Walking and Driving Tours
Nashville City Walk
The Nashville City Walk is an ideal introduction to Tennessee's historic State Capital. Beginning at Fort Nashborough, the two-mile walk traces the stories of Nashville's past from frontier settlement to Music City USA. Follow the painted green line and step back in time for a walk through two centuries of this city's and our country's past.
Reasonable priced parking is available at Riverfront Park and at other commercial parking lots throughout downtown. Most of the sites are free and open to the public.
There is evidence that hunters migrated through this area as long as 12,000 years ago. During the Mississippian Period, from 1000 to 1400 A.D., Native American tribes settled here, planted corn, and buried their dead in stone-lined graves.
By the mid-18th century, Middle Tennessee's rolling hills - teeming with buffalo, bear, deer, wild turkeys, and geese - were a shared hunting ground for the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Creek.
In 1779, reports of the area's beauty, rich soil, and plentiful game and water convinced a group of North Carolina settlers to give up their homes and seek a better future for themselves and their families on America's western frontier.
Teddy Roosevelt called it "the great leap westward." Almost 500 people made the historic journey, traveling in two groups. The first, led by frontiersman James Robertson, came overland, arrived on Christmas Day, and crossed the frozen Cumberland River on ice. The second group, on flatboats, arrived the following April after a hazardous 1,000-mile journey, marked by smallpox, hunger, and death. The leader of the second group was Col. John Donelson. His twelve-year-old daughter Rachel, Andrew Jackson's future wife, came with her father on their boat "The Adventure."
Fort Nashborough and the Founding of Nashville
"I am determined to pursue my course, happen what will."
John Donelson, Journal of a Voyage
Tucked among the cedar trees high on the Cumberland River bluff, Fort Nashborough was the headquarters of the original frontier settlement. The two-acre fort built around a fresh water spring was four times the size of this 1930's replica.
Historic Market Street (now Second Avenue)
By the mid-19th century, Nashville was the second largest city west of the Appalachian Mountains. Steamboats lined the dock below Fort Nashborough, and wholesale grain, cotton, and tobacco merchants built large warehouses on Market Street. Most of the present brick Victorian warehouses were built between 1870 and 1890 and today house retail shops, restaurants, and residences.
Printers Alley
"Tell 'em I used to sell newspapers here for three cents."
Skull Schulman, owner, Rainbow Room
The traditional center of Nashville's nightlife, Printers Alley takes its name from its origin as the center of Nashville's printing and publishing businesses. Nightclubs opened here in the 1940's, and the alley became a showcase for the talents of performers such as Boots Randolph, Chet Atkins, Waylon Jennings, Dottie West, The Supremes, Hank Williams, and Barbara Mandrel.
The Men's Quarter
"The Southern Turf is located...almost opposite the Maxwell House, and he who has not been in this tavern knows not what a paradise it is...a veritable glittering palace of mirth and merriment."
American Journal of Commerce. New York, 1899
Any respectable Victorian refused to be seen on this block where gentlemen frequented saloons and billiard halls. Even the famous Maxwell House Hotel, on the corner of 4th and Church, whose coffee Teddy Roosevelt proclaimed “good to the last drop,” had a side door entrance for women. Two of the original saloons on 4th Avenue can still be seen today: the Climax (210) and the Southern Turf (212). The Utopia Hotel stood at 206 4th Avenue.
Downtown Presbyterian Church (1851)
"We are a downtown church. Some regard this as a handicap. I look upon it as an asset. These smoke-begrimed towers look down on the busy street thronged with people and seem to say, 'Remember God.'"
Dr. James I. Vance, Pastor, 1895-1900, 1910-193
A National Historic Landmark, Downtown Presbyterian Church is one of the largest and best preserved examples of Egyptian Revival architecture in the United States. Completed in 1851, the church was designed by William Strickland, architect for the State Capitol. In 1882, the interior was painted with colorful, symbolic designs and perspective painting recalling the Egyptian temple to the sun god Amun-Ra.
Fifth Avenue Historic District/The Arcade
"Rules of Conduct
Do show yourself friendly at the counter at all times.
Do sit straight and always face the counter.
Don't strike back or curse if attacked.
Remember love and nonviolence."
The Tennessean, February 28, 1960
In the 1960s, this street was the center of Nashville’s civil rights movement. Highly effective and well-disciplined sit-in demonstrations here became a model for similar protests throughout the South. Midway down the street is the Nashville Arcade, a rare, turn-of-the-century shopping mall, still thriving today.
The Public Square and Davidson County Courthouse (1937)
"...according to the directions of the Act, is hereby
constituted, erected and established a town, and shall be
called and known by the name of NashVille, in memory of
the patriotic and brave General Nash."
Laws of North Carolina, 1784
In 1784, these four acres were set aside in the original town plan for a public square and public buildings. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the present courthouse is the fifth to stand on this site and is one of Nashville’s few examples of Art Deco architecture. The offices of the mayor, city council, and county courts are located here.
Historic Black Business District
"...to encourage frugality and systematic savings among
our people, to secure the safe-keeping and proper
investment of such savings, and to set in motion business enterprises."
from the charter of the One-Cent
Savings Bank and Trust Company (1904)
This intersection is the historic center of Nashville’s African American business district. Located here is Citizens Bank, founded in 1904 and the oldest continuously operating minority-owned bank in the U.S. Across the street, the Morris Memorial Building houses the Sunday School Publishing Board of the National Baptist Convention USA, the largest African American religious denomination in the world.
St. Mary’s Church
"The Catholic Church was dismantled yesterday and
prepared for the reception of sick and wounded soldiers.
The churches which shelter these heroic men are doubly
consecrated in the eyes of God."
a Nashville newspaper, December 18, 1864
Completed in 1847, this Greek Revival style church is downtown Nashville’s oldest standing church. In 1864, during the bloody Civil War Battle of Nashville, St. Mary’s was used as a military hospital for wounded soldiers. Samuel A. Strictch, a Nashville-born priest who led services here in the 20th century, was Archbishop of Chicago and later the first American appointed by the Pope to the Roman Curia.
Tennessee State Museum
A 3,600-year-old Egyptian mummy, Native American ceremonial pottery, the top hat worn by Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk’s favorite walking stick, Civil War flags and uniforms, portraits, quilts, and a reproduction working grist mill are among the exhibits in this museum’s extensive collections.
Tennessee State Capitol (1845-1859)
"...there are no examples of any buildings in the
United States, either public or private, in which the
walls are constructed of rubbed or polished stones
on the interior. Indeed, there are very few buildings in
Europe of this handsome and permanent class."
William Strickland, 1849
A National Historic Landmark, Tennessee’s Greek Revival style capitol was the last and perhaps finest work of architect William Strickland, a pupil of Benjamin Latrobe, chief architect of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Strickland died in 1854 and is buried in the building’s northeast corner. Also on Capitol Hill are the tomb of President and Mrs. James K. Polk; an equestrian statue of President Andrew Jackson; and monuments to Civil War hero Sam Davis and World War I hero Alvin York.
War Memorial Building
"The one emotion uppermost in our hearts is the
fact that we are home again-home again with
those we love."
Colonel Luke Lea
The Hermitage Hotel
"I have never met a man or woman who denied
that taxation without representation is tyranny...
This is a government of, for, and by the people, and
only the law denies that women are people."
Anne Dallas Dudley, President, Nashville Equal Suffrage League
In August 1920, Tennessee’s vote to ratify the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution gave women all over the country the right to vote. The Hermitage Hotel served as headquarters for both suffragist and anti-suffragist groups, whose members converged on Nashville to lobby the Tennessee legislature. Built in 1910 in the Beaux Arts style, the Hermitage Hotel is the last of Nashville’s grand hotels.
Ryman Auditorium (1892)
"I will say something to you rich men of Nashville.
If I had your money, I would do something with it
that would redound to my credit in eternity."
Reverend Sam Jones, 1885
The home of the Grand Old Opry from 1943-1974, Ryman Auditorium was named for Captain Tom Ryman, a wealthy riverboat captain who was inspired to sponsor the building’s construction after a religious revival. Before its Opry days, the Ryman’s excellent acoustics and large seating capacity made it the unofficial city auditorium, hosting performances by such legendary greats as Caruso, Sarah Bernhardt, and W.C. Fields.
(Don’t miss: Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, across the alley from the Ryman, where Opry stars relaxed for a beer and a chat with Tootsie between shows.)
Hatch Show Print
"Advertising without posters is like fishing without worms."
Hatch Show Print Slogan
One of America’s oldest surviving show poster printers, Hatch Show Print was founded in 1897 by two brothers. One of the founder’s sons, Will T. Hatch, took over the business in 1920 and transformed the simple posters into an art form. In 1938, he was given the official Grand Ole Opry account. Owned by the Country Music Foundation, Hatch Show Print is now a museum and print shop.