City Cemetery

Right next to Fort Negley Park [1], off Chestnut Street, is the old City Cemetery. Opened in 1822, City Cemetery (1001 4th Ave. S., www.thenashvillecitycemetery.org [2]) was the final resting place of many of Nashville’s [3] most prominent early citizens, including founder James Robertson; William Driver, the U.S. Navy captain who named the flag “Old Glory”; Mabel Lewis Imes and Ella Sheppard, members of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers; and 14 Nashville mayors.

During the Civil War, the cemetery was contracted to bury more than 15,000 Union and Confederate dead, although they were later re-interred in different cemeteries.

Visitors are welcome 8 a.m.–5 p.m. daily. Consult the information board in the Keeble Building for help with your self-guided tour. Guided tours and special events, such as living history tours, garden tours, and historical lectures, take place on the second Saturday of each month. The events are aimed at telling the history of Nashvillians who are buried at this historical cemetery.