City Cemetery

Nashville's oldest public cemetery opened on January 1, 1822, and by 1850 more than 11,000 people had been buried there. About 6,000 of the roughly 22,000 interments are African Americans. In 2017 the tombstones of Elias and Matilda Polk, enslaved by President James K. Polk, were replaced as part of an effort to recognize more of the Black Nashvillians buried here. Mayor Ben West led a restoration effort in 1958, and the cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Buried here are the city's founders James and Charlotte Robertson.

What the plaque says

City Cemetery First established in 1822, the remains of many early settlers were then brought here for permanent burial. Among the more than 20,000 persons buried here are Gen. James Robertson, Gov. William Carroll, Sec. of Treasury George W. Campbell, Lt. Gen. Richard S Ewell, Brig. Gen. Felix K Zollicoffer and Capt. William Driver.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Negley — 0.4 mi
  The largest inland stone fort of the Civil War, built in 1862 on St. Cloud Hill by more than 2,700 conscripted Black laborers, hundreds of whom died.
• National Museum of African American Music — 1.0 mi
  A downtown Nashville museum, opened in 2021, tracing gospel, blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and hip-hop through Black history from 1619 to 2016.
• Ryman Auditorium — 1.0 mi
  The 1892 brick tabernacle in downtown Nashville that was the Grand Ole Opry's home from 1943 to 1974, now a National Historic Landmark and working concert hall.
• Civil Rights Room at the Nashville Public Library — 1.1 mi
  A room in the downtown library with a circular lunch counter, a timeline and oral histories of the 1960 Nashville sit-ins, a few blocks from the stores where they began.

More markers nearby

• William Carroll — steps away
• Hubbard House — 0.3 mi
• Tom Wilson Park — 0.4 mi
• Battle of Nashville: Lafayette Street — 0.4 mi