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Home Tennessee Davidson County Nashville Historical Markers Watkins Park

Watkins Park

616 17th Avenue North, Nashville, TN , USA

Latitude & Longitude: 36° 9' 42.66", -86° 47' 56.279976"
 
 
Land once known as Watkins Grove was given to the city in 1870 by brick maker and contractor Samuel Watkins. It served as a site for political gatherings, school commencements and concerts. This became Nashville’s first public park in 1901. Park Board chairman E.C. Lewis planned landscape features including a stone entrance and fence, walkways, flowerbeds, and benches, which were built with materials donated by citizens. In 1906, the Centennial Club opened the city’s first playground here, setting a precedent for public recreation facilities elsewhere in the city. Improved by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s, Watkins Park was a park for black Nashvillians from 1936 until the 1960s, when the park system was desegregated.

Last updated: 2/14/2015 15:17:00
 
   
 
 
Watkins Park Historical Marker Location Map, Nashville, Tennessee Map