One of my goals when I first moved to Nashville was to make sure I made the most of my time and did my best to explore the city. It’s so easy to get caught up in a routine, going to the same bars, same coffee shops and taking walks in the same places. I’ve lived enough places to know there’s always something you didn’t do while you were there, so I really want to get as much out of this city as possible. Enter Centennial Park, Nashville’s version of Central Park.
It’s free and ended up being less than a mile walk from my apartment, so it’s become one of my favorite places in Nashville. In the spring and summer, it’s packed with all sorts of people: students studying, people on picnics, groups playing ultimate frisbee and volleyball and people just laying around reading, enjoying the sun after another brisk Nashville winter. Once the temperature drops, there are less groups hanging around, but the park is still frequented by walkers, runners and people taking photos of the Parthenon. Even on a snowy day, people use the mile loop that runs around the park for exercise.
The craziest thing about Centennial Park is its history. The park was a farm in the 1700s, then the state fairgrounds, then a racetrack, before becoming the host location for the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition. The Parthenon was built because Nashville was aiming to be the Athens of the South, so using this structure is meant to be a monument to the height of classical architecture. Oh, did I mention it’s a full scale replica? [I have been to the original Parthenon and can vouch for that statement.] State officials ended up keeping the Parthenon up until they rebuilt it in the 1920s to what stands there today, and the park essentially grew and transformed during the 1900s, becoming what exists now.
Centennial Park hosts fairs, theatre productions, concerts and all kinds of random events year-round, but my favorite time to go is for an evening walk in the spring or a weekend afternoon in the summer. Sometimes it’s full of people, others it’s quiet and lonely, but it’s always my favorite place to think. If you’re ever in Nashville, you’ll have to stop by!
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