Behind the Scenes Tour: The Parthenon

Join us at the Parthenon for a morning of architecture, suffrage, and Tennessee history. We will begin with a brief Centennial Park history tour where you will hear stories of the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition and find specific places in the park to help you picture the past. This tour features archival photographs and images of artifacts from the Exposition. We will move to an in-depth architecture tour of the Parthenon exterior, learning about the original construction of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece, including its innovative architectural techniques and features, as well as the 1897 Nashville Parthenon and the rebuild from 1921-1931. The tour explores 2,500 years of architectural history as the structure transitioned from Greek temple to Christian church to Ottoman mosque. Finally, we will observe the Women’s Suffrage statue by Alan LeQuire and hear about its journey to the Centennial Park, originally a staging ground for such rallies.