Whitewash was put on the street fronts of commercial properties. Sometimes a homeowner might whitewash his house ~ sometimes not.
For the most part, in the old days, most people in Brown County (of which Nashville is the county seat) lived in log cabins. This county continues to have numerous log cabins still in use as homes.
Folks identified with the art colony tradition came there for the ambience and the forests. My own people had lived there for a very long time ~ in fact, they owned Weed Patch Hill and most of Hardin Ridge.
They were engaged in manufacturing craft goods highly prized by tourists. The art colony folks fit right into the scene ~ In 1939 the big "cash cow", the exported artistic baskets, were no longer saleable since the Germans had brought Europe to war and were engaged in killing all the storekeepers and gypsies who sold those baskets for them. The art colony fell on equally hard times ~ for the same reason. Baskets aren't coming back, but the pictures are.
We lived on Salt Creek Rd. for three years 66-69. We bought 8 acres of hillside with a log cabin on it out on highway 46. We were in the midst of refurbishing it when hubby got laid off from Cummins and we had to move to Atlanta where he worked for Cummins Ga. Talk about a shock to the system....from Gnaw Bone to Hotlanta. Ha. We loved Nashville. Hung out with Bill Monroe because hubby plays Mandolin and played with a Bluegrass group called The Brown County Boys.
Gosh, I still own a log cabin and my family's farm about half way between Helmsburg and Mahalasville.