity through tourism, hospitality, outdoor recreation, social enterprise, conferences, research, and public-private partnerships.
Housed within the Castle and around the campus will be:
- The Institute for Justice Enterprise will advance survivor-led businesses, manufacturing innovation, product development, entrepreneurship, and enterprise incubation while expanding economic opportunities for individuals across Tennessee.
- The Institute for Workforce & Economic Mobility will be developed in partnership with the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development to prepare Tennesseans for high-demand careers through education, apprenticeships, career coaching, industry partnerships, financial capability, and leadership development.
- The Institute for Land & River Restoration in partnership with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, Cul2Vate, conservation organizations, universities, and local agricultural partners, the Institute will restore the historic prison grounds into one of Tennessee's premier demonstrations of ecological restoration and regenerative agriculture creating new green corridors.
- The Institute for Contemplative Justice in partnership with the Center for Contemplative Justice, Deep Roots, healthcare providers, and community organizations, the Institute will offer wellness programming, restorative practices, trauma-informed care, and community healing experiences.
Together with workforce training, survivor-led manufacturing, regenerative agriculture, restored landscapes, a riverfront corridor, contemplative healing, and community gathering spaces, the campus will become one of Tennessee's most distinctive destinations for cultural tourism, outdoor recreation, education, and innovation.
Creating a Love Wall. The prison was known as The Wall. The prisoners themselves built long walls hewn from limestone. The walls are still a prominent feature on the more than 140 acres. We will make a huge ask to the public to sponsor each stone by making a donation and putting the name of someone they love on small name plates. The walls will be transformed from keeping people in to lining gardens and pathways filled with love, the soul force that transforms people, place and history.
Supporting Destination Amenities
Supporting the institutes will be survivor housing, the Thistle Farms Café and Shop, incubation retail spaces for emerging enterprises, meeting and conference facilities, performance venues, gardens, agricultural fields, restored landscapes, and the Riverfront Greenway, creating a vibrant, walkable campus that attracts visitors, strengthens local businesses, expands outdoor recreation, and generates recurring economic activity throughout the year.
Over the next decade, Thistle Castle has the potential to create a thousand permanent jobs, train thousands of Tennesseans for meaningful careers, restore hundreds of acres of historic landscape, reconnect the community to the Cumberland River, welcome millions of visitors, launch new businesses, increase earned income for survivors and justice-involved individuals, and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity while reducing long-term public costs associated with unemployment, homelessness, and incarceration.
A personal note from the Founder of Thistle Farms, The Reverend Dr. Becca Stevens:
Growing up my mother was the director of St. Luke’s Community Center in The Nations neighborhood, just a few blocks from The Castle. St. Lukes provided day care for children whose fathers were incarcerated in that prison. Thistle Farms currently operates a manufacturing plant, a cafe, a studio, a retail store, and a wholesale business with a thousand partners just down the road from the closed prison.
After a recent drive down Centennial Boulevard, an idea inside a dream began to form of how the castle could be reclaimed from its horrific history to a place of reconciliation. As I shared the idea with others, we discussed the elements of that process and made the first call. Working closely with EJI (Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery) and Homeboy Industries in LA, I believe we have the ability to begin this effort.
We were grateful to have Governor Bill Lee visit our manufacturing facility and become familiar with Thistle Farms and learn about his leadership in prison reform. We are grateful for the support the state of Tennessee has shown over the years to our mission. This is the next step in a long journey with an ambitious mountain ahead. Looking back on our thirty years of work from one small house for five residents and candles hand-poured in a church’s tiny kitchen, to the multi-million-dollar, international enterprise Thistle Farms is today, we believe it is possible. I can’t wait to see the view from the top.
The Castle, for all its tragic history, is an extraordinary opportunity and could be a beautiful legacy project for Governor Lee as he steps down after eight years of service to Tennessee. Thistle Farms would be honored to be part of that legacy and commit to the long road ahead.
Thistle Farms is creating a destination that circumvents systems that push women to the margins as witnesses to what is possible when those once confined, exploited and excluded lead towards a more just and loving world.
Thistle Farms Community
Feel free to reach out to me with your thoughts and comments and we will add you to the Thistle castle advisory community. That way we can stay in touch with you as Thistle Farms moves this development along!