The Nashville Zoo at Grassmere is a

zoological garden A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zool ...

and historic plantation farmhouse located southeast of

Downtown Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and t ...

. As of 2014, the zoo was middle Tennessee's top paid attraction and contained 6,230 individual animals, encompassing 339 species. The zoo's site is approximately in size. It is an accredited member of the

Association of Zoos and Aquariums The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), originally the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1924 and dedicated to the advancement of zoos and public aquariums in ...

History

Dunn farm

Nashville Zoo is located on property that was once a 300-acre slave holding farm owned by Michael and Elizabeth Dunn. The Dunn's original home, built in 1810 through slave labor, is still located on the property. Margaret and Elise Croft, the great-great granddaughters of Michael Dunn, the original owner, were the last of the family to live at this location. In 1989, archaeologists evaluating the property for its archaeological resources discovered an unmarked cemetery fairly close to Grassmere's entrance off of Nolensville Road. When construction for the zoo began in 1997, this graveyard was not disturbed. It was only in 2013 when a newer entry plaza was planned did the zoo petition to have the bodies exhumed and their remains moved closer to the historic Dunn house by the state archaeologist. This exhumation revealed 9 to 30 African-Americans who had been buried there.

Grassmere Wildlife Park

The Croft sisters deeded the land and family home to the Children's Museum of Nashville in 1964, with the agreement the house would remain and the land would be used as a 'nature study center.' After Elise's death in 1985, the museum began work on this nature study center, calling it ''Grassmere Wildlife Park''.

Nashville Zoo

In December 1994, Grassmere Wildlife Park closed. The city of Nashville took over ownership of the property in 1995 and began searching for an independent organization to manage the property. Meanwhile, the Nashville Zoo had opened as a separate, privately owned facility in Joelton, Tennessee, in May 1991. In June 1996, then-Nashville Mayor

Phil Bredesen Philip Norman Bredesen Jr. (born November 21, 1943) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 48th governor of Tennessee from 2003 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he was elected in 20 ...

proposed that either the Nashville Zoo be relocated from its Joelton location to Grassmere, or Grassmere be converted to a city park without animals. In October 1996, the Nashville City Council approved the terms of a lease agreement for Nashville Zoo to relocate to Grassmere. The Nashville Zoo remained open in Joelton. In May 1997, the Nashville Wildlife Park at Grassmere opened. Both the Zoo and the wildlife park remained open, but due to public confusion, the Zoo closed their Joelton site in October 1998 and focused completely on the Grassmere location.

Conservation

In 2019, the Nashville Zoo supported nearly 50 conservation programs. These efforts include

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...

rescue, combatting wildlife trafficking, and preserving endangered or threatened species both locally and globally, including the

hellbender The hellbender (''Cryptobranchus alleganiensis''), also known as the hellbender salamander, is a species of aquatic giant salamander endemic to the eastern and central United States. It is the largest salamander in North America. A member of th ...

cheetah The cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is a large cat native to Africa and central Iran. It is the fastest land animal, estimated to be capable of running at with the fastest reliably recorded speeds being , and as such has evolved specialized ...

loggerhead shrike The loggerhead shrike (''Lanius ludovicianus'') is a passerine bird in the family Laniidae. It is the only member of the shrike family endemic to North America; the related northern shrike (''L. borealis'') occurs north of its range, however it ...

alligator snapping turtle The alligator snapping turtle (''Macrochelys temminckii'') is a large species of turtle in the family Chelydridae. The species is native to freshwater habitats in the United States. ''M. temminckii'' is one of the heaviest freshwater turtles in ...

streamside salamander The streamside salamander (''Ambystoma barbouri'') is a species of mole salamander from North America, occurring in several Midwestern states of the US. Description The streamside salamander is a medium-sized amystomatid salamander. It typica ...

oilbird The oilbird (''Steatornis caripensis''), locally known as the , is a bird species found in the northern areas of South America including the Caribbean island of Trinidad. It is the only species in the genus ''Steatornis'', the family Steatornith ...

flamingo Flamingos or flamingoes are a type of Wader, wading bird in the Family (biology), family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas ...

, and Nashville

crayfish Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans belonging to the clade Astacidea, which also contains lobsters. In some locations, they are also known as crawfish, craydids, crawdaddies, crawdads, freshwater lobsters, mountain lobsters, rock lobsters, mu ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nashville Zoo At Grassmere Culture of Nashville, Tennessee Zoos in Tennessee Historic house museums in Tennessee Museums in Nashville, Tennessee Tourist attractions in Nashville, Tennessee 1990 establishments in Tennessee Zoos established in 1990