| Centennial Park | |
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 The Parthenon is the centerpiece of the park. | |
 Interactive map of Centennial Park | |
| Type | Public park |
| Location | Nashville, Tennessee, United States |
| Coordinates | 36°08′56″N86°48′43″W / 36.149°N 86.812°W /36.149; -86.812 |
| Area | 132-acre (0.53 km2) |
| Created | 1903 |
| Operated by | Metropolitan Nashville Department of Parks and Recreation |
Centennial Park is a largeurbanpark located approximately two miles (three km) west ofdowntownNashville, Tennessee, United States, across West End Avenue (U.S. Highway 70S) from thecampus ofVanderbilt University. The 21st-century headquarters campus of theHospital Corporation of America was developed adjacent to the park.
Cultivated as farmland by some of the earliest families in Nashville, the territory became controlled by the state and used as a park after the American Civil War. In the last decade, it was used as a racetrack. It was redeveloped as the site of theTennessee Centennial and International Exposition in 1897. Afterward most of the temporary exhibit structures were removed, but the replica of the Parthenon remained. Centennial Park was opened in 1903. Due to the popularity of the Parthenon, it was rebuilt in steel and concrete between 1925 and 1931.
The 132-acre (0.53 km2) park was originally farmland that had belonged toJohn Cockrill and his wife,Anne Robertson Johnson Cockrill (1757–1821), the sister of GeneralJames Robertson.[1] She and her family came fromWake County, North Carolina to Fort Nashborough (now Nashville) in the Donelson Flotilla, led byJohn Donelson. (His daughter Rachel marriedAndrew Jackson.)[1] Anne Cockrill was the first woman to be given a land grant in Tennessee.[2] Their sonMark R. Cockrill became known as the "Wool King of the World", as he had a large sheep herd in Nashville. He owned up to 300 slaves prior to theCivil War, with most of them assigned to his Mississippi cotton plantation.[3] Cockrill loaned gold and wool to theConfederate States Army during the Civil War. After the Union Army occupied Tennessee, he was arrested and jailed for his Confederate support.[3]
Some of the land was part of theBurlington plantation established byJoseph T. Elliston, who served as the fourth mayor of Nashville from 1814 to 1817. It was later owned by his son,William R. Elliston, aWhig politician.[4] The Ellistons were slaveholders,[5] and their plantation extended into what are now part of the campus ofVanderbilt University and West End Park.[4] Their mansion, on modern-day Elliston Place, was torn down in the 1930s.[6]
After the Civil War, this land was adapted for the state fairgrounds. From 1884 to 1895, more of the site was devoted to a racetrack and was known as West Side Park. In 1897, it was developed as the site of theTennessee Centennial and International Exposition and was renamed as Centennial Park. In preparation for the exposition, the area was landscaped and new, temporary buildings were constructed for exhibit space. An artificial lake, Lake Watauga, was developed in the park, as were sunken gardens and a bandshell for music performances. This lake was named for an early pioneer settlement along theWatauga River in northeast Tennessee at present dayElizabethton that was the origin of a number of early settlers of Nashville.
A replica of the Parthenon was also built to serve as the Exposition's Fine Arts building, and to honor Nashville's status as "The Athens of the South". It was designed byWilliam Crawford Smith.[7][8]
As was common with such expositions, afterward most of the temporary buildings and exhibits were dismantled. Lake Watauga, the gardens, bandshell and the Parthenon were the most prominent features remaining from the Exposition when the park was officially dedicated in May 1903.[8] Consistent withJim Crow laws, African Americans were prohibited from using Centennial Park, as they had been excluded from its previous manifestations as parks.
By the 1920s, the plaster exterior of theParthenon replica had begun to deteriorate.[9]
In 1909, theConfederate Private Monument, designed byGeorge Julian Zolnay, was dedicated in the park. TheUnited Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) had helped raise money to commission the monument.[10]
Centennial Park became an important recreation site forwhites of Nashville. As African-American activism increased for renewed civil rights, the park became a site of conflicts. On July 18, 1961, six African Americans were turned away when they tried to use the public swimming pool in the park, which, was, of course, supported by their tax dollars.[11][12] The next day, all Nashville public pools were closed under the pretext of "financial reasons".[13] It was not until after passage in 1964 of a national civil rights law ending discrimination that African Americans were allowed to use the park. In 1972, the pool was redeveloped as anarts center.[14]
From 1954 to 1967, the Parthenon was the backdrop for an enormousnativity scene sponsored byHarveys department store. (This has since gone out of business.) The scene was approximately 280 feet (85 m) long, 75 feet (23 m) deep and was flooded with colorful lights. However, by 1968, it was sold to aCincinnati shopping center. According to theNashville Banner, the nativity scene was shown only two Christmas seasons in Cincinnati before it collapsed and was discarded.[citation needed]
In the 1960s, the park was the site of Sunday afternoon concerts;Pat Boone was among the early performers in this series.[15] In 1975,Robert Altman shot the climactic scene of his filmNashville in the park.
In 1990, a statue ofPallas Athena, designed by NashvillesculptorAlan LeQuire, was added to the art gallery inside the Parthenon. It is dedicated to the women's suffrage movement.[16]
By the late 20th century, the park had many mature shade trees. The1998 Nashville tornado outbreak damaged or destroyed most of them, a loss that would take generations to replace. A VanderbiltROTC cadet died in the park during the storm; he was the only fatality.[17]
On November 11, 2005, Centennial Park became Nashville's first wireless internet park by offering freeWi-Fi internet access to park patrons.[18] The park's bandshell was the site of the annual "Shakespeare in the Park" presented by theNashville Shakespeare Festival for thirty years until its move to Nashville's oneC1TY in 2019.[citation needed]
In 2012, workers found the source of the spring that was a major feature during Anne Robertson Johnson Cockrill's ownership of the land. For 100 years, it had been capped and piped to thesewer, with a flow of more than 100 gallons of water per minute.[19] What is now called Cockrill Springs is a new natural feature of the park.[20]
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On August 26, 2016, as part ofWomen's Equality Day, theTennessee Woman Suffrage Monument byAlan LeQuire was unveiled in the park. It features depictions ofCarrie Chapman Catt,Anne Dallas Dudley,Abby Crawford Milton,Juno Frankie Pierce, andSue Shelton White, local activists forwomen's suffrage.[21][22]
The park also contains a recreation center. It is also the site of the administrative offices of the city'sDepartment of Parks and Recreation, but these area being relocated to the East Bank of theCumberland River and the offices of the former Nashville Bridge Company.[citation needed]
The singer-songwriterTaylor Swift lived in Nashville during the beginning of her music career.[23] When she returned in 2023 forThe Eras Tour, a bench dedicated to her was installed in the park.[24]
In anticipation of the ruin to Southern interests that his keen vision foresaw, he sold his large Mississippi plantation, to which he was in the habit of going every winter [...]. He also sold the 300 slaves on the plantation with the exception of about sixty selected "hands", whom he brought to Tennessee to watch and care for his sheep.
In May of 1903, Centennial Park was officially opened to the public.
Jack Spore, city recreation director, said attendants at Centennial Park Pool refused to sell the Negroes tickets and the group left quietly.
On Tuesday, six negroes were denied admission to a Centennial Park pool reserved for white persons.
The folks are shown where Pat Boone attended school and told how Pat got his start with the Sunday concerts in Centennial Park.
LeQuire has created numerous public commissions in his 35-year career. At age 26, he began Athena Parthenos, the looming sculpture inside the Parthenon at Centennial Park. It took eight years to complete and was unveiled in 1990.
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