Centennial Park Master Plan

[nashvillwill]

I'm not sure how significant this is, but there was chain link fence around the corner of Centennial Park today. From along West End, the main entrance drive, the center drive and back down by McDonalds. I've often seen that plastic orange fence around the same spot when preparing for a stage, but this was chain link and looked a little more permemant.

From my interpretation of the master plan phase 1, it was to begin on the opposite corner, but I could be wrong.

Anyone have any info?

Edited July 31, 2014 by nashvillwill

[MLBrumby]

Last fall, I heard that Musicians Corner would be building a permanent place at the southeastern corner of the park, close to West End and 25th.  That's merely a guess. 

[gannman]

The first phase is also supposed to restore the natural spring that was previously rerouted underground. This is close to the West End Ave entrance.

[Hey_Hey]

I was at the park today. The front section where the spring is has been fenced off. It looked as if there was going to be work happening soon.

[MidTenn1]

The first phase (fenced off Southern section next to West End) will be awesome...

 

 

More details at http://www.conservancyonline.com/dl/44

[fieldmarshaldj]

^I wish they'd reconstruct some of the structures from the 1897 Exposition, the Egyptian Pyramid for one.

Edited August 5, 2014 by fieldmarshaldj

[gannman]

The Tennessean reported on the first phase of the master plan.

 

http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2014/08/08/centennial-parks-cockrill-spring-sees-light-day/13803141/

[markhollin]

$22 million upgrade coming to Centennial Park.  The highlights of the renovation include:

• The soil and drainage system for the Great Lawn will be re-engineered in order to reduce wear and tear from the park's 2 million annual visitors. Rain during past large events has "trashed" the lawn in the past, according Metro Parks assistant director Tim Netsch.
• The Parthenon will be re-lit in an attempt to create a nightly ritual of showcasing the monument each evening at dusk. Renderings showed the building lit in multiple colors.
• The two main pathways alongside the Great Lawn will be redone, with about 50 trees added alongside each pathway.
• The edges of Lake Watauga will be updated with "native landscaping" and a new trail system. For this part of the project to move forward, more funds would most likely have to be raised, Netsch said.

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2016/09/09/mayor-reveals-22-million-renovation-of-centennial.html

http://www.nashvillepost.com/business/development/article/20833203/hca-commits-5m-to-next-phase-of-centennial-park-work#&gid=1&pid=4

http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2016/09/09/centennial-park-announces-22m-phase-two-renovation/90090066/

[japan]

Very nice.

[BnaBreaker]

Great to see the city really embracing Centennial Park.  Not many cities of Nashville's size can really boast about having a true grand central park like this.  

[Neigeville2]

The only thing that worries me about this is the "updating" of the magnificent vegetation around Lake Watauga, especially if it endangers the two catalpas at the far end, one of which is literally my favorite tree in the world, evil cousin to the benign mosaic dragon in Fannie Mae Dees Park.  That dragon loves children; I suspect this dragon secretly eats them.

[Baronakim]

When considering  urban space, sometimes in our passion for tall projects, sometimes we forget to consider other parts of the city that are equally  important, the urban green spaces.  Nashville has a fairly robust parks program and its crown jewel is Centennial Park.  As the forum has very kindly appreciated my recent summary of the last seven decades of Nashville, I thought I would give our members, especially the new ones, some  history of the park and its most famous structure , the Parthenon.

--from the book, The Parks of Nashville:  A History of the Board of Parks and Recreation by Leland R. Johnson

This park was the site of the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition.  It previously had been a farm purchased in 1783 by John Cockrill, the brother-in-law to James Robertson, then became the state fairgrounds after the Civil War and from 1884 to 1895 became a racetrack known as West Side Park.  Construction of the buildings for the 1897 Centennial began in 1895 with the laying of the cornerstone for the Parthenon replica on October 8, and a large number of elaborate structures were built to serve the 1.8 million visitors to the Exposition from the President down. When the Exposition closed on October 30, 1897, its leadership called for preservation of the Parthenon replica and the Centennial grounds as a public park, initiating the city park movement in Nashville.

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, as it deteriorated, it was proposed for demolition but residents favored keeping it. Finally, in the 1920s the city and park officials agreed to replace the temporary plaster building with a permanent steel and concrete replica.From 1954 to 1967, the Parthenon was the backdrop for an enormous nativity scene sponsored by Harveys department store. (This has since gone out of business.) The scene was approximately 280 feet (85 m) long, 75 feet (23 m) deep and was flooded with colorful lights.   In 1990, a statue of Pallas Athena, designed by Nashville sculptor Alan LeQuire, was added to the art gallery inside the Parthenon.

The first several photos are of the 1897 Centennial Exhibition.  The main entrance was on West End Avenue as it still is today.  The map shows the extensive grounds and many buildings of lath and plaster.  The lake, Lake Wataga,  is still in existence and many of the rides at the Exhibition were by boat and gondolas.  Electric lighting was still fairly inovative and many of the buildings were spectacularly illuminated.  It is too bad some of the more architecturally interesting ones like the Venetian bridge were not recreated in permanent materials.  Still, the Parthenon, which was the most popular and stately is with us today.

The aerial view is from the mid 1940s and shows the extensive formal gardens in front of the Parthenon, which were destroyed to create the wide lawn in the early 1950s.  The four photos of the nativity scene show just how spectacular it was against the Parthenon front.  I recall, every year the whole family packed into my grandfather's big Desoto sedan and we would drive across town from Inglewood to join the thousands of vehicles circling the Parthenon to see the display.   The photos all show the figures were lit in white, but they actually cycled through a new colors...red, blue, green and gold every few minutes.   This annual pilgrimage was as important a part of Christmas as the parade, which was then held on Church Street.   For many years, the Parthenon housed plaster replicas of the Elgin marbles and had an art museum in the lower level, but to Nashvillians, the outside was the true face of the Athens of the South, as Nashville is alternately known.   The art museum is still open and has a very good collection. worth visiting.  For many years donations accumulated to have a central figure of the Goddess Athena sculpted.  This was accomplished with the splendid statue you see today, which incidentally at the time was the largest indoor figural sculpture in the world.  I don't know if that is still the case but it is magnificent.  It was not installed without significant controversy from several conservative fundamentalist congregations.  I could scarcely contain my laughter when one local pastor was frothing at the mouth about a the wickedness of a pagan  idol in a public park, especially his statement that the Parthenon was "no place for a statue of Athena".  Excuse me?  Nuts.   

Bu the early 2000s, even the substantive concrete structure was showing its age.  A great deal of the sculptures in the pediments had crumbled and fallen off.   A massive restoration was accomplished with new lighting which restored the Parthenon to magnificence.  But the rest of the park was also in need of renewal, so new master plans were developed which have only partially been accomplished to this day.  The streets have been  reworked to be more pedestrian friendly, both in unifying the main lawn and making the perimeter around Lake Wataga a pedestrian walk.   Cockrill Spring was reopened and the southwest corner of the park rebuilt as it now stand.  Also the crumbling wall at the streetsides was replaced.   The second phase entails rework of the southeast corner, replacing the old ESa designed 1960s bandshell and restoring more of the waterways.  Two remnants , the seashell from the the 1897 Exhibition and the warship bow with the bronze fittings of the heavy cruiser USS Tennessee remain and will restored in this phase.    Another future improvement is the proposal to  create a tunnel over 31st to reconnect the section of Centennial Park on the hill to the northwest.  I eagerly await these new phases, but I have  heard little concerning them in the past several years.  If anyone knows  of any work on the park forthcoming soon, please bring us all up to date.   

If y'all like this kind of historical summary, I will probably do  more, as I consider the historical fabric of Nashville as important as the many new structures rising on our skyline.

Addendum:  Since I retired July 1, I had not gone by the park so I failed to notice that the second phase began in August and will be under construction for about a year.  I also did not see that the master Plan has been revised and this Phase Two is somewhat different now.  The southeast corner by the funeral home is not in this phase.  Only the road entrance from West End is being updated and the bandshell is not being demolished at this time.  There are big changes to the Great Lawn access with broad promenades being constructed on either side and a great deal of work is to be done on finishing the pedestrian walk around the lake.The Phase Two work is about thirty million dollars.

 

Edited November 14, 2019 by Baronakim
added more photos