J. Percy Priest Lake

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The Lake at a Glance

J. Percy Priest Lake sits 10 miles east of downtown Nashville on the Stones River, a tributary of the Cumberland. The Army Corps of Engineers built the dam between 1963 and 1967, flooding a stretch of the Stones River watershed that included the entire town of Old Jefferson — a community demolished in the early 1960s for the project. President Lyndon B. Johnson dedicated the dam on June 29, 1968. At 14,200 acres and 213 miles of shoreline, it is Nashville's backyard lake, serving flood control for the Cumberland Valley, hydroelectric power generation, water supply, and recreation for the surrounding metro area.

The lake runs 42 miles end to end through Davidson, Rutherford, and Wilson counties. That three-county spread is one of the defining features of the real estate market — a lakefront home in unincorporated Wilson County can carry a meaningfully different tax bill than a comparable property on the Davidson County side, and buyers who do not check the county line before making an offer regularly discover this at closing. We break down the math by county in the property tax section.

What Buyers Need to Know First

J. Percy Priest is managed by the Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District, not TVA. That distinction matters more than most buyers realize — and the dock situation here is unlike any other major Tennessee lake. The Nashville District's official FAQ states explicitly: no new private boat dock permits are issued at J. Percy Priest Lake. Approximately 89.5% of the lake's 213 miles of shoreline is designated Protected Shoreline where private docks are prohibited. The docks that exist on properties around the lake are grandfathered legacy structures, permitted under older allocations before the Corps tightened the Shoreline Management Plan.

When a Percy Priest property with a dock changes hands, the existing Shoreline Use Permit for that dock terminates automatically at the moment of ownership transfer. The new owner has 14 days to apply for permit continuation or must remove the dock and restore the shoreline within 30 days. Whether the Corps approves that continuation application — under a Shoreline Management Plan that now designates most of the lake as Protected — is not guaranteed and is at the discretion of the Nashville District Resource Manager. Before making an offer on any Percy Priest property with a dock, call the Resource Manager at 615-889-1975, get the permit number from the seller, and ask directly about continuation prospects. Do this before your inspection contingency deadline, not after closing.

The lake also functions as a flood storage reservoir. Summer pool sits at 490 feet above mean sea level. Each fall, the Corps lowers the lake by approximately 7 feet to create flood storage capacity for winter and spring rainfall from the Stones River watershed, which drains 865 square miles through four counties. The Corps is currently revising its 1998 Water Control Manual to reflect updated operations data from 1970 to 2025. Potential changes include modifications to the timing of the annual drawdown. For buyers planning docks, the 7-foot variation is manageable relative to lakes like Norris or Douglas, but floating dock design is still strongly preferred over fixed pier construction.

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