Parthenon architectural drawings, 1920-1930
(Document/manuscript/pamphlet/archival material)

Organized temporarily by format for preservation and storage purposes.

Materials housed in Special Collections Division of the Main Library, Nashville Public Library.

Four drawings are framed and on display in the non-fiction department on the third floor of the Main Library, described as follows: 1)Elevation and floor plan; 2)End and side elevation, column detail, floor plan, portico sections, (1928); 3) sketch of lion's head; 4) sketch of Medusa's head.

In library use only. Appointment required. Please contact Special Collections at least 3 business days in advance. Unmylared tracing paper items may require one week's advance notice. Please consult with staff well in advance to plan your visit.

Drawings are extremely fragile and require special handling. Researchers will be provided with digital or paper "use copy" reproductions for research use whenever possible to reduce handling of delicate originals.

Scope and content: Architectural drawings created in the 1920s and early 1930s by Russell Eason Hart and others for the reconstruction of Nashville's Parthenon replica in Centennial Park. Drawings are for all aspects of the reconstruction, including interiors, exteriors, plans, elevations, sections, details, ornament, schematics, structural and foundation plans, and electrical and ventilation systems. Drawings include some very detailed images of certain features such as the building's columns, pilasters, entablature, cornices, and other elements. Notable artistic images include: lion's head, ram's head, and Medusa's head, (all on the bronze doors), griffin, and portions of the frieze, triglyph, metopes, and pediments. Formats include tracing paper; blueprints; brownprints (reverse-image Van Dyke prints); and linen.

Cite as: [drawing description or title], [Preliminary Inventory Drawing number], [format or drawer designation], Parthenon Architectural Drawings, Special Collections Division, Nashville Public Library.

Copyright retained by Hart Freeland Roberts, Inc. Nashville Public Library does not have intellectual property rights to this collection.

No reproductions permitted due to copyright and fragile nature of materials.

Gift;,Hart Freeland Roberts, Inc.;,2002;,Acc. 2003.078.

Russell Eason Hart was born in Darlington, South Carolina on December 10, 1872. He earned his Bachelor's degree in philosophy at Furman University in 1895, and attended Columbia University in 1904-1905 to study architecture. He worked briefly in New York and then furthered his studies in 1908 at the L'Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. When Hart returned to the United States, he worked for J.E.R. (Edwin) Carpenter, a New York architect born in Tennessee who was developing plans for the Hermitage Hotel to be built in Nashville. Hart was given the assignment to oversee construction on-site and upon its completion in 1910, the Hermitage Hotel quickly gained fame as one of the finest examples of Beaux-Arts architecture in the South. Hart left Carpenter's firm, decided to stay in Nashville, and began partnering with other local architects. In 1920, he was hired by the Nashville Board of Parks to reconstruct the iconic Parthenon as a permanent structure in Centennial Park. Also in 1920, he partnered with architect George Nevins, establishing the firm of Hart & Nevins, often working with engineers and Vanderbilt graduates Francis Eugene Freeland and Martin Smith Roberts. Nevins left the partnership in 1928, and the two engineers joined Hart in the renamed firm Hart Freeland Roberts, bringing both architectural design and engineering work together in one business enterprise. In 1929, as work continued on the Parthenon, Hart Freeland Roberts designed the William Ridley Wills home, "Far Hills." In 1949 it became the Executive Residence for Tennessee governors. Hart and his firm would have a long and distinguished career, responsible for such structures as: Vanderbilt's Dudley Field; Frost Building for the Baptist Sunday School Board; Immanuel Baptist Church; The Upper Room; Howard School; WSM Tower; and many other notable buildings in Nashville and the region. Russell Hart died in Nashville on June 11, 1955, at the age of 82. He is buried in Darlington, South Carolina.

The original Nashville Parthenon was constructed as the fine arts building for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition, held in 1897. It was chosen to be the centerpiece of the Centennial grounds, in a respectful nod to Nashville's long-held nickname as the "Athens of the South," due to its educational and cultural institutions. The buildings at the exposition were designed to be temporary structures, and were removed shortly after the conclusion of the exposition, but the Parthenon remained as a landmark and to serve as an art venue for the city. Within ten years, the exterior plaster had begun to deteriorate, and by 1915, the area was closed to the public due to safety concerns. In 1920, local architect Russell Hart was selected by the Nashville Board of Park Commissioners to build a permanent structure. Hart's goal was to create an accurate replica of the Greek Parthenon in every detail, and he spent many years conducting research, including traveling to Athens and obtaining casts of the Elgin marbles. William Bell Dinsmoor, a noted classical architectural historian and archeologist, was hired as a consultant. The local firm of Foster & Creighton Company constructed the building. George Zolnay, who sculpted the metopes for the Centennial Parthenon, was again hired to do the same for the new permanent structure. Because only the metopes on the south side of the Athenian Parthenon survived, this pattern is repeated on all four sides of the Nashville Parthenon, since so little information was available about the original iconography on the other three sides. Hart hired Nashville couple Belle Kinney and her husband Leopold Scholz to sculpt the figures on the east and west pediments. In 1925, work on the exterior was completed. It would be another five years before the interior was completed, and the building opened to the public on May 20, 1931.

In English

Preliminary finding aid (2021) available in repository;,item level control.

Drawings created by Russell Eason Hart and others of his firm, Hart Freeland Roberts, for the 1920s Parthenon renovation; they were in the possession of Hart Freeland Roberts, Inc., when donated to the Nashville Public Library in 2002.

Preserve;,2020-2021;,Linda Barnickel, Kathleen Feduccia;,flattening, mylaring, storage

No further accruals are expected