Save Nashville Parks

02/29/2020

Come join us at Fort Negley Park today!! The food trucks are rolling in. Abe Lincoln is walking around. And there’s a re-enactment of a civil war encampment. A fossil hunt too! It’s a beautiful day to see the best views of downtown Nashville! Spend your Leap Day with us!!!

01/29/2018

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/29/opinion/south-monuments-nashville.html

The debate over the fate of Nashville’s Fort Negley tests the traditional Southern argument for preserving history.

01/12/2018

Thank you to everyone who voiced their opinion. We look forward to working with Mayor Barry to rehabilitate the Greer portion of Fort Negley Park.

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2018/01/12/cloud-hill-abandons-controversial-proposal-nashvilles-greer-stadium/1029801001/

01/11/2018

Unfortunately, due to weather, Fossil Finders and the Guided tour are canceled for this Saturday. We'll see you next month!

01/09/2018

Join us this Saturday, January 13 at 2 pm to learn about the 90 year story of Fort Negley Park including the 155 year-old historic Fort Negley. Join us for the one mile guided walking tour led by a staff historian. Attendees are encouraged to wear comfortable shoes and dress for the weather.

http://fortnegleypark.org/guided-tours

12/19/2017

Check out Wedgewood-Houston resident, Liz Atack's full essay about Fort Negley Park here: https://savenashvilleparks.org/liz-atack

"Nevertheless, time has not been kind to the Park. When it reopened in 2004, it was only a fraction of the original 1928 land purchase, having been divided up to make way for Greer Stadium. With the stadium vacant, we have the rare opportunity now to correct course on past decisions. We can restore the 21 acres that were previously occupied by Greer Stadium to their original intent – to be part of Fort Negley Park. Our city’s leaders did not even give us that option when they asked for “community input” as they developed their Request for Qualifications. We were not given the opportunity to speak up then, and so today we must speak up for history, for public parks, and for community."

Mayor Megan Barry's administration intends to award a for-profit developer the right to build condos and office space on Nashville's Fort Negley Park. This development would permanently destroy 20 acres of parkland in Nashville's urban core, where greenspace is dwindling because of boom-time develop...

12/12/2017

Join 5,000 Nashvillians to help save Fort Negley Park!

Fort Negley Park has become Nashville's biggest news story of 2017. In the video below, we share the background of this historic parkland and ask you to join us and over 5,000 Nashvillians to help save Fort Negley Park.

Share this video with your friends and contact your local officials using the buttons on our website! www.savenashvilleparks.org

12/05/2017

"The Fort Negley workers worked for months on behalf of the Army, under the direction of the Army. They were in the Army. They had to be. Not in a formal way with paperwork and such, but they were a part of the Army. They weren’t regular soldiers, but they were soldiers in the same way as Ann Cockrill. And the workers who might be in the ground there died in service to the United States.

And, if that’s the case, then it’s not the city’s place alone to decide what to do with the remains. We don’t leave U.S. soldiers unidentified in a mass grave on foreign soil if we can help it. We damn sure shouldn’t leave them unidentified in a mass grave in a park in Nashville."

They served a country that mistreated them then and continues to now

12/01/2017

Unfortunately, the Mayor and the developers are not going to back down because of this announcement. Help us keep up the pressure and contact your City Council Member and ask him or her to support public parkland! https://savenashvilleparks.org/

http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2017/12/01/archaeologists-high-likelihood-human-remains-greer-stadium/914210001/

11/30/2017

Join the Friends of Fort Negley this weekend Saturday, December 2, as they honor the 2,771 laborers from Fort Negley on the 155th anniversary of its construction.

Keynote speaker Dr. Lea Williams will present "Slave to Soldier, Contraband to Citizen: Acknowledging Our History." Hear of the laborers arduous transition and the gamble of self-emancipation in the hope of a better future for their descendants.

The Friends of Fort Negley group is organized to help fundraise, and support education, preservation programs, and to protect green space around the site.

11/14/2017

Nashville Business Journal - Real estate veteran: Greer development plan leaves millions of dollars on the table

Mayor Megan Barry's administration intends to award a for-profit developer the right to build condos and office space on Nashville's Fort Negley Park. This development would permanently destroy 20 acres of parkland in Nashville's urban core, where greenspace is dwindling because of boom-time develop...

11/08/2017

Thank you, Washington Post for reporting on this nationally significant site!

"The conflict became personal for Eleanor Fleming this summer, after Fort Negley’s Twitter page began tweeting laborers’ names. When Fleming saw the names Ruffin and Egbert Bright, her aunt confirmed that two ancestors worked on the fort.

Fleming, now living in Washington, D.C., knew the two were enslaved outside Nashville, not far from where her family still lives. She knows one wasn’t buried near the fort. She’s not sure about the other. Regardless, she said developing the land doesn’t seem right.

“You work, die in what had to have been the worst of conditions, and for what?” she said. “I’m not sure that a condo is how I’d like for things to end for me.”"

Archaeologists are rolling high-powered radar gear through the thick outfield weeds and empty parking lots of an abandoned Nashville baseball stadium, looking for hints of unmarked graves of slaves and free black men who died building the war-battered fort next door.