Centennial Park (Nashville)
| Centennial Park | |
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The Parthenon is the centerpiece of the park.
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| Type | Public park |
| Location | Nashville, Tennessee |
| Coordinates | 36°08′56″N 86°48′43″W / 36.149°N 86.812°W |
| Area | 132-acre (0.53 km2) |
| Created | 1903 |
| Operated by | Metropolitan Nashville Department of Parks and Recreation |
Centennial Park is a large urban park located approximately two miles (three km) west of downtown Nashville, Tennessee, across West End Avenue (U.S. Highway 70S) from the campus of Vanderbilt University and adjacent to the current (2016) headquarters campus of the Hospital Corporation of America. It was dedicated in 1903, and blacks were banned from the park until the 1960s.
This area of Nashville is known as the West End. Its vicinity includes two large-scale apartment developments—Elliston23 and ParkCentral.
The 132-acre (0.53 km2) park was originally farmland that had belonged to Anne Robertson Johnson Cockrill (1757–1821), the sister of General James Robertson. She and her family came from Wake County, North Carolina to Fort Nashborough (now Nashville) in the Donelson Flotilla, led by Andrew Jackson's wife Rachel's father, John Donelson. She was the first woman to be given a land grant in Tennessee.
The land was turned into the state fairgrounds after the Civil War. From 1884 to 1895, the site served as a racetrack and was known as West Side Park. In 1897, it was the site of the Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition and was renamed Centennial Park. After the exposition ended, most of the building and exhibits were dismantled, leaving in its place a landscaped open area with a small artificial lake (named "Lake Watauga" after the region, then in western North Carolina, where many of Nashville's early settlers moved from), sunken gardens, and a bandshell. The Parthenon, designed by William Crawford Smith, became the most prominent feature of the park. The park was officially dedicated in May 1903.
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