Belmont Church

A working church on Music Row where Music Square East meets Grand Avenue. On March 17, 1989, Nashville's music industry held a memorial here for Kevin Hughes, a 23-year-old Cash Box magazine chart director.

The congregation formed in 1911 and broke ground on the present chapel in 1915. It later rented, then bought, the grocery next door and ran it as Koinonia Bookstore and Coffee Shop.

Hughes studied music business at Belmont University from 1983 and became a Cash Box intern. He was killed on 16th Avenue South on March 9, 1989; his funeral was in Carmi, Illinois, his hometown.

Richard Frank “Tony” D'Antonio was convicted of first-degree murder in 2003. The conviction was affirmed on appeal in 2005, post-conviction relief was denied in 2012, and he died in custody in 2014.

Rob Simbeck's “With a Bullet” (Nashville Scene, August 8, 2002) is the earliest account we found placing the memorial here. It also notes Hughes was an Amy Grant fan drawn to contemporary Christian music.

The chapel fronts a public sidewalk at Grand Avenue; the interior is open to worshippers. Metro's 2019 marker a few steps south honors Koinonia's 1973 coffeehouse and contemporary Christian music, not Hughes.