Famously known as “Music City, USA,” Nashville, Tennessee, is also known as the “Athens of the South,” based on the city’s aspirations to refinement and culture, as well as being the home of two dozen post-secondary schools. It doesn’t hurt there is a replica of the Parthenon either. Not just a replica, but a full size replica, and the only one in the world to exist outside of Athens, Greece.

Facade and southern colonnade of the Parthenon

In need of an icon for Tennessee’s Centennial in 1897, Eugene C. Lewis, chief civil engineer for the railroad and director general for the fair, decided on the replica of the Parthenon due to being “the very summit of art and architecture and the epitome of culture and civilization.” Construction began on September 10th 1895, and a celebration for the laying of the cornerstone took place on October 8th. Five thousand people attended to watch the Masonic rites take place for the replica, which was the first building of the exposition to be dedicated. The building took 18 months to complete, but not to the level of exactitude the architect, William Crawford Smith, intended for his building. The contractor, Edward Laurent, would not or could not execute the refinements Smith wished to incorporate, such as subtleties of line and design and the ancient temples interior.

Statue of the President of the Centennial Exposition, John W. Thomas, in front of the Parthenon

However, the Centennial Exposition opened in May of 1897, along with its “mammoth” art exhibition with some 1,175 works of art on display, became an immediate success. 1,786,014 people visited the Centennial Exposition, with a large portion of the visitors walking through the Parthenon’s galleries.

The Parthenon, 1897

Initially, built for the exposition with the intent to be taken down afterwards, the Parthenon remained standing due to public outcry. By the advent of WWI, the building's exterior began to fracture and flake, and in 1919, the temple was declared a public hazard.

Front pediment and metopes of the Parthenon

Russell Hart was chosen by the city to oversee the restoring of the building, and even visited Greece to observe the original in person, after studying all available scholarly literature on the original temple. After facing problems of proportion and style, and then solving them, Hart’s team started construction of the current Parthenon in July of 1920. To keep costs low, Hart reused as much of Smith’s original building as possible, such as the core of the cella wall and the wooden forms for the columns and entablature.

Rear pediment and metopes of the Parthenon

Husband and wife sculptures Leopold and Belle Kinney Scholz where commissioned to design and make the statuary groups for both pediments, and George Julian Zolnay was hired to create the paneled bas-reliefs for the metopes along the entire length of the Parthenon’s entablature. With construction halted due to budget problems and a tornado ripping off some of the roof, after more than a decade and nearly a million dollars to complete, the Parthenon opened on May 20th 1931.

Southern wall and colonnade of the Parthenon

Only closing for two years in the 1980’s to renovate and construct the colossal cult statue of the goddess Athena, this Greek temple replica will remain a treasure to all visiting it for as long as the original stood, and hopefully longer.