Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is the second most populous city in the state after Memphis. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. Nashville is a major hub for the health care, music, publishing, banking and transportation industries.

Nashville has a consolidated city-county government which includes seven smaller municipalities in a two-tier system. The population of Nashville-Davidson County stood at 619,626 as of 2007,[2] according to United States Census Bureau estimates. The 2007 population of the entire 13-county Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area was 1,521,437 making it the largest metropolitan area in the state.

History

Nashville was founded by James Robertson, John Donelson, and a party of Wataugans in 1779, and was originally called Fort Nashborough, after the American Revolutionary War hero Francis Nash. Nashville quickly grew because of its prime location, accessibility as a river port, and its later status as a major railroad center. In 1806, Nashville was incorporated as a city and became the county seat of Davidson County, Tennessee. In 1843, the city was named the permanent capital of the state of Tennessee.

By 1860, when the first rumblings of secession began to be heard across the South, antebellum Nashville was a very prosperous city. The city’s significance as a shipping port made it a desirable prize as a means of controlling important river and railroad transportation routes. In February 1862, Nashville became the first state capital to fall to Union troops.

Though the Civil War left Nashville in dire economic straits, the city quickly rebounded.[citation needed] Within a few years, the city had reclaimed its important shipping and trading position and also developed a solid manufacturing base. The post-Civil War years of the late 19th century brought a newfound prosperity to Nashville. These healthy economic times left the city with a legacy of grand classical-style buildings, which can still be seen around the downtown area.

It was the advent of the Grand Ole Opry in 1925, combined with an already thriving publishing industry, that positioned it to become “Music City USA”. In 1963, Nashville consolidated its government with Davidson County and thus became the first major city in the United States to form a metropolitan government.[citation needed] Since the 1970s, the city has experienced tremendous growth, particularly during the economic boom of the 1990s under the leadership of Mayor (now-Tennessee Governor) Phil Bredesen, who made urban renewal a priority, and fostered the construction or renovation of several city landmarks, including the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Nashville Public Library downtown, the Sommet Center, and LP Field.

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Beale Street by Terri Brown

Memphis is a city in the southwest corner of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. Memphis rises above the Mississippi River on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff just south of the mouth of the Wolf River.

As of 2007, Memphis had an estimated population of 674,028, making it the largest city in the state of Tennessee, the second largest in the Southeastern United States, and the 18th largest in the United States.

The greater Memphis metropolitan area, including adjacent counties in Mississippi and Arkansas, has a population of 1,260,581. This makes Memphis the second largest metropolitan area in Tennessee, surpassed only by metropolitan Nashville.

Memphis is the youngest of Tennessee’s four major cities (traditionally including Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Nashville). A resident of Memphis is referred to as a Memphian and the Memphis region is known as the Mid-South.

History
Early history

The Memphis area was first settled by the Mississippian Culture and then by the Chickasaw Indian tribe. European exploration came years later, with Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto and French explorers led by René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle.

The land comprising present-day Memphis remained in a largely unorganized territory throughout most of the 18th century. By 1796, the community was the westernmost point of the newly admitted state of Tennessee.

Foundation

Memphis was founded in 1820 , the city was named after the ancient capital of Egypt on the Nile River.

The cotton economy of the antebellum South depended on the forced labor of large numbers of African-American slaves, and Memphis became a major slave market.

Tennessee seceded from the Union in June 1861 and Memphis briefly became a Confederate stronghold. Union forces captured Memphis in the Battle of Memphis on June 6, 1862, and the city remained under Union control for the duration of the war. Memphis became a Union supply base and continued to prosper throughout the war.

20th century

Memphis grew into the world’s largest spot cotton market and the world’s largest hardwood lumber market. Into the 1950s, it was the world’s largest mule market.

From the 1910s to the 1950s, Memphis was a hotbed of machine politics under the direction of E. H. “Boss” Crump. During the Crump era, Memphis developed an extensive network of parks and public works as part of the national City Beautiful Movement.

During the 1960s the city was at the center of civil rights issues, notably the location of a sanitation workers’ strike. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968 at the Lorraine Motel.

Memphis is well known for its cultural contributions to the identity of the American south. Many renowned musicians grew up in and around the Memphis and northern Mississippi area. These included such musical greats as Elvis Presley, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, W.C. Handy, B.B. King, Howlin’ Wolf, Isaac Hayes, Booker T. Jones and Al Green.

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Graceland by jbcurio

Graceland is the name of the 13.8 acre estate and large white-columned mansion that once belonged to Elvis Presley, located at 3734 Elvis Presley Boulevard in Memphis, Tennessee. It is located in South Memphis’ vast Whitehaven community about twelve miles from Downtown and less than four miles (6 km) north of the Mississippi border. It currently serves as a museum. It was opened to the public in 1982, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on November 7, 1991 and declared a National Historic Landmark on March 27, 2006.

Elvis Presley, who died at the estate on August 16, 1977, his parents Gladys and Vernon Presley, and his grandmother, are buried there in what is called the Meditation Gardens.

History

Graceland was originally owned by S. E. Toof, publisher of the Memphis newspaper, the Memphis Daily Appeal. The grounds were named after Toof’s daughter, Grace, who would come to inherit the farm. Soon after, the portion of the land designated as Graceland today was given to a niece, Ruth Moore, who, in 1939 together with her husband Dr. Thomas Moore, had the present American “colonial” style mansion built.

Elvis purchased Graceland in early 1957 for approximately $100,000 after vacating an East Memphis house located at 1034 Audubon Drive. He moved because of privacy and security concerns, and the opposition of neighbors to the enthusiastic behavior of the many fans who slowly cruised by his home. Elvis moved into Graceland together with his father Vernon Presley and his mother Gladys. After Gladys died in 1958, and Vernon married Dee Stanley in 1960, the couple lived there for a time. Wife-to-be Priscilla Beaulieu also lived at Graceland for five years before she and Elvis married. After their marriage in Las Vegas on May 1, 1967, Priscilla lived in Graceland five more years until she separated from Elvis in late 1972.

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