Your new home means a new neighborhood to explore. Each month, Onward brings you “Your New Favorite” – our team’s hand-selected places unique to Middle Tennessee that locals love.
This month, find your new favorite museum and learn while keeping it local.
Get lost in the colors and storytelling at Frist Art Museum in downtown Nashville. From classic paintings to multimedia representations of Americana to local student art, the Frist’s exhibits are always changing and always something new and powerful to discover. Once you are feeling inspired, head to the Martin ArtQuest space where visitors can draw, animate and paint.
- Location: Downtown Nashville
- Address: 919 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203
Called “the Smithsonian of country music,” the Country Music Hall of Fame has been educating Nashville locals and visitors since 1967. Absorb country music history through artifacts, photographs, recorded sound, archival video and interactive touchscreens found at the exhibits.
- Location: Downtown Nashville
- Address: 222 5th Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37203
National Museum of African American Music
The National Museum of African American Music has called Fifth + Broadway home since 2021. The 56,000-square-foot museum honors and preserves over 50 musical genres created by African Americans, such as blues, gospel, jazz and R&B. Watch a short film on Black music history in the Roots Theater, and then wind your way through the galleries that bring light to both popular and unsung voices.
- Location: Downtown Nashville
- Address: 510 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37219
Carter House Visitor Center and Museum
Standing on land that was part of the second Battle of Franklin, the Carter House gives a glimpse into life during the Civil War. Carter House served as a base for the Union Twenty-Third Army Corps and was where the Carter family hid in the basement during the Battle of Franklin. The Carter House offers five different tours for visitors: Classic House Tour, All Men Are Created Equal Tour, Battlefield Tour, Slavery and the Enslaved Tour, and Extended Tour.
- Location: Franklin
- Address: 1140 Columbia Avenue, Franklin, TN 37064
President James K. Polk Home and Museum
The only surviving home of the 11th president of the United States lies in Columbia, Tennessee. Built in 1816, this is the home where James K. Polk lived while he was a practicing lawyer for the town before he was elected governor of Tennessee and then president of the United States. Tours are available daily, and visitors can enjoy the main house, gardens and The Sisters’ House.
- Location: Columbia
- Address: 301 W. 7th Street, Columbia, TN 38401
Catch a glimpse of Greece right in your backyard by visiting The Parthenon in Nashville’s Centennial Park. The Parthenon features not only authentic ancient Greek architecture and art, but the awe-inspiring statue of goddess Athena. The Parthenon also hosts the original marble casts, James M. Cowan Collection of American Art, the model crane used to build the building and the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition Collection.
- Location: Nashville’s Hillsboro-West End neighborhood
- Address: 2500 West End Avenue, Nashville, TN 37203
A museum 20 years in the making, Tennessee Agricultural Museum educates Tennesseans about the people and processes that put food on our tables. Take advantage of free exhibit entry on select days during the summer or enjoy special events like Farm Fun Day with live animals, crafts and a puppet show.
- Location: Brentwood
- Address: 404 Hogan Road, Nashville, TN 37220
In 1937, the Tennessee General Assembly created the Tennessee State Museum to preserve World War 1 memorabilia and other historical items. The museum moved to the James K. Polk Center in 1981 and stayed there until 2015 when it relocated to its current home next to the Nashville Farmers Market between downtown and Germantown. The Tennessee State Museum features permanent exhibits such as Forging a Nation, Tennessee Time Tunnel, Tennessee Transforms, Natural History, and Change and Challenge.
- Location: Downtown Nashville
- Address: 1000 Rosa L. Parks Boulevard, Nashville, TN 37208
Earth Experience: The Middle Tennessee Museum of Natural History
Earth Experience goes beyond the average natural history museum by letting visitors see up close and personal paleontology labs where scientists clean and repair dinosaur bones, and visitors can even touch petrified wood, bones and minerals. Earth Experience is the first natural history museum in Middle Tennessee and features archeological samples from right here in Tennessee to as far away as Antarctica.
- Location: Murfreesboro
- Address: 816 Old Salem Road, Murfreesboro, TN 37129
Amuse’um came to be after a group of volunteers in Maury County decided that the children of the area needed a safe place to learn and play. Fourteen years later, Amuse’um has brought over 80,000 visitors to Columbia. Children can play in models built based on real-life places like a baby hospital, a bank and ATM, a grocery store, and a restaurant. Amuse’um also features weekly special events such as Bubble Fun and Tinkering Station.
- Location: Columbia
- Address: 123 W. 7th Street, Columbia, TN 38401
Ranked the No. 1 Music Museum in the world by Forbes, Condé Nast and National Geographic Traveler, the Johnny Cash Museum keeps alive the legend of the Man in Black. It holds the largest collection of Johnny Cash memorabilia and artifacts and is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the heart of downtown Nashville.
- Location: Downtown Nashville
- Address: 119 3rd Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37201
Lane Motor Museum has all things automobile. The museum has 150 unique cars and motorcycles that range from microcars, amphibious vehicles, military vehicles, alternative fuel vehicles, prototypes and one-of-a-kind vehicles. Visitors can also see a live demonstration of select museum cars for free with every visit at 11 a.m. daily.
- Location: South Nashville
- Address: 702 Murfreesboro Pike, Nashville, TN 37210
Contact an Onward agent to bring you one step closer to your new home and what you can experience right in your backyard.
