50 Fun Facts About Nashville

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

It is also the state's most populous city and the seat of Davidson County, on the Cumberland River.

Nashville is named after Francis Nash, who was what?

The city was chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1784, when Tennessee was still part of that state.

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

The site had been a French trading post called French Lick since 1714; a reconstruction of the fort stands downtown today.

On which river does Nashville sit?

Its position as a river port, and later a rail hub, drove early growth and made it a prize in the Civil War.

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

The nickname is why a full-scale Parthenon was chosen as the centrepiece of the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition.

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

By then recording studios were setting up to record Grand Ole Opry performers, and the 'Nashville Sound' followed in the mid-1950s.

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 Opry still returns there for winter residencies; a six-foot circle of its stage oak was inlaid into the new Opry House stage in 1974.

The Mother Church of Country Music opened in 1892 under what name?

Riverboat and saloon owner Thomas Ryman went to heckle a revivalist, was converted instead, and built the tabernacle for him.

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

The 4,000-seat house was built nine miles east of downtown on land bought from a sausage maker, next to what became Opryland USA.

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

National Life & Accident Insurance signed the station on in October 1925 as a way to sell policies.

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

Built of plaster, wood and brick, it was never meant to be permanent; it now serves as an art museum in Centennial Park.

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

Completed in 1990 and gilded in 2002 with more than eight pounds of gold leaf, it is the tallest indoor sculpture in the Western world.

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

He liked it so much that by the mid-1930s he and his brothers had opened the BBQ Chicken Shack; the family's Prince's Hot Chicken Shack still runs today.

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

Nashville has since branded itself 'The Hot Chicken Capital' and hosts a Music City Hot Chicken Festival.

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

It combines marshmallow nougat, caramel and peanuts in milk chocolate; the Standard Candy Company was a long-time Opry sponsor.

Which NFL team relocated from Texas in 1997 and became the Titans two years later?

They 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?

The play, called '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?

It remains the franchise's only Super Bowl appearance; the city will host Super Bowl LXIV in 2030.

The Nashville Predators reached their first Stanley Cup Final in 2017. Who beat them?

During that run Keith Urban was seen on the Jumbotron hoisting a huge catfish, a Preds fan tradition, at Bridgestone Arena.

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

The soccer-specific ground will host nine matches of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

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

He owned it from 1804 until his death there in 1845 and is buried in the garden beside his wife Rachel.

The carriage drive approaching The Hermitage mansion was laid out in what unusual shape?

Designed by Ralph E. W. Earl, the cedar-lined loop 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?

He had left office only months earlier; the epidemic killed hundreds, and another in 1873 killed about a thousand.

In February 1862 Nashville earned what unwanted Civil War distinction?

It followed the loss of Fort Donelson; the Confederate attempt to retake the city in December 1864 ended in a decisive Union victory.

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

Built between 1845 and 1859, it is one of only 11 state capitols without a dome and one of the oldest still in use.

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

The bells stand in 50 columns around the Court of Three Stars; a 200-foot granite map of the state anchors the mall's south end.

Locals give the AT&T Building at 333 Commerce Street a superhero nickname because of what?

At 617 feet and 33 storeys, completed in 1994, it is the tallest building in Tennessee.

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

After the Batman Building in 1994 the skyline barely changed until the mid-2000s.

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

Students trained by James Lawson in nonviolence were arrested by the score; the campaign ran from 13 February to 10 May 1960.

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

The attorney had led the 13-lawyer defence team for the arrested students; he escaped unhurt.

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

Their European tours raised about $150,000, which built Jubilee Hall, Fisk's first permanent building.

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

The shipping magnate hoped the gift would help heal the wounds of the Civil War; he never asked for the school to be named after him.

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

The district began in 1954; a statue of producer Owen Bradley at his piano stands by the Music Row roundabout.

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

Membership is the genre's highest honour; the museum's downtown building forms a giant bass clef when seen from the air.

Which future star, aged 14, got a record deal after Scott Borchetta saw her at the Bluebird Café?

The 90-seat Green Hills café 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 famous instrument maker has been headquartered in Nashville since 1984?

Since the 1960s Nashville has been America's second-largest music production centre after New York.

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

The 40-member Metropolitan Council has 35 district seats and five at-large; six small municipalities such as Belle Meade survive inside it.

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

It was demolished for the Opry Mills mall; the Gaylord Opryland Resort survives.

Which 2012-18 drama starred Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere as rival country singers?

ABC cancelled it after four seasons and CMT picked it up for two more; Callie Khouri of Thelma & Louise created it.

Which Nashville plantation bred thoroughbreds including the leading sire Iroquois?

The 5,400-acre farm was run by five generations of the Harding-Jackson family and is now 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.

A short-lived smokeless gunpowder plant in 1918 gave Nashville which nickname?

It sits oddly beside Music City, Athens of the South and the Hot Chicken Capital.

What is Nashville's highest point, at 1,163 feet above sea level?

The lowest point is 385 feet at the Cumberland River; the city sits at the start of the hilly Highland Rim.

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

Eleven people died in the area; the Cumberland, Harpeth and Mill Creek all burst their banks.

Nashville's Fairgrounds Speedway holds what distinction among US racetracks?

It hosted NASCAR Cup races from 1958 to 1984 and now hosts the ARCA Music City 150.

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

It is the 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?

His urban-renewal push also delivered the downtown Public Library.