 Facts at a Glance
Population: 533,000
Area: 480 sq mi (1240 sq km)
Elevation: 440ft (130m)
State: Tennessee
Time zone: Central Time (GMT/UTC minus 6 hours)
Telephone area code: 615
 History
Ancient mound-builders and the wandering Shawnee of Algonquin stock occupied modern Nashville's Cumberland River bluffs centuries ago. Europeans first settled the area in 1779 as Fort Nashborough (the Anglocentric name was Americanized five years later). The legendary Daniel Boone had a hand in the deal, and his Wilderness Road brought emigrants over the Appalachians from Virginia, the Carolinas, and northeastern states. Nashville developed rapidly as a trade and manufacturing center; it was chartered in 1806 and named state capital in 1843.
Its vital position on the Cumberland River (linking to the Mississippi navigation system) and at the crossroads of important rail lines made it a strategic point during the Civil War. As federal troops advanced upriver, the legislature picked up and moved to Memphis, and within the week Nashville surrendered. Another legendary Tennesseean, Andrew Jackson (then a US Senator), was appointed military governor and installed Union loyalists to occupy and impose martial law on Nashville from 1862 to 1865, which left the city intact.
Confederates aimed their sights on Nashville to cut off the rail lines supplying Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's campaign against Atlanta, and the two armies fought the Battle of Nashville south of the city in 1864. Confederate General Thomas Hood's troops were destroyed.
The city's economic recovery after the Civil War was hampered by two major cholera epidemics, which killed about a thousand people and caused thousands more to flee. The Centennial Exposition in 1897, for which the reproduction of the Greek Parthenon which still stands was built, signaled the city's eventual recovery.
Nashville's Maxwell family established the world-recognized Maxwell House Coffee business here. Teddy Roosevelt himself proclaimed it 'good to the last drop' at the Maxwell House Hotel downtown. The Maxwell estate is now a fine-arts center and botanical gardens open to the public.
But eventually, Nashville became best known around the globe for the rocketing popularity of its live broadcast Barn Dance - later sarcastically nicknamed the 'Grand Ole Opry' - which began in 1925. The city was quickly proclaimed the Country Music Capital of the World, and recording studios and production companies established themselves along Music Row just west of downtown.
In the 1960s, students from the all-black Fisk University led sit-in demonstrations at lunch counters downtown, encouraged an economic boycott and marched on city hall to demand desegregated facilities. Their successful non-violent protests served as a model and catalyst for civil rights demonstrations throughout the South.
In the 1970s, Nashville's patron Gaylord Enterprises invented the Oprylandia empire and shaped the city's country music tourist business by moving the Grand Ole Opry, renovating the Ryman Auditorium, sending boats up and down the river and contributing to the economic revitalization of the downtown riverfront. Besides the entertainment business and the city's $2 billion-a-year tourist industry, Nashville also relies on its health care industry and a Nissan plant as economic mainstays.
Most of Nashville's main music fests and other public celebrations take place during the sweltery season, from May through September, when daytime temperatures edge upwards to 90°F (33°C) and humidity can climb to 80%. Taking the good with the bad, this is an excellent time to get a real taste for life in Music City. In terms of climate alone, you may be happier visiting in October and November, when temperatures fall to around 70°F (20°C) and the humidity drops by half. Rainfall is fairly evenly spread out over the year, with August through October being the driest months. Snowfall is heaviest in January and February, but even then it's more an occasion for snowball fights than blizzard scares.
 Orientation
Straddling the Cumberland River in northern central Tennessee, Nashville lies midway between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico, smack in the heart of the eastern US. From the state capitol - the city's highest point - a busy, compact downtown of narrow one-way streets and high-rise office buildings slopes eastward to Broadway, Nashville's central artery. Southeast of the capitol along 2nd Ave and Broadway, the renovation of historic commercial buildings has carved a downtown tourist destination called 'the District.' Music Row, the other main commercial district, is less than a mile southwest of downtown.
In the rest of sprawling Nashville, it's hard to pinpoint what constitutes a neighborhood, but a few are easily discernible. Elliston Place is a compact stretch of bohemian alternative culture about a mile west of downtown and north of West End Ave. South of this is the Vanderbilt University campus. East of Elliston Place and abutting the university, Centennial Park is the site of the mock Parthenon leftover from the Centennial Exposition of 1897. This whole area is known as West End, and it centers on a cluster of restaurants along Broadway and West End Ave on either side of the university; you might also hear it referred to as 'Around Vanderbilt.'
Many tourists never set foot in downtown Nashville, confining their visit to the massive Opryland complex a few miles northeast of town. Here, the prefabricated Music Valley holds a tourist ghetto of budget motels, franchise restaurants and outlet stores. The airport is 8 miles (13km) directly east of downtown. Greyhound buses stop downtown.
 Attractions
Downtown
Downtown Nashville is a compact and pleasant place to wander. Towering office buildings and modern halls dominate but manage not to overwhelm the city's historic structures and streets (which are few but renovated and well maintained). At downtown's western end, the 1845 Greek Revival State Capitol remains the area's principal landmark. Architect William Strickland is buried in its northeast corner, and the tomb of President and Mrs James K Polk is outside on Capitol Hill. Steep stairs on its northern side lead down to a farmers market and the Tennessee Bicentennial Mall at downtown's back door.
Facing Charlotte Ave, the Capitol looks out over government buildings surrounding the Legislative Plaza, where cherry trees explode with white blossoms in early spring. The block-long Performing Arts Center downhill to the east houses the Tennessee State Museum. The underground museum spills out onto Union St, off which you'll find the city's elite banks and hotels, most notably the 1910 Hermitage Hotel, which was headquarters for both the advocates and opponents of women's suffrage on the eve of Tennessee's ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920.
Union St leads east to 1st Ave N and the western end of Riverfront Park on the Cumberland River. The park runs between the bridges at Woodland St and Shelby Ave, providing a landscaped promenade thick with shade trees and busy with walkers and horse-drawn carriages. In the park, just south of Davis Blvd, a stockade surrounds Fort Nashborough, a 1930s replica of the city's original outpost. Across the river just north of Shelby Ave, construction continues on a new football stadium to house the relocating Houston Oilers.
The historic 2nd Ave N business area was the center of the cotton trade in the 1870s and '80s, when most of the Victorian warehouses were built (note the cast-iron and masonry facades). Today, it's the heart of what's called The District, where modern interiors are filled with shops, restaurants, underground saloons and nightclubs, including the Wildhorse Saloon of Nashville Network TV fame. Two blocks south on Commerce St, Printers Alley is a narrow cobblestone lane that has been known for its nightlife since the 1940s. The Bourbon Street Blues & Boogie Bar anchors this notably non-countrified enclave of nightspots and restaurants.
A scenic, seedy cowboy ghetto along 'Lower Broad' between 4th and 5th Aves behind the Ryman Auditorium has country bars, adult bookstores and BBQ joints. Tootsie's Wild Orchid Lounge on the north side is the best known of the dives; snakeskin boots and chewing tobacco are available between musical acts next door at Robert's Western World, home of alternative country musicians BR5-49.
Opryland USA
No surprise to the twangy at heart, the Opryland USA theme park and the adjacent Grand Ole Opry House are Nashville's primary tourist attractions. In a stroke of zoning genius, Opryland was carved from a nearby suburb and built into an American tourist mecca far from where it could sully the original downtown. Today, the giant amusement park features two dozen country-music-themed rides and hosts frequent concerts by big-name country artists. All in the name of squeaky clean fun.
Country music's most celebrated performance venue, the Grand Ole Opry House moved here in 1974 from its original home in the Ryman Auditorium downtown. Performances are held on Friday and Saturday nights year round, and guided backstage tours are offered once a day by reservation. Across the plaza from the Opry House, the Grand Ole Opry Museum tells the Opry story using wax characters in colorful costumes and authentic artifacts - don't miss Patsy Cline's classic 1950s rec-room diorama. And as if that wasn't enough, the Minnie Pearl Museum and Roy Acuff Museum are housed in a mock-Victorian village nearby.
Opryland USA is about 10 miles (15km) northwest of downtown. River taxis ply the Cumberland River between downtown and the Opryland dock, a scenic hour's ride away, and paddleboat rides are available aboard the four-deck General Jackson. Land based transportation is also an option.
Ryman Auditorium
Called 'the Mother Church of Country Music,' the Ryman Auditorium was home to Grand Ole Opry for over 30 years. Riverboat captain Thomas Ryman built the huge gabled brick tabernacle in 1890, dedicating it to spiritual music, and after his death in 1904, the hall was made available for a wide variety of performances. The most famous came to be known as the Grand Ole Opry after a radio announcer introduced a Saturday-night dance with, 'For the past hour we have been listening to music taken largely from the Grand Opera, but from now on we will present the Grand Ole Opry.'
The Opry was moved to the Opryland USA complex in 1974, and 20 years later, after an $8.5 million renovation, the Ryman reopened as a performance venue. The auditorium is at its best during performances; the graceful interior is evocative on its own, but admission is steep for a self-guided tour of an empty building. The Ryman is located downtown on 5th Ave N, just east of the Convention Center.
Music Row
Music Row consists of two parts: the mogul's mecca along Music Square, where you'll find the platinum-studded offices of Nashville's production companies, agents, managers and promoters, and the tourist strip on Demonbreun St (pronounced di-MUN-bree-un) a few blocks block north.
Along the touristy stretch, the Country Music Wax Museum heads up a row of 'museums' and souvenir shops devoted to the likes of Hank Williams Jr and George Jones. Here you can record your own songs, sing karaoke or shell out for treasures like guitar-shaped flyswatters, Elvis cookbooks and playing cards with dated photos of big-haired country music stars.
Two block south, the lavish, devotional Country Music Hall of Fame provides a great introduction to Nashville and to the evolution of country music. It's chock-full of industry artifacts such as Garth Brooks' trademark hat, Gene Autry's string tie and the original handwritten lyrics to 'Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys.' The pièce de resistance is the custom Cadillac owned by Elvis Presley, with a convertible cover that lifts up at the press of a button to reveal a gold-plated interior. The museum's sensaround Hank Williams Jr room, beautiful Gibson guitars and vintage film clips and recordings are also a treat.
Like Sun Studios in Memphis is to rockabilly's roots, RCA Studio B is revered in country musician's circles for producing the 'Nashville Sound.' The 1950s-style studio, again in use after renovation, is touted to have launched more hit records than any other recording studio in the country.
Music Row is south of I-40, less than a mile west of downtown, and is reached by bus or trolley.
Tennessee State Museum
Housed on three floors of the Performing Arts Center building, the Tennessee State Museum traces the state's history from the effigy pots and engraved gorgets of ancient tribes through pioneers, pillories, dauguerrotypes, silver services, sabers and Confederate dollars. Exhibits explore Tennessee's strong abolitionist movement, begun in 1797, as well as the Ku Klux Klan, which was founded in Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1868 by Grand Cyclops General Nathan Bedford Forest.
The state's military museum branch, located in the classical War Memorial Building across the street, covers conflicts from the Spanish-American War to WWII, including radio broadcasts of the Pearl Harbor invasion. The museums are downtown on Union St at 5th and 6th Sts respectively. Buses and trolleys stop nearby.
 Off the Beaten Track
The Hermitage
The historic home of Andrew Jackson, the Hermitage is Nashville's most prized historic-home museum and a monument to the state's most famous political figure. Beginning his national political career as Tennessee's single Representative even before it had officially gained statehood, the fiery tempered Jackson went on to become the 7th US president.
Set among gardens in a wooded urban retreat, the graceful mansion is an amalgamation of its original 1821 Federal style with Pallatian flourishes and Grecian columns added in the 1830s. The big house was once the center of a self-sufficient cotton plantation of 1500 acres worked by 150 slaves. The modern visitor center introduces Jackson's life with a short film.
The Hermitage is about 20 miles (30km) northeast of Nashville, and a car is the best way to reach it.
Cheekwood Museum of Art & Botanical Gardens
The grand 1920s mansion of the Cheek family - heirs to the Maxwell House Coffee fortune - is now open to the public as a fine arts gallery (the city's sole art museum) and botanical gardens. The three-story neo-Georgian home is a work itself, with lapis lazuli mantels and trompe de l'oeil statuary. Exhibits range from Worcester porcelain to Warhol. Stone carvings by self-taught local artist Will Edmondson (1883-1951), the first African American to have had a one-man show at New York's Museum of Modern Art, are among the exhibits. The lovely 55 acre (22ha) urban retreat also hosts classical concerts by Vanderbilt musicians in summer, and an outdoor sculpture trail is planned. The museum is about 35 miles (50km) southwest of downtown Nashville, and a car is the best way to reach it.
Nashville Wildlife Park & Zoo
The Nashville Wildlife Park at Grassmere is a 'walk-through' park where visitors might catch a glimpse of cougars, black bears or gray wolves. The Nashville Zoo, currently in the community of Joelton, is scheduled to move onto the Grassmere grounds in 2001. It houses leopards, lions, white tigers, giraffes and red pandas. Grassmere is about 20 miles (35km) south of downtown Nashville off I-24, while Joelton is 12 miles (20km) northwest. A car is the best way to reach both.
 Activities
Within Nashville, Centennial Park is the city's most popular spot for urban recreation. The Centennial Park Sportsplex offers a swimming pool, tennis courts and an ice skating rink off West End Ave. Riverfront Park is a favorite with walkers and joggers. You can rent in-line skates and bicycles downtown.
Miles of easy to moderate hiking trails crisscross the 1000 acre (400ha) Radnor Lake State Natural Area in the Overton Hills, 6 miles (10km) south of downtown. The scenic sanctuary surrounding the lake is a favorite retreat of Nashville folk. Southwest of town, Percy Warner Park and Edwin Warner Park also offer hiking through wooded hills, and they're close to the northern terminus of the Natchez Trace Parkway, a 200 mile (320km) corridor of parkland that stretches from Nashville all the way to Natchez, Mississippi. It's one of the most popular bicycle touring routes in the country.
Parkland surrounds most of J Percy Priest Reservoir, 10 miles (15km) east of downtown, and there are a number of recreation areas around the lake with facilities for camping, swimming and fishing. Around Old Hickory Dam, 25 miles (40km) northeast of town, the Hermitage Recreation Area is developed as a resort, and you can arrange boating or sailing excursions on Old Hickory Lake.
 Events
It's no surprise that most of Nashville's festivities (and there are a lot of them) center on music. Headliner music festivals make Nashvillians shake their collective booty at regular intervals throughout the year, some of them stretching on for months at a go. Each Thursday evening from May to September, the city hosts free concerts at Riverfront Park. From late May to mid-August, the Tennessee Jazz & Blues concert series enlivens the grounds of Belle Meade Plantation and the Hermitage. And on the Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends, Opryland makes a joyous noise with its Gospel Jubilee.
Among the short-term shindigs is a commemoration of the Battle of New Orleans at the Hermitage on 9 January, with a ceremony at Andrew Jackson's tomb. Music City Blues Celebration is held downtown in early March. On 15 March, Andrew Jackson's birthday is remembered with a wreath-laying ceremony at the Hermitage. In mid-April, the Tin Pan South music festival showcases songwriters. Early May brings more than 150 artisans to Centennial Park for the Tennessee Crafts Fair. A rite of spring for equestrians, the early May Iroquois Steeplechase features races and tailgate picnics in Percy Warner Park.
Late May's Summer Lights in Music City is a downtown outdoor festival of arts, music, dance and theater. In mid-June, the American Artisan Festival at Centennial Park teems with handmade craftwork. The Celtic Music & Summer Solstice Celebration revels in Scottish and Irish music, dance and culture, generally on Father's Day. The TNN Country Awards (the 'People's Choice' of country music) bring national stars to Opryland mid-month. The International Country Music Fan Fair at the fairgrounds and at Opryland draws 24,000 fans to more than 35 hours of stage shows and concerts by 100 artists mid-month. In late June, Chet Atkins hosts Musician Days concerts to celebrate the session musician.
On 4 July, the Independence Day celebration at Riverfront Park is a family event (no alcohol) of food and fireworks. In mid-August, the Music City Pig Fest at the National Guard Armory features a BBQ cook-off, Tennessee wine tasting, hog-calling and pony rides. In early September, the Civil War Encampment at Travelers Rest reenacts the Confederate occupation preceding the 1864 Battle of Nashville, admission. The Tennessee State Fair brings livestock, midway rides and arts and crafts to the fairgrounds. In late September, the African Street Festival at the TSU campus features poetry, rap, reggae, blues, jazz and gospel music along with ethnic foods and fashions. The Italian Street Fair is a big block party fundraiser for the symphony.
In mid-October, an Oktoberfest of polka, accordions and bratwurst is held in the tiny Germantown historic district. In late October, a Pow Wow at the Hermitage Landing Recreation Area brings Native Americans from many different nations together for traditional dances and cultural arts. Starting in late November, Christmas celebrations are scheduled at the Opryland Hotel, Belle Meade and the Belmont Mansion; most run through early January. In early December, a Christmas Parade downtown features floats, bands and clowns.
Public Holidays
1 January - New Year's Day
Third Monday in January - Martin Luther King Day
Third Monday in February - Presidents Day
Easter Holiday - Good Friday
Last Monday in May - Memorial Day
4 July - Independence Day
First Monday in September - Labor Day
Second Monday in October - Columbus Day
11 November - Veterans Day
Fourth Thursday in November - Thanksgiving Day
25 December - Christmas Day
 Getting There & Away
Nine major carriers operate out of Nashville International Airport, including American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, Southwest and United. Not a major hub, Nashville can be more expensive to fly into than neighboring Memphis.
Nashville is linked to the rest of the US via Greyhound bus lines, but the most scenic way to approach the city is along the Natchez Trace Parkway, which begins in Natchez, Mississippi, and terminates just south of Nashville off Hwy 100.
 Getting Around
Nashville International Airport is 8 miles (13km) east of downtown off I-40. An Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) bus connects the airport and downtown, and many hotels have complimentary shuttles for airport service. Taxi cabs and rental cars are also available.
Downtown is easily managed on foot, and a river taxi is the best way to get from there to Opryland. But for most other attractions and districts, it's easiest to get around by car. Pedaling is an alternative - the streets are wide and flat enough and drivers are courteous - but bikes are a rare sight in town.
MTA operates a trolley-like shuttle between major tourist sites at the riverfront and out to Music Row.
 Lonely Planet Guides
 Travelers' Reports
 On-line Info
|
When to Go
