It’s the spring of 2025: the Cumberland River Compact operates out of a corner office in a high-rise building on the water. Around it, the bones of an old slaughterhouse still stand, wrapped in vines and dotted with towering trees. This is the Neuhoff District, a new adaptive reuse development in Nashville’s Germantown that prioritizes preserving old architecture, implementing green infrastructure solutions, and coexisting with the neighboring Cumberland River.
Neuhoff’s 914,000 square foot campus stands on the riverbank where the former meat-packing plant, built in 1906, once stood. The LEED-certified buildings, constructed with salvaged brick, stone, and the original columns from the plant, are intended to honor the industry that originally brought life to the area while incorporating modern touches that forge a sustainable way forward. Green roofs, permeable pavement, and native plants are tucked neatly into every crevice of these pedestrian and bike-friendly blocks.
Nestled on the tenth floor of one of Neuhoff’s office buildings, the Compact’s headquarters is a revolving door of impassioned citizens: in the past month, it has welcomed local environmental educators participating in the Teacher Fellowship program, Root Nashville Neighborhood Planting Captains in training, and Vanderbilt engineering students who designed a floating ecopark for a graduate project.
It’s a space for the environmental movers and thinkers of Nashville to gather and connect—and the birdseye view of the Cumberland River from the office windows is a constant reminder of what we’re all doing it for.
The Compact’s journey since it was founded in 1997 has been much like the creeks, rivers, and streams that make up the Cumberland River—springing up with small but determined origins that culminate in a unified pathway to shape the future of water in the Cumberland River basin.
The Early Years
Years: 1997 – 2013
“For the first fifteen years of its life, the Cumberland River Compact operated out of living rooms, home offices, and community spaces all over Nashville,” says Mekayle Houghton, Executive Director.
A film by Vic Scoggin, a riverboat pilot and Navy veteran, who swam the 687 miles of the Cumberland River in the summer of 1996, brought renewed attention to the impaired state of the Cumberland River. This bold adventure achieved its intended effect. The publicity and media attention garnered by the man swimming the polluted river raised awareness about the state of the Cumberland, and many other rivers across America.
Nashvillians Shirley Caldwell-Patterson, Bill Forrester, Berdelle Campbell, Bill Coble, Pete Kopcsak, and others began the work that would result in the formation of the Cumberland River Compact. With Shirley Caldwell-Patterson’s indomitable leadership and vision as the organization’s undisputed leader, the Compact tapped into the expertise and goodwill of natural resource managers. Shirley envisioned an organization that listened first and worked to fill unmet needs. To this day, the Compact has maintained its collaborative approach, prioritizing the specific needs of communities across the basin.
The Compact’s charter was established in 1997; in its first decade, it launched watershed initiatives in the Harpeth and Red River watersheds, assembled an expert Water Quality Advisory Committee for the Cumberland River basin, created and hosted the first ever Cumberland River Dragon Boat Festival, and much more.
In 2013, Compact acquired its first proper office: the Bridge Building in downtown Nashville. Paul Sloan served as the executive director during this time, with Bill Coble, one of the founding members, lending his leadership to the board.
The Bridge Building
Years: 2013 – 2021
On the first day of August 2013, excited staff members piled into the new office space with books and files in tow. The change signified a new era to employees and supporters alike:
The Compact was now an organization with a physical presence along the river, the building situated on the site of former barge building yards. Thanks to Paul Sloan’s leadership and the proximity to a historically fascinating section of the river, the Compact began to explore the river’s cultural, commercial, and natural history. This grounded the work in Nashville’s origins, with sights set on a future of clean and abundant water.
After prior leadership by Margo Farnsworth, Geralyn Hoey, Doug Hauskin and Paul Sloan, Mekayle Houghton stepped into leadership as executive director in 2014. Houghton ushered in a new season of growth for the organization and aligned the Compact with local and regional efforts to advance water stewardship.
While located at the Bridge Building, the Compact worked with the Metro Government and other nonprofit partners to launch Root Nashville, the citywide campaign to plant 500,000 trees by 2050. Root Nashville’s Neighborhood Planting Captain model activated citizens in all regions of the city to restore Nashville’s urban canopy.
The Compensatory Mitigation program was also launched, which allowed the Compact to take on large-scale stream restoration projects like the recent Trace Creek restoration project. This program ushered in a new era for the Compact, as it undertook the complex task of ensuring that stream mitigation dollars from development are allocated to high-conservation-value stream restoration projects. Jed Grubbs, who manages the Compensatory Mitigation program to this day, brought his expertise to the role with a master’s degree in environmental planning and certificates in watershed management and geospatial information technologies from Virginia Tech.
Likely most memorable to the community during this time was the creation of River Talks. This educational speaker series featured conversations with experts, researchers, professionals, and others, focusing on water, environmental, and regional topics. Guests, including historian David Ewing, Vanderbilt University Law Professor Mike Vandenbergh, Anna George from the Tennessee Aquarium, environmental lawyer Anne Davis, and Tony Gonzalez from WPLN, participated in the talks. Overall, more than 150 speakers presented at River Talks from 2014 to 2020. Catherine Price, the Compact’s Education & Engagement Division Manager, remembers, “River Talks was such a special gathering – people from all walks of life would join us weekly over an environmental issue. It was a really unique experience that was not only educational but allowed the public to forge new connections over the common thread of water quality and the environment.”
EXPANDING CAPACITY ACROSS THE BASIN
Years: 2021 – 2024
In 2021, the Compact relocated from the Bridge Building to the Trolley Barns complex near the Ascend Amphitheater to accommodate a growing staff that expanded the Compact’s reach beyond the urban core of Davidson County to the far corners of the Cumberland River basin.
“As the Compact has grown, our staff has become more qualified, and those qualifications have become more diverse,” says Houghton. “What was once an organization centered around outreach and generating awareness has blossomed into a highly technical and productive engine for environmental restoration and stewardship projects.”
One of the Compact’s strengths is its willingness to experiment and innovate as needs change. As new avenues for impactful work were identified, new programs emerged to meet the growing need for water conservation strategies across the basin.
In 2018, the Compact led a series of dam removals on urban streams in Nashville, including Richland Creek, Mill Creek, and Stewart Creek. These efforts were led by Gray Perry, who began his tenure at the Compact as an AmeriCorps member and now serves as the Watershed Science and Restoration Program Manager. Gray holds an MS in geosciences from Middle Tennessee State University and a BS in geology and environmental studies from the University of Tennessee Knoxville.
In 2023, the Compact expanded again with the creation of the Mine Land Reforestation and River Friendly Farms programs. Housed under the Working Lands division, both programs partner with professionals who manage pastures, farms, and forests to restore the ecological function of healthy soil, maintain robust stream buffers, and replant native forests.
2024 saw the planting of Root Nashville’s 50,000th tree, and the Compact doubled the size of its Field Team, significantly increasing capacity for citywide tree maintenance and depave projects. The depave initiative gained steam in 2024 with projects at Calvary United Methodist Church and Jones Avenue in East Nashville.
“The Trolley Barns were a great place to grow, but I think everyone missed when the Compact was located on the river—our staff, partners, and supporters alike,” Houghton says.
Throughout the Compact’s tenure at the Trolley Barns, Houghton and the Compact board were hard at work negotiating a new home at the future Neuhoff building.
NEUHOFF: A NEW HOME LOOKING FORWARD
Years: 2025 – Current
The owners of the Neuhoff site since 1992, the McRedmond family, are dedicated conservationists, environmentalists, and ardent supporters of the Cumberland River Compact. The family has a long history of civic involvement in the Germantown and North Nashville areas. It was their vision that guided the innovative redevelopment of Neuhoff, strengthening both the community and the neighborhood’s connection to the Cumberland River. With their strong support, the Compact expflored relocating to the Neuhoff District—a location that would bring the organization back near the river and align with the sustainability values the Compact was seeking.
The Compact relocated to its new home in the Neuhoff District in April 2025. From this location, the Compact will embark on projects all over Davidson County and to the far-reaching edges of the Cumberland River basin. Now with 34 employees on the team, all bringing a range of expertise and experience, the Compact has ambitious plans to expand its initiatives in neighborhoods both near and far, new and old.
Work in nearby neighborhoods has already begun: In early 2025, the Compact completed a depave project at the Nashville Farmers Market in Germantown and the summer of 2025 will bring a large-scale depaving initiative to North Nashville. “We’re aiming to depave 31,000 square feet of asphalt in 37208 and 37209, specifically, the area of land where water drains into the TSU Tiger Bay wetland. We’re starting with projects at Tio Fun, Pearl Cohn Magnet High School, and Slim & Husky’s, and are looking for more,” says Jason Sprouls, the Compact’s Urban Waters Division Manager.
Further out in the basin, the Compact recently received funding from the Chubb Charitable Foundation to reforest 450 acres of previously mined land in southwest Appalachia. And in Van Buren County, south of Cookeville, where Compact staff helped inoculate ancient eastern hemlock trees against disease in 2023, plans are currently underway to restore damaged stream channels in the same area and protect the land forever under a conservation easement.
“We’re hopeful for the future and know that, ultimately, clean water is a priority and a right for all citizens of Tennessee and Kentucky,” says Executive Director Mekayle Houghton. “We’re grateful to be located on the river once again, and in these exciting new surroundings, I think the team– and Compact supporters– are feeling more inspired than ever. I can’t wait to see what the future decades of the Cumberland River Compact will bring.”
