Centennial Celebration 
In 1887 Tennesseans celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of statehood by holding a magnificent Tennessee Centennial Exposition in what is now Centennial Park. This photo shows what Centennial Park looked like at the height of the Exposition. The buildings were meant to be temporary and were constructed of wood with stucco exteriors and plaster interiors. On May 1, 1897 President McKinley officially opened the Tennessee Centennial Exposition in a ceremoney in Washington, D.C. He pushed a button and sent a signal along telegraph wires to start machinery on the exposition grounds.
The Parthenon was the centerpiece of the Exposition. It was an exact replica of the original built on the Grecian Acropolis in Athens in 447-432 BC. The plans were furnished by the King of Greece for the Tennessean replica. The Parthenon building remained long after the exposition closed and the grounds became a public park. It was rebuilt as a more permanent structure in the 1920s. |
The Tennessee Centennial Exposition also included amusements. There were donkey and boat rides, a carnival midway, dancing girls, and a giant
see-saw (see pic. at left) that lifted visitors 200 feet into the air, offering a birds-eye view of the grounds. Some visitors thought the ride to be dangerous, especially after its power mechanism failed one night and left one hapless group of riders stranded aloft overnight.