Parthenon Theatre

407 Church Street,
Nashville, TN 37219

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Parthenon Theatre

The Parthenon Theatre was opened May 31, 1915 with Leslie Carter in “The Heart of Maryland”. M.P. Moller pipe organ company sold an organ to the Parthenon Theatre in Nashville in 1915. It was their opus (serial number) 1942, 2 manuals and 8 ranks, 21 “registers”. The Parthenon Theatre was a short-lived theatre as it was closed mid-1916.

The unusual name of this theatre can be attributed to Nashville’s full scale reproduction of the famed Parthenon in Athens, Greece. The Nashville structure was built for Tennessee’s Centennial celebration in 1897 - and it had no finished interior. It was a plaster and lath exterior stage set for the fair, meant to be torn down after the celebration. By the 1910’s that building was in serious decay, and only stood until 1920 when it was torn down and replaced by the concrete and steel Parthenon which still stands on the site.

Contributed by William Dunklin

Recent comments (view all 3 comments)

Comfortably Cool
Comfortably Cool on December 7, 2015 at 11:17 am

The Parthenon had its grand opening on May 31st, 1915, with 525 seats and equipped with a Moller pipe organ. An address was reported of 411 Church Street, opposite the Maxwell House.

Comfortably Cool
Comfortably Cool on December 7, 2015 at 11:44 am

An ad placed by the theatre gives an address of 407 Church Street, which contradicts the 411 Church Street reported in the press clipping.

Will Dunklin
Will Dunklin on July 12, 2023 at 9:35 pm

The block on the south side of Church would have included 407 and 411. Interestingly, the address for the later, and significantly larger, Crescent Theatre (a.k.a. Loew’s Crescent, q.v.) was 415 Church. All of these properties have been razed and newer buildings stand in their place.

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