A Patriotic Family Road Trip in Tennessee

Tennessee State Capitol

Nashville, TN

Nashville's 1859 capitol was designed by architect William Strickland — who liked it so much he's entombed inside its own walls.

The Hermitage

Hermitage, TN

Andrew Jackson's plantation home outside Nashville, preserved with his original furnishings and gardens.

James K. Polk Home

Columbia, TN

The only surviving home of James K. Polk other than the White House, built by his father in 1816.

Graceland

Memphis, TN

Elvis Presley's mansion, left largely as he kept it.

Ryman Auditorium

Nashville, TN

A tabernacle opened in 1892 that was home to the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974.

The Parthenon

Nashville, TN

A full-scale replica of the Athenian Parthenon built for the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition, with a 42-foot Athena inside.

Sunsphere

Knoxville, TN

A 266-foot tower topped with a gold glass sphere, the symbol of the 1982 World's Fair, with an observation deck.

Chattanooga Choo Choo

Chattanooga, TN

The 1909 Terminal Station, made famous by the 1941 Glenn Miller song, now a hotel with restored railcars.

Ruby Falls

Chattanooga, TN

An underground waterfall deep inside Lookout Mountain, discovered in 1928 and opened to visitors in 1930.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Gatlinburg, TN

The most visited national park in America, and the southern spine of Appalachia.

Belle Meade Historic Site

Nashville, TN

An 1853 mansion that was the center of a famous thoroughbred horse farm, with the story of the people enslaved there.

Travellers Rest Historic House

Nashville, TN

The 1799 home of Judge John Overton, Andrew Jackson's law partner and a founder of Memphis.

K-25 History Center

Oak Ridge, TN

A museum on the site of K-25, the mile-long uranium enrichment plant that was once the largest building in the world.

Red Clay State Historic Park

Cleveland, TN

The council grounds where the Cherokee Nation met from 1832 to 1838, before their forced removal on the Trail of Tears.

National Civil Rights Museum

Memphis, TN

Built around the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. King was assassinated in 1968.

Tennessee State Museum

Nashville, TN

The state history museum by the Bicentennial Mall, from the first peoples to the Civil War and civil rights.

Museum of Appalachia

Clinton, TN

A farm and pioneer village of more than thirty-five log buildings and some 250,000 artifacts of Appalachian life.

American Museum of Science and Energy

Oak Ridge, TN

The museum of Oak Ridge, the secret city built in 1942 to enrich uranium for the Manhattan Project.

Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum

Chattanooga, TN

A working railroad museum with steam excursions through a Civil War–era tunnel under Missionary Ridge.

Fort Negley

Nashville, TN

The ruins of an 1862 Union fort, the largest inland stone fort built during the Civil War, raised largely by Black laborers.

Fort Loudoun State Historic Park

Vonore, TN

A reconstruction of the 1756 British fort built among the Cherokee during the French and Indian War.

Fort Defiance Civil War Park

Clarksville, TN

Well-preserved Confederate earthworks above the Cumberland, later held by Union troops and a refuge for freedom seekers.

Carnton

Franklin, TN

A plantation house that became a field hospital during the Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864, beside a Confederate cemetery.

Carter House

Franklin, TN

A farmhouse at the center of the Battle of Franklin, still marked by more than a thousand bullet holes; its farm office is the most bullet-riddled building left from the war.

Stones River National Battlefield

Murfreesboro, TN

The site of a battle fought from December 31, 1862 to January 2, 1863, with one of the oldest Civil War monuments.

Point Park

Lookout Mountain, TN

The summit of Lookout Mountain, where Union troops won the "Battle Above the Clouds" on November 24, 1863.

Nashville National Cemetery

Madison, TN

A national cemetery established in 1866 for Union dead, holding more than 16,000 Civil War burials.

Chattanooga National Cemetery

Chattanooga, TN

A national cemetery established in 1863 by General George Thomas, where several of Andrews' Raiders, among the first Medal of Honor recipients, are buried.

Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park

Nashville, TN

A state park below the Capitol opened in 1996 for Tennessee's 200th, with a World War II memorial and a granite state map.

James White's Fort

Knoxville, TN

The 1786 frontier fort of James White, the first settler of Knoxville, reconstructed with original cabin logs.

Blount Mansion

Knoxville, TN

The 1792 home of William Blount, a signer of the Constitution and governor of the Southwest Territory, where Tennessee's statehood was planned.