Nashville History

In 1925, the WSM Barn Dance debuted live in Nashville, broadcast from the fifth floor radio station studio of the National Life & Accident Insurance Company. Hosted by George "Judge" Hay, the show regularly featured bands like the Possum Hunters and the Gully Jumpers, and each show would close with what Hay called the "red hot fiddle playing" of the Fruit Jar Drinkers. This show went on to become the Grand Ole Opry, an iconic country music enterprise that would earn Nashville the title of "Music City U.S.A."

In 1779, James Robertson and John Donelson led around 200 settlers, some on horseback and some on foot, to the banks of the Cumberland River. There, they constructed Fort Nashborough, a log stockade named for Revolutionary War hero Francis Nash. At the time, the territory was a part of North Carolina, so it was the North Carolina legislature that incorporated the town in 1784 and renamed it Nashville. In 1796, North Carolina ceded a large portion of its land to the federal government, which became the state of Tennessee. Nashville received its city charter in 1806 and was named the permanent capital in 1843. During the Civil War, Nashville became the first state capital to fall to Union troops in March of 1862.

The city of Nashville rebounded fairly quickly from the devastation of the Civil War. In 1897, the city hosted the Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition, for which a replica of the Parthenon in Athens was built. This edifice, along with the 17 colleges and universities located in Nashville, have earned the city its other nickname, "Athens of the South." Nashville's frontier heritage is evident in numerous historical structures, from the reconstructed Fort Nashborough to the meticulously maintained Hermitage (Andrew Jackson's plantation home). The Tennessee State Museum offers exhibits ranging from the pre-colonial Nashville Basin to the Reconstruction.

And, of course, there's always the country music. Nashville is home to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and plays host every June to the CMA Music Festival (formerly known as the Fan Fair). Ryman Auditorium, known as the "Mother Church of Country Music" was renovated in the 1990s and now includes a museum, and of course the Grand Ole Opry offers museums of its own in Opry Mills. Country music connoisseurs also won't want to miss the Ernest Tubb Record Shop, once owned and run by the Texas Troubadour himself.