The Parthenon

A full-scale replica of the Athenian Parthenon in Centennial Park, raised for the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition and rebuilt in concrete from 1920 to 1931. Robert Altman ended Nashville (1975) on its steps.

Altman filmed the Replacement Party rally and the on-stage shooting of Barbara Jean on the plaza in August 1974. Thousands of Nashvillians were recruited as the crowd, and no interior appears in the film.

The Tennessean dated preliminary shooting of the closing sequence to August 28, 1974. Barbara Harris and the film's musicians rehearsed on a stage raised in front of the building.

The exterior Altman filmed is the building standing today, but the 42-foot Athena inside did not exist yet. Sculptor Alan LeQuire's statue was commissioned in 1982, unveiled May 20, 1990, and gilded from 2002.

Nashville Sites also credits the building, inside and out, in the 2010 Percy Jackson film The Lightning Thief. Write-ups disagree on the scene: Underworld entrance, Medusa's lair, or a pearl from the Athena's crown.

The Tennessean covered the shoot in 1974, and Keith Sharon reproduced that coverage in the paper's August 4, 2024 retrospective. Sound crewman Fred Schultz published a first-person account in Local 695's magazine.

Metro Parks runs the site. The steps and plaza in Centennial Park are free and open daily, while the interior, where the Athena stands, is a paid museum with posted hours.