Public Square

The courthouse that you see here on the Public Square houses the government of Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County, the nation’s first consolidated city and county government. Created by a referendum in 1962, it went into effect in April 1963.

This is the county’s fifth courthouse and these five-acres are the original location of the first city plan by Thomas Mulloy in 1784. From the settlement’s earliest days, this was the heart of the city—where people gathered and sold merchandise, livestock, and even enslaved persons. There were also many businesses surrounding the square. Check out the row of granite markers on the south side of the square to see images of early advertisements and news articles.

When the Marquis de Lafayette, a hero of the American Revolution, visited Nashville in 1825, Andrew Jackson led a parade here to the square where thousands of local citizens cheered to see him. Rallies and large crowds also gathered here. For example, when Amos Dresser, an anti-slavery activist from Ohio, was publicly flogged here. He was then ordered to leave the city and never return. After the fall of Fort Donelson during the Civil War, the Union Army arrivedhere by boat in February 1862 and marched by the courthouse to the state capitol where the Confederate flag was replaced by the American flag. Crowds also gathered here in May 1877 to watch Professor Samuel A. King and Dr. A. O. Ford launch a hot air balloon. They piloted it eighty miles east where it landed at Sparta on the Highland Rim.

In more modern history, college students marched to this building in 1960 as part of the Nashville Sit-Ins movement. Mayor West came out on the steps of the courthouse to talk with them and agreed that segregation was not fair or right. With the completion of the Capitol Hill Redevelopment project, this area became a parking lot in 1976. In 2008, this space once again became a park after the completion of an underground parking garage. Stand in the middle of the square and note the two observation towers to the east, now look west to see the War Memorial Auditorium three block away. For more on our Public Square take our Civic and Public Spaces, Downtown Civil Rights Sit-Ins, Perimeter Architecture, and Downtown Public Art and Murals tours on Nashville Sites!

Once you have reached the other side of the Nashville Public Square, cross the street and turn RIGHT onto Third Avenue North. Walking down the left side of Third Avenue, use the next crosswalk to cross over Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. You will see a Nashville Historical Foundation marker for Western Harmony, your next stop.