FREE MUSEUMS, SIGHTSEEING, AND ENTERTAINMENT IN NASHVILLE • , Centennial Park (near Vanderbilt). The Parthenon now houses the Nashville Art Museum. There is still no admission to the Parthenon itself; you’re free to wander around the outside pillared area. Senior admission to the museum is $4.00. Museum Open: Tuesday to Saturday, 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM; Sunday, 12:30 PM to 4:30 PM Museum Closed: Monday. • VANDERBILT FINE ARTS GALLERY, Cohen Building, Peabody Campus, (next to what was our girls’ dorm in 1966); listed first just because it is at Vanderbilt/Peabody. Open: Monday to Friday, 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM; Saturday & Sunday, 1:00 to 5:00 PM Description: A standard college art museum with a small but solid permanent collection, plus a separate area for special exhibits, which change frequently. • STATE MUSEUM, 1000 Rosa L. Parks Blvd, Nashville, TN 37208. Highly recommended. This is an extremely well presented introduction to Tennessee history. Open: Tuesday to Saturday: 10 AM to 5 PM; Sunday: 1 to 5 PM; closed Mondays. Description: The museum presents a complete , organized as: o First Tennesseans o Frontier o Age of Jackson o Antebellum o Civil War and Reconstruction o The New South Important: This museum just opened in its new location on October 4. We made a survey of the museum in its original location, but can’t give any tips on parking etc. For information, visit their website: tnmuseum.org. • BICENTENNIAL CAPITOL MALL STATE PARK, 600 James Robertson Parkway, Nashville, Tennessee 37243 (on the other side of the capitol building from the State History Museum) Park Hours: 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM daily Visitor Center Hours: 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM, Monday through Friday Description: A 19-acre park adjacent to the capitol building, highlighting Tennessee’s history, including: o 200-foot granite map of the state o World War II Memorial o 95-Bell Carillon o Pathway of History o Rivers of Tennessee Fountains. o Walkway of Counties (native plant species from different regions of the state) • TENNESSEE AGRICULTURAL MUSEUM, Ellington Agricultural Center, 440 Hogan Road, Nashville, Tennessee 37220 Open: Monday to Friday: 9 AM to 4 PM; closed Saturday and Sunday Note: Museum is closed for renovation through mid-May 2018, so we won’t be able to check it on our survey trip. Description: The museum is housed in a restored plantation barn, housing an extensive collection of home and farm equipment from the 19th and 20th centuries. The grounds also house log cabins, a farm house, a one-room school, gardens, and nature trails. • MUSIC CITY WALK OF FAME, 121 4th Ave S, Nashville, TN 37201 (on lawn of Downtown Hilton, across from Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum). A series of stars embedded in the street, similar to the Hollywood Stars Walk of Fame. • , 170 1st Ave N, Nashville, TN 37201 (on the river). Open: Daily, 9 AM to 4 PM for self-guided tours. Description: An outdoor museum consisting of the remaining buildings from the fort where Nashville was founded. • COOTER’S PLACE MUSEUM, 2613 McGavock Pike, Nashville, TN 37214 Open: Sunday to Thursday, 8:30 AM to 8 PM, or later; Friday & Saturday 8:30 AM to 9 PM, or later. Description: A museum dedicated to the Dukes of Hazzard (‘nuff said?). Main virtue seems to be that it’s open when other museums are closed. Who knows? Could be a hoot. • FORT NEGLY, 1100 Blvd., Nashville Open: Tuesday to Friday, Noon to 4:00 PM; Saturday, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and by appointment (might mean we could bring a group in outside these hours). Description: The largest inland stone fortification built during the Civil War. From the photos on the website, it appears that very little of the original fort remains, but the visitor center provides a history of the fort, and of during “the era of sectional conflict in American history” (haven’t heard it called that before). • FREE MUSIC seems to be available all around Nashville at almost any time of year, although much of the free music (e.g., CMA Music Festival and Music City July 4th, Live on the Green Music Festival, and the concerts in the bandshell at Centennial park) will be over by October. However, free music is available year-round on the “Honky Tonk Highway”, a stretch of bars around Fifth & Broadway.