Nashville City Cemetery is the oldest public cemetery in Nashville, Tennessee. Many of Nashville's prominent historical figures are buried there.

Nashville City Cemetery was opened on January 1, 1822. By 1850, over 11,000 people were buried there. In 1958, Nashville Mayor Ben West led an effort to restore and preserve the cemetery. In 1972, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places due to its historical and architectural significance.

Among those interred in the cemetery are two of Nashville's founders, four Confederate generals, one Tennessee Governor, and twenty-two mayors of Nashville. Also buried there are numerous soldiers, schoolteachers, former slaves, early civic leaders, and other interesting citizens of Nashville. The cemetery currently contains over 23,000 graves.

Nashville City Cemetery is located near downtown Nashville at 1001 4th Avenue South.

Some of the notable people buried in the cemetery include:

• James Robertson and his wife, Charlotte Robertson – two of the founders of Nashville (then called Fort Nashborough)
• William Carroll – Governor of Tennessee from 1821 to 1827 and again from 1829 to 1835
• William Driver – coined the name Old Glory for the U.S. flag in 1831
• Thomas Claiborne – U.S. Congressional Representative from 1817 to 1819
• Francis Fogg – developed Nashville’s public school system in 1852
• Mabel Imes and Ella Sheppard – two of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers

External Links

• The Nashville City Cemetery Association

References

• Bucy, Carole S., and Kaplan, Carol F. The Nashville City Cemetery: History Carved in Stone. Nashville, TN: Nashville City Cemetery Association, 2000.