What Is the Official Symbol of Nashville?

February 19, 2026

Nashville operates as the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, a consolidated city-county government, and its official symbol is the Metro Seal, adopted on April 2, 1963, as the very first resolution passed by the first Metropolitan Council. The timing was intentional: before the new government did anything else, it established its identity.

The Metro Seal

The seal is blue and gold. It was designed by Herbert F. Thomson of Cullom and Ghertner, David Baker of Illustration Design Group, and Harold West, Art Director of Doyne Advertising Agency. The design combined elements of the old City of Nashville seal with new elements representing the consolidation of city and county government.

Key elements of the seal include:

  • A fleur-de-lis at the top, described officially as “the stylized treatment of the Iris,” Tennessee’s state cultivated flower
  • Compass points, representing “the unlimited horizons of the opportunities ahead for the people of Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County”
  • A Native American Indian holding a skull, carried over from the old Nashville city emblem. The origin and significance of this element was already a mystery by 1949, when Mayor Thomas Cummings tried to research it and came up empty.

Tennessee State Symbols That Apply to Nashville

As Tennessee’s capital city, Nashville also operates under the state’s official symbols. The most relevant:

  • State bird: The mockingbird (Northern Mockingbird), designated in 1933. Nashville’s tree canopy is thick with them.
  • State cultivated flower: The iris, designated 1973 (the passionflower is the state wildflower)
  • State tree: The tulip poplar, designated 1947
  • State motto: “Agriculture and Commerce” (from the state seal)
  • State slogan: “Tennessee, America at Its Best,” adopted 1965

Nashville’s Physical Symbol: The Parthenon

If you’re asking what Nashville’s most visually recognized symbol is, the image that appears on postcards, wallpaper, and civic identity materials, the answer is the full-scale replica of the Athenian Parthenon in Centennial Park. Built in 1897 for Tennessee’s Centennial Exposition and made permanent in 1931, it’s the most distinct built symbol of the city and the physical embodiment of the “Athens of the South” nickname. Inside stands a 42-foot gilded statue of Athena, the tallest indoor sculpture in the United States.

The Parthenon appears in Nashville’s tourism materials, on official city publications, and in the background of countless photos from Centennial Park. It is genuinely strange and genuinely impressive, a full-scale Ancient Greek temple sitting in a municipal park in Middle Tennessee, and it is unmistakably Nashville.

Sources

  • Metro Nashville Government, official seal description and history, nashville.gov
  • Metro Nashville Council, Resolution 63-1 (April 2, 1963)
  • Tennessee Secretary of State, state symbols documentation
  • Tennessee State Library and Archives, state symbol history
  • Metro Nashville Parks Department, Centennial Park and Parthenon historical records

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