The story of how a replica of the Parthenon came to reside in Centennial Park is well known to Nashvillians, both natives and transplants alike. Temporarily erected to celebrate Tennessee's Centennial in 1897, in what was then West Side Park, the people of Nashville fell in love with the structure. When the Tennessee Centennial Exposition ended in October of that year, after 1.8 million guests passed through its gates, public outcry demanded the temporary Parthenon remain -- and it did -- until a permanent version could be built. It's a good story, made even better when illustrated by photographs of the original Parthenon and its many visitors during the Centennial Exposition. Nashville Public Television tells that story, and many more, in Nashville: The 20th Century in Photographs, Volume 1.
Peppered with interviews from a variety of Nashville historians and photographs from the archives of the Tennessean, the Tennessee State Library Archives, the Library of Congress and more, Volume 1 traces what Nashville looked like from 1900 to the beginning of World War II. From the opening of Union Station to the gathering of shoppers at the Public Square near the courthouse; from the stylish dress of Nashville's citizens to the opening of the Arcade; and from the importance of the electric street car in the city to the influx of industry during World War I, the documentary explores the swiftly changing face of the city during the first four decades of the century.
