Nashville Zoo is located on the territory of the historic Grassmere Estate, 10 km from the city center. African cheetahs and alligators, South American flamingos and rare species of local fauna – the natural habitat for more than 6,000 animals collected from around the world has been recreated here. A fascinating trip to the beautiful and well-maintained Nashville Zoo will be great fun for the whole family.
Dunn Farm
The Nashville Zoo is located on what was once a 300-acre slave farm owned by Michael and Elizabeth Dunn. The original Dunn home, built in 1810 with slave labor, is still on the property. Margaret and Eliza Croft, the great-great-granddaughters of Michael Dunn, the original owner, were the last members of the family to live at the site. In 1989, archaeologists evaluating the property for its archaeological resources discovered an unmarked cemetery fairly close to the Grassmere entrance from Nolensville Road. When construction of the zoo began in 1997, no one disturbed the cemetery. It was only in 2013, when a new entrance plaza was planned, that the zoo petitioned for the bodies to be exhumed and their remains moved closer to the historic Dunn House by the state archaeologist. This exhumation revealed between 9 and 30 African Americans who were buried there.
Grasmere Wildlife Park
In 1964, the Croft sisters donated the land and the family home to the Children’s Museum of Nashville under an agreement that the house would remain and the land would be used as a “nature study center.” After Eliza’s death in 1985, the museum began work on this nature study center, naming it Grasmere Wildlife Park.
In December 1994, Grasmere Wildlife Park closed. In 1995, the City of Nashville took ownership of the property and began a search for an independent organization to manage the property. Meanwhile, a separate, privately owned Nashville Zoo opened in May 1991 in Joelton, Tennessee. In June 1996, then-Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen proposed that either the Nashville Zoo be moved from its Joelton location to Grasmere or Grasmere would be converted to an animal-free city park. In October 1996, the Nashville City Council approved the terms of the Nashville Zoo’s lease to move to Grasmere.
The Nashville Zoo remained open in Joelton. In May 1997, the Nashville Wildlife Park in Grasmere opened. Both the zoo and the wildlife park remained open, but due to public confusion, the zoo closed its Joelton site in October 1998 and focused entirely on the Grasmere location.
