Downtown Nashville is a compact and pleasant place to wander. Towering office buildings and modern halls dominate but manage not to overwhelm the city's historic structures and streets.
April 10, 2006 (Press Release) --
Downtown Nashville is a compact and pleasant place to wander. Towering office buildings and modern halls dominate but manage not to overwhelm the city's historic structures and streets (which are few but renovated and well maintained). At downtown's western end, the 1845 Greek Revival State Capitol remains the area's principal landmark. Architect William Strickland is buried in its northeast corner, and the tomb of President and Mrs James K Polk is outside on Capitol Hill. Steep stairs on its northern side lead down to a farmers market and the Tennessee Bicentennial Mall at downtown's back door.
Facing Charlotte Ave, the Capitol looks out over government buildings surrounding the Legislative Plaza, where cherry trees explode with white blossoms in early spring. The block-long Performing Arts Center downhill to the east houses the Tennessee State Museum. The underground museum spills out onto Union St, off which you'll find the city's elite banks and hotels, most notably the 1910 Hermitage Hotel, which was headquarters for both the advocates and opponents of women's suffrage on the eve of Tennessee's ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920.
Union St leads east to 1st Ave N and the western end of Riverfront Park on the Cumberland River. The park runs between the bridges at Woodland St and Shelby Ave, providing a landscaped promenade thick with shade trees and busy with walkers and horse-drawn carriages. In the park, just south of Davis Blvd, a stockade surrounds Fort Nashborough, a 1930s replica of the city's original outpost. Across the river just north of Shelby Ave, construction continues on a new football stadium to house the relocating Houston Oilers.
The historic 2nd Ave N business area was the center of the cotton trade in the 1870s and '80s, when most of the Victorian warehouses were built (note the cast-iron and masonry facades). Today, it's the heart of what's called The District, where modern interiors are filled with shops, restaurants, underground saloons and nightclubs, including the Wildhorse Saloon of Nashville Network TV fame. Two blocks south on Commerce St, Printers Alley is a narrow cobblestone lane that has been known for its nightlife since the 1940s. The Bourbon Street Blues & Boogie Bar anchors this notably non-countrified enclave of nightspots and restaurants.
A scenic, seedy cowboy ghetto along 'Lower Broad' between 4th and 5th Aves behind the Ryman Auditorium has country bars, adult bookstores and BBQ joints. Tootsie's Wild Orchid Lounge on the north side is the best known of the dives; snakeskin boots and chewing tobacco are available between musical acts next door at Robert's Western World, home of alternative country musicians BR5-49.
Source: http://www.yahoo.com
Facing Charlotte Ave, the Capitol looks out over government buildings surrounding the Legislative Plaza, where cherry trees explode with white blossoms in early spring. The block-long Performing Arts Center downhill to the east houses the Tennessee State Museum. The underground museum spills out onto Union St, off which you'll find the city's elite banks and hotels, most notably the 1910 Hermitage Hotel, which was headquarters for both the advocates and opponents of women's suffrage on the eve of Tennessee's ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920.
Union St leads east to 1st Ave N and the western end of Riverfront Park on the Cumberland River. The park runs between the bridges at Woodland St and Shelby Ave, providing a landscaped promenade thick with shade trees and busy with walkers and horse-drawn carriages. In the park, just south of Davis Blvd, a stockade surrounds Fort Nashborough, a 1930s replica of the city's original outpost. Across the river just north of Shelby Ave, construction continues on a new football stadium to house the relocating Houston Oilers.
The historic 2nd Ave N business area was the center of the cotton trade in the 1870s and '80s, when most of the Victorian warehouses were built (note the cast-iron and masonry facades). Today, it's the heart of what's called The District, where modern interiors are filled with shops, restaurants, underground saloons and nightclubs, including the Wildhorse Saloon of Nashville Network TV fame. Two blocks south on Commerce St, Printers Alley is a narrow cobblestone lane that has been known for its nightlife since the 1940s. The Bourbon Street Blues & Boogie Bar anchors this notably non-countrified enclave of nightspots and restaurants.
A scenic, seedy cowboy ghetto along 'Lower Broad' between 4th and 5th Aves behind the Ryman Auditorium has country bars, adult bookstores and BBQ joints. Tootsie's Wild Orchid Lounge on the north side is the best known of the dives; snakeskin boots and chewing tobacco are available between musical acts next door at Robert's Western World, home of alternative country musicians BR5-49.
Source: http://www.yahoo.com
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