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Centennial Park (Nashville)

Centennial Park is a large urban park located approximately two miles (three km) west of downtown Nashville, Tennessee, United States, across West End Avenue (U.S. Highway 70S) from the campus of Vanderbilt University. The 21st-century headquarters campus of the Hospital Corporation of America was developed adjacent to the park.

Centennial 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 the Tennessee 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 the 1920s in steel and concrete.

Popular culture[edit]

American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift mentioned Centennial Park twice in her song "Invisible String" from her eighth studio album Folklore. Swift lived in Nashville during the beginning of her music career.[22] When she returned in 2023 for The Eras Tour, a bench was put in the park to honor her time in the city.


David Allen Coe also mentions Centennial Park in his song "Whips and Things."

Johnson, Leland R. (1986). The Parks of Nashville: A History of the Board of Parks and Recreation. Nashville: Metropolitan Nashville Board of Parks and Recreation.

Tennessee Virtual Archive, Tennessee State Library and Archives.

Tennessee Centennial Exposition

Tennessee State Library and Archives.

Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition (1879) Collection, 1895-1900