2009 Saturday, September 26, Smithsonian Free Day Nashville, Tennessee
Becky drove to my house, and I went to Nashville, TN, through Lawrenceburg and Columbia, up Interstate 65.
We stopped at McDonald's in Columbia, TN, to use the bathroom.
In downtown Nashville, I made a wrong turn and took a right off Interstate 65 instead of going left, which took me out of town,n so I had to turn around and go back into the downtown area.
Our first stop was the Parthenon in Nashville. The Parthenon is a full-scale replica of the original Parthenon in Athens. It was built in 1897 as part of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition.
The Entry Cost was $5.50 each. The Parthenon had two galleries, the east and west.
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| The Parthenon |
The Parthenon, Lake Watauga, and rose arbor are all Centennial Park features.
The Parthenon stands proudly as the centerpiece of Centennial Park, Nashville's premier urban park. The recreation of the 42-foot statue of Athena is the focus of the Parthenon, just as it was in ancient Greece. The building and the Athena statue are both full-scale replicas of the Athenian originals.
The Parthenon also serves as Nashville's art museum. The focus of the Parthenon's permanent collection is a group of 63 paintings by 19th- and 20th-century American artists, donated by James M. Cowan. Additional gallery spaces serve as venues for a variety of temporary shows and exhibits.
The address is 2600 West End Avenue, Nashville, TN 37203.
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| Athena
The Parthenon's permanent collection focuses on a group of 63 paintings by 19th- and 20th-century American artists, donated by James M. Cowan.
Additional gallery spaces serve as venues for a variety of temporary shows and exhibits.
The address is 2600 West End Avenue, Nashville, TN 37203.
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| Tennessee State Capitol |
Next, we rode to Tennessee's State Capitol, where a walk-a-thon was going on.
I had to drive around several blocks before I found a park. My sister and I walked to the capitol, I took many pictures.
From the capital build, we walked to the Tennessee State Museum.
The address is 505 Dederick Street, Nashville, TN 37243. There was no charge to visit the Museum. A brochure about the Museum was given. The Museum's upper level houses the earliest known migration of prehistoric people to Tennessee during the Paleolithic period.
Artifacts from the Paleolithic, Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods are on exhibit. The Museum displays bones from a mastodon that roamed Tennessee 10,000 years ago.
The room gradually slopes down into the Mezzanine, life in Tennessee, before the Civil War, the antebellum period. This was life on the frontier and the state transforming into an urban society. A painting and a 3,500-year-old Egyptian mummy were brought to Tennessee in 1859.
My sister said I am so hungry that I can eat that mummy. I turned toward the paintings on the wall, and my sister walked down to the lower level.
I stopped by the curator's desk on the second level to ask about taking pictures of the hanging portraits.
The woman at the desk said she overheard my sister say she was hungry enough to eat their mummy. We both laughed.
The lower level featured exhibits on the Civil War and Reconstruction, with displays of firearms, quilts, silver, battle flags, uniforms, a Victorian painting gallery, and objects from the Tennessee Centennial Exposition of 1897.
On the lower level, they were showing a film and serving popcorn and a drink. My sister said she wanted real food, so we hurried to the Museum and used her lunch.
We stopped at Cocina Mexican Grill & Fresh Deli, located at
Union Station's address is 501-A Union Street, just a few streets down from the Museum. It was a slow day, and the worker or owner came over and talked to us. I had cheese dip, and it was perfect.
We left the Cocina Mexican Grill and walked down Fifth Street.
We stopped so I could take a picture of the Ryman auditorium and some historic markers along the way. We walked over to Broadway Street, where I took photos of a guitar with images of several entertainers, and nearby was an Elvis statue.
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| Prehistoric people in Tennessee |
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| The mummy, my sister said, was hungry enough to eat! |
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| Civil War |
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| Elvis Presley Statue located on Broadway Street |
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| Honky Tonk Guitar Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Conway Twitty, Hank Williams Jr, George Jones, Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, Charlie Pride, Merle Haggard |
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| First Center for Visual Arts
Our next stop was the Frist Center for Visual Arts. It originally housed Nashville's main Post Office.
The first building became an art museum in 2001.
Today, the Frist Center is one of the city's most innovative museums, centered on continually changing exhibits rather than permanent collections.
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Next, we stopped at the Frist Center for Visual Arts. Originally housing Nashville's main post office, the historic Frist building became an art museum in 2001. Today, the Frist Center is one of the city's most innovative museums, centered on continually changing exhibits rather than permanent collections.
It did not take us long to go to the Museum, but my sister did not care much for the art. She said that there were too many naked statues and pictures. We talked to the curator at the desk and told her we had walked all the way from the Capitol building and were not sure which street to take back.
She said not to go back the way you had come because it is all uphill.
The curator said for us to go next door to Union Station.
Union Station Hotel is located at 1001 Broadway, Nashville, TN.
Union Station - A Wyndham Historic Hotel masterfully restored Nashville lodging — built within a 100-year-old railroad station.
I took pictures both inside and outside.
I was a beautifully restored hotel building that was once a train depot.
We walked back to the car and were going to visit the Hermitage, but we got turned around.
It had been a long day, and we had walked a mile, so I decided to go home.
We stopped in Lawrenceburg to take some pictures of the downtown area and historic markers.
It had been a beautiful day for sightseeing, but it was getting late, and we were both tired from all that walking.
We were home by 5:50 P.M.
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| Union Station Train Depot is now the Wyndham Hotel.
Union Station Hotel is located at 1001 Broadway, Nashville, TN.
Union Station - A Wyndham Historic Hotel masterfully restored Nashville lodging — built within a 100-year-old railroad station.
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