The Stahlman Building opened on June 22, 1907, at a cost of $1 million. The building was the city's second skyscraper, designed by James E.R. Carpenter and built by newspaper publisher Edward Stahlman. The Stahlman Building first housed the Fourth National Bank, and the bank's original vault is still in the basement. The building was the first in the city to have modern elevators. In 1971 Metro Government purchased the Stahlman Building, and the building housed offices and courtrooms until 2003.

Tribute to James Carpenter
James E.R. Carpenter was Tennessee's first formally trained architect. Carpenter was born in Columbia, Tenn., in 1867. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received training from the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. Carpenter was known for designing high-quality, luxurious public buildings and apartments. He is widely regarded for his use of enlarged stone cornices in conjunction with the traditional Renaissance palazzo style and is believed to have designed more than 500 projects.

Carpenter launched his career in Nashville with his design of the Stahlman Building, the five-star Hermitage Hotel and Vanderbilt University's Joint University Library. He designed other prominent buildings throughout the South in Alabama, Georgia, Florida and Texas.

Between 1920 and 1930, Carpenter designed nearly 100 apartment buildings in Manhattan and became known as a leading skyscraper architect. Many of his apartments are still standing today in the Upper East Side historic district. One of his most notable New York skyscrapers is the Lincoln Building, a magnificent building with 55 floors and 1.15 million square feet.