Description

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The Tennessee Bicentennial Capitol Mall was dedicated on Statehood Day, June 1, 1996, and over the past twenty-five years it has matured and hosted a wide variety of celebrations, concerts, and educational events. Located directly north of the Tennessee State Capitol, the 19-acre urban setting is part of Tennessee’s state park system, and it is one of Nashville’s most visited public spaces and has received national and international recognition.

Containing additional elements and enhancements added during the past quarter-century, the park has been joined by the completion of two adjacent institutions:
the new Tennessee State Museum and the new Tennessee State Library and Archives. These complementary facilities, completed respectively in 2018 and 2021, and suggestions for the Mall and its surroundings in the next decades complete the contents of the book.

In this comprehensive book, lead designer Kem Hinton first shares the story of the State Capitol, the National Landmark designed in 1845 by architect William Strickland and regarded as the most important single building in Tennessee. He next recalls the early efforts to establish a new public park in an underappreciated part of Nashville, a commemorative civic gift that would provide an unobstructed vista of the historic statehouse. This is followed by an explanation of the design process to create within this exterior space an informative outdoor museum about the Volunteer State.

The publication contains illustrations, maps, drawings, and photographs documenting the Tennessee State Capitol, the evolution of Capitol Hill and its surrounding properties, the lackluster development of land north of the statehouse, and the design and construction of the $59-million urban park.

It further contains professional images of the Bicentennial Mall when it was first dedicated as well as those taken up to the present day by many of the state’s most talented photographers, including John Guider, Robin Hood, Slick Lawson, Dean Dixon, John Schweikert, and Bob Schatz.


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Now a comprehensive cultural and educational destination, the Bicentennial Mall and its adjacent facilities combine to delight citizens and visitors, reinforcing the original theme of the park to present “the land, the people, and the music of Tennessee.” This book therefore serves as a valuable, official document of the bicentennial gift—and its first quarter-century—that was created and bestowed by the government of the Volunteer State to its citizens and their guests for a once-in-a-century celebration.