Hill McAlister

McAlister took office in 1933 facing a state debt of about six million dollars and cut more than 2,300 government jobs. He backed the Tennessee Valley Authority; Norris Dam and Pickwick Landing Dam began during his term. Memphis boss E. H. Crump helped elect him in 1932, then broke with him when he refused to allow liquor sales in Memphis and proposed a sales tax that Crump's allies defeated. Crump called him the sorriest governor. He married Louise Jackson, a daughter of Justice Howell E. Jackson, and is buried at Mount Olivet.

What the plaque says

Hill McAlister 1875-1959 A native of Nashville, Hill McAlister was elected City Attorney in 1905. In 1911 he was elected to the State Senate where he supported legislation in the areas of health, education, and labor. He later served five terms as State Treasurer and two terms as Governor, 1933~37. Governor McAlister died in Nashville.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tennessee State Capitol — 4.3 mi
  William Strickland's Greek Revival capitol on Nashville's Capitol Hill, finished in 1859 and built from the bottom up with the labor of enslaved men.
• Ryman Auditorium — 4.4 mi
  The 1892 brick tabernacle in downtown Nashville that was the Grand Ole Opry's home from 1943 to 1974, now a National Historic Landmark and working concert hall.
• Civil Rights Room at the Nashville Public Library — 4.4 mi
  A room in the downtown library with a circular lunch counter, a timeline and oral histories of the 1960 Nashville sit-ins, a few blocks from the stores where they began.
• National Museum of African American Music — 4.5 mi
  A downtown Nashville museum, opened in 2021, tracing gospel, blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and hip-hop through Black history from 1619 to 2016.

More markers nearby

• Williamson-Davidson — 0.8 mi
• Haynes High School — 2.8 mi
• Griggs Hall — 3.0 mi
• Great French Lick — 4.0 mi