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Renting an Apartment in Nashville
What You Should Know
Nashville is the capital and the second most populous city of the U.S. state
of Tennessee. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County in the
north-central part of the state. Nashville is a major hub for the health care,
music, publishing, and transportation industries.
Nashville's population stood at 575,261 as of 2005, according to United States
Census Bureau estimates. The 2005 population of the entire 13-county Nashville
Metropolitan Statistical Area was 1,422,544, making it the largest and
fastest-growing metropolitan area in the state.
A resident of Nashville is called a Nashvillian.
The Gaylord Entertainment Center (formerly the Nashville Arena) was built as
both a large concert facility and as an enticement to lure either a National
Basketball Association or National Hockey League (NHL) sports franchise. This
was accomplished in 1997 when Nashville was awarded an NHL expansion team which
was subsequently named the Nashville Predators. LP Field (formerly Adelphia
Coliseum) was built after the National Football League's (NFL) Houston Oilers
agreed to move to the city in 1995. The NFL debuted in Nashville in 1998 at
Vanderbilt Stadium and LP Field opened in the summer of 1999. The Oilers changed
their name to the Tennessee Titans and saw a season culminate in the Music City
Miracle and a close Super Bowl loss.
Nashville has the largest metropolitan area in the state of Tennessee, spanning
thirteen counties. The Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area encompasses the
Middle Tennessee counties of Cannon, Cheatham, Davidson, Dickson, Hickman,
Macon, Robertson, Rutherford, Smith, Sumner, Trousdale, Williamson, and Wilson.
As the "home of country music", Nashville has become a major music recording
and production center. All of the Big Four record labels, as well as numerous
independent labels, have offices in Nashville, mostly in the Music Row area.
Since the 1960s, Nashville has been the second biggest music production center
(after New York) in the U.S. As of 2006, Nashville's music industry is estimated
to have a total economic impact of $6.4 billion a year and to contribute 19,000
jobs to the Nashville area.
Although Nashville is renowned as a music recording center and tourist
destination, its largest industry is actually health care. Nashville is home to
more than 250 health care companies, including Hospital Corporation of America,
the largest private operator of hospitals in the world. As of 2006, it is
estimated that the health care industry contributes $18.3 billion a year and
94,000 jobs to the Nashville-area economy. The automotive industry is also
becoming increasingly important for the entire Middle Tennessee region. Nissan
North America moved its corporate headquarters in 2006 from Gardena, California
(Los Angeles County) to Nashville, with corporate headquarters temporarily
located in the BellSouth Tower until 2008, when the Japanese auto maker will
establish permanent headquarters in the Nashville suburb of Franklin, Tennessee.
Nissan also has its largest North American manufacturing plant in Smyrna,
Tennessee, a Nashville suburb.
Other major industries in Nashville include insurance, finance, and publishing
(especially religious publishing). The city also hosts headquarters operations
for several Protestant denominations, including the United Methodist Church,
Southern Baptist Convention, and National Baptist Convention, USA.
Nashville also has a small but growing film industry. Several major motion
pictures have been filmed in Nashville, including The Green Mile, The Last
Castle, Gummo, Coal Miner's Daughter, and Robert Altman's Nashville.
Much of the city's cultural life has revolved around its large university
community. Particularly significant in this respect were two groups of critics
and writers who were associated with Vanderbilt University in the early
twentieth century, the Fugitives and the Agrarians.
Popular destinations include Fort Nashborough, a reconstruction of the original
settlement; the Tennessee State Museum; and The Parthenon, a full-scale replica
of the original Parthenon in Athens, Greece. The graceful State Capitol is one
of the oldest working state capitol buildings in the nation, while The Hermitage
is one of the older presidential homes open to the public. The Nashville Zoo is
one of the city's newer attractions.