50 Fun Facts About Nashville

Nashville is the capital of which US state, whose most populous city it also is?

Nashville is the capital of Tennessee and, after overtaking Memphis in the 2020 census, its most populous city; it is also the seat of Davidson County.

Nashville is named after Francis Nash, who was what?

Francis Nash was a Revolutionary War general in the Continental Army, mortally wounded at the Battle of Germantown in 1777; North Carolina's legislature named the town for him in 1784.

What was the name of the stockade settlement built by James Robertson and John Donelson's party in 1779?

Fort Nashborough was the log stockade Robertson's settlers raised over the winter of 1779-80 beside the French Lick trading post; a reconstruction stands downtown today.

On which river does Nashville sit?

Nashville sits on the Cumberland River, a tributary of the Ohio; its role as a river port and later rail hub drove early growth and made it a Civil War prize.

Which nickname does Nashville owe to its many colleges and universities?

Nashville earned the nickname Athens of the South for its many colleges, which is why a full-scale Parthenon replica was chosen as the centrepiece of the state's 1897 centennial fair.

Who ad-libbed 'Music City, U.S.A.' on WSM radio in 1950, coining Nashville's nickname?

WSM announcer David Cobb coined 'Music City, U.S.A.' on air in 1950; the phrase stuck as studios set up to record Grand Ole Opry performers and the 'Nashville Sound' followed.

What is the Grand Ole Opry?

It began as the WSM Barn Dance in 1925 and is the longest-running radio broadcast in US history.

Who founded the Grand Ole Opry as the WSM Barn Dance in November 1925?

Hay, the 'Solemn Old Judge', had come from Chicago's National Barn Dance; the show took its current name in 1927 with a joke about following an hour of grand opera.

Which venue, home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974, is the 'Mother Church of Country Music'?

The Ryman Auditorium housed the Opry from 1943 to 1974; when the show moved out, a six-foot circle of the Ryman's oak stage was inlaid into the new Grand Ole Opry House stage.

Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, the Mother Church of Country Music, opened in 1892 under what name?

Union Gospel Tabernacle was built by riverboat and saloon owner Thomas Ryman, who went to heckle a revivalist, was converted instead, and built him a church.

Which president played piano at the opening night of the Grand Ole Opry House in March 1974?

Richard Nixon opened the Grand Ole Opry House on 16 March 1974, playing 'Happy Birthday' on the piano for his wife Pat and trying a yo-yo with Roy Acuff before 4,400 guests.

WSM's call letters come from what motto of the insurance company that founded the station?

WSM stands for 'We Shield Millions', the slogan of National Life & Accident Insurance, which signed the station on in October 1925 partly as a way to sell policies.

Nashville's full-scale Parthenon replica was built for which 1897 event?

The Parthenon was the centrepiece of the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition; built of plaster, wood and brick as a temporary pavilion, it was rebuilt in concrete in the 1920s and houses an art museum in Centennial Park.

How tall is Alan LeQuire's statue of Athena Parthenos inside the Nashville Parthenon?

LeQuire's Athena Parthenos stands 42 feet tall (41 feet 10 inches); completed in 1990, it was gilded in 2002 with more than eight pounds of gold leaf.

Whose fried-chicken breakfast did a girlfriend spike with extra pepper, inventing Nashville hot chicken?

Thornton Prince's girlfriend reportedly loaded his chicken with cayenne as revenge; he liked it so much that by the mid-1930s he and his brothers had opened the BBQ Chicken Shack, ancestor of Prince's Hot Chicken Shack.

Which fast-food chain launched 'Nashville Hot Chicken' nationwide in January 2016?

KFC put Nashville Hot Chicken on menus nationwide in January 2016 after a Pittsburgh test market; the city itself hosts the Music City Hot Chicken Festival, founded in 2007.

The Goo Goo Cluster, made in Nashville since 1912, is credited as the first what?

The Goo Goo Cluster is billed as the first combination candy bar, mixing marshmallow nougat, caramel and peanuts in milk chocolate; maker Standard Candy Company was a long-time Grand Ole Opry sponsor.

Which NFL team moved to Tennessee in 1997 and took the name Titans two years later?

The Houston Oilers spent a season in Memphis and one at Vanderbilt Stadium before Nissan Stadium opened in 1999.

Who caught Frank Wycheck's lateral and ran 75 yards to win the 'Music City Miracle' in January 2000?

Kevin Dyson took Frank Wycheck's lateral and ran 75 yards for the winning touchdown against Buffalo; the play, 'Home Run Throwback', sent the Titans on a run that ended one yard short in Super Bowl XXXIV.

Which team beat the Titans 23-16 in Super Bowl XXXIV at the end of the 1999 season?

The St. Louis Rams beat the Titans 23-16 on 30 January 2000 when Kevin Dyson was tackled at the one-yard line on the final play; it was the franchise's first Super Bowl appearance.

Which team beat the Nashville Predators in their first Stanley Cup Final, in 2017?

The Pittsburgh Penguins beat Nashville in six games, clinching 2-0 in Game 6 at Bridgestone Arena on 11 June 2017, where fans kept up the tradition of throwing catfish onto the ice.

Nashville's MLS team began play in 2020 and moved in 2022 into which stadium at the Fairgrounds?

Geodis Park, a 30,000-seat soccer-specific stadium at the Nashville Fairgrounds, opened in May 2022 as the largest soccer-specific stadium in the United States at the time.

Which president's home, The Hermitage, lies ten miles east of downtown Nashville?

Andrew Jackson bought the Hermitage in 1804 and died there in 1845; he is buried in its garden beside his wife Rachel.

The cedar-lined carriage drive approaching The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson's Nashville mansion, was laid out in what shape?

A guitar shape, designed by Ralph E. W. Earl, made it easier to turn carriages in the narrow space, decades before Nashville was Music City.

Which former US president died in Nashville's 1849-50 cholera epidemic?

James K. Polk died just months after leaving the White House; the epidemic killed hundreds, and another in 1873 killed about a thousand.

In February 1862 Nashville earned what unwanted Civil War distinction?

Nashville was the first Confederate state capital to fall to Union troops, occupied on 25 February 1862 after Fort Donelson surrendered; Hood's attempt to retake it in December 1864 ended in a rout.

Who designed Nashville's state capitol, called it his greatest work, and is entombed in it?

William Strickland, the Greek Revival architect, designed the capitol, built between 1845 and 1859; he died in 1854 before it was finished and was entombed in its north wall.

Nashville's Bicentennial Capitol Mall carillon has how many bells, one for each county in the state?

The carillon has 95 bells, one for each of Tennessee's 95 counties, ringing around the Court of Three Stars; a 200-foot granite map of the state anchors the mall's south end.

Why is Nashville's 617-foot AT&T Building nicknamed the Batman Building?

Its twin spires resemble a caped hero's cowl, so locals call the dark 617-foot tower the Batman Building; it was completed in 1994.

What was Nashville's first skyscraper, completed in 1957?

The Life & Casualty Tower, 30 storeys and 409 feet, opened in 1957 as Nashville's first true skyscraper and was briefly the tallest commercial building in the Southeast.

The Nashville sit-ins of 1960 targeted what kind of segregated facility?

Downtown lunch counters were the target from 13 February to 10 May 1960; students trained by James Lawson were arrested by the score.

Whose home was bombed on 19 April 1960, prompting a silent march to City Hall during the sit-ins?

Attorney Z. Alexander Looby, who led the defence of the arrested students, escaped unhurt when dynamite wrecked his home; thousands then marched in silence to confront Mayor Ben West on the City Hall steps.

Which Nashville a cappella group toured from 1871 to save their university and sang for Queen Victoria?

The Fisk Jubilee Singers' tours of America and Europe raised about $150,000, which built Jubilee Hall, Fisk's first permanent building, completed in 1876.

Vanderbilt University, founded in 1873, was endowed by Cornelius Vanderbilt with how much money?

Cornelius Vanderbilt gave $1 million in 1873, hoping the gift would help heal the wounds of the Civil War; the Commodore never visited the campus that took his name.

Music Row, the heart of Nashville's recording industry, is centred on which two streets?

Music Row runs along 16th and 17th Avenues South (Music Square East and West); it began in 1954 when Owen and Harold Bradley opened a studio there, and a statue of Owen at his piano stands by the roundabout.

Who were the first three inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1961?

Jimmie Rodgers, Fred Rose and Hank Williams formed the first class in 1961; Roy Acuff followed in 1962 as the first living inductee, and the museum's downtown building forms a bass clef seen from the air.

Which future star, then 14, was offered a record deal in 2004 after Scott Borchetta saw her at Nashville's Bluebird Café?

Taylor Swift was signed out of the 90-seat Green Hills café, which also launched Garth Brooks in 1988 when he filled in for a no-show writer.

How did Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, the Nashville honky-tonk, get its name and colour?

Hattie Louise 'Tootsie' Bess bought the bar, then called Mom's, in 1960; she was buried in an orchid gown in an orchid-coloured casket.

Which guitar maker moved its headquarters from Kalamazoo, Michigan, to Nashville in 1984?

Gibson moved its headquarters from Kalamazoo to Nashville in 1984, a decade after opening a Nashville plant in 1974 that builds its Les Paul and SG solid-body electrics.

Nashville and Davidson County merged their governments in which year, forming 'Metro'?

Voters approved consolidation in June 1962 and the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County took effect on 1 April 1963; its 40-member council has 35 district seats and five at-large.

Which Nashville theme park operated next to the Grand Ole Opry House from 1972 to 1997?

Opryland USA ran from 1972 to 1997, when Gaylord closed it to build the Opry Mills mall on the site; the Gaylord Opryland Resort beside it survives.

Who played Rayna Jaymes, the country star at the centre of the TV drama Nashville?

Connie Britton played Rayna Jaymes opposite Hayden Panettiere's Juliette Barnes; the Callie Khouri-created show ran on ABC from 2012 to 2016 and on CMT for two final seasons ending in 2018.

Which Nashville plantation bred thoroughbreds including the leading sire Iroquois?

Belle Meade, at its peak a 5,400-acre farm run by the Harding-Jackson family, stood Iroquois, the first American-bred Epsom Derby winner (1881) and leading US sire of 1892; it is a historic site and winery.

Nashville's population at the 2020 census made it roughly which rank among US cities?

The count was 689,447, fourth in the Southeast, with a metro area of over two million.

Which hospital giant, founded in Nashville in 1968, anchors the city's health-care industry?

HCA Healthcare was founded in Nashville in 1968 by Jack Massey and Drs Thomas Frist Sr and Jr, starting with Park View Hospital; it grew into the largest for-profit hospital operator in the United States.

Which Cumberland River bridge, opened in 1909 as the Sparkman Street Bridge, was renamed in 2014?

The Shelby Street Bridge opened in 1909 as the Sparkman Street Bridge, closed to cars in 1998, reopened to walkers in 2003 and was renamed the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge in 2014 after the journalist's death.

What disaster hit Nashville in May 2010, damaging the Opry House and costing over $2 billion?

The May 2010 'thousand-year flood' followed more than 13 inches of rain in two days; the Cumberland crested near 52 feet, eleven people died in the area and the Opry House closed for five months of repairs.

Nashville's Fairgrounds Speedway hosted NASCAR Cup Series races from 1958 until which year?

NASCAR's top series raced at the Fairgrounds Speedway from 1958 to 1984, with Richard Petty and Darrell Waltrip among the winners; the Cup Series returned to the area at Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon in 2021.

The downtown area covering Lower Broadway, Second Avenue and Printer's Alley is often called what?

The District is the name for the entertainment core of Lower Broadway, Second Avenue and Printer's Alley, honky-tonk heart of the city and, since the 2010s, bachelorette-party central.

Which former mayor, later governor, drove the 1990s building boom that produced the Country Music Hall of Fame, the arena and the NFL stadium?

Phil Bredesen, mayor from 1991 to 1999 and governor from 2003 to 2011, pushed through the arena, the Titans stadium, the new Country Music Hall of Fame and the downtown Public Library.