<strong><p align="center">From Centennial City to Centennial Park</p></strong>

Nearly two million people visited the Tennessee Centennial Exposition over the course of 6 months. Organizers hoped to reach visitor attendance comparable to the 27 million who attended the Chicago World’s Fair. Though falling short, the event was still considered a success. Many of the buildings were dismantled after the exposition, but local leaders sought to preserve the site and its crown jewel, the Parthenon.

After the exposition in 1897, N.C. Collier, the founder of the Rutherford County Fair Association, wrote to J.W. Thomas and insisted that "Nashville must have a public park out of the Centennial Grounds." The area was officially designated as Centennial Park in 1903. Small monuments were built to honor the exposition’s leaders, including J.W. Thomas and E.C. Lewis.

<p align="right"><strong>_{<a href=https://tsla.tnsosfiles.com/digital/teva/transcripts/52704.pdf>Click Here</a href> to read the full transcription.}</strong></p>

Centennial Park also served as a gathering place for Tennessee suffragists leading up to the ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920. The deteriorating parts of the Parthenon were rebuilt with more permanent materials by the 1920s. This ensured it would remain a lasting symbol of the exposition in Nashville, “the Athens of the South.” Originally built for the “grand show” of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition, Centennial Park and the Parthenon have now become recognizable landmarks for Tennesseans across the state.

This exhibit includes items from the library collection and 17 archival collections. In addition to the Exposition's institutional archive housed at the Library & Archives, personal papers and photographs are essential to documenting the visitor experience of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. Many of the photos used in this exhibit can be found online in the Tennessee Virtual Archive. We also invite you to explore these materials and more in person at the Library & Archives.