Shelby Park is a 300-acre urban park in East Nashville, and the residential neighborhoods surrounding it, Lockeland Springs to the north and Shelby Hills to the west, are defined almost entirely by their relationship to it. This is one of those cases where the park doesn’t just serve the neighborhood; it is the neighborhood’s primary asset.
The Park Itself
Shelby Park sits south of Five Points, bordered by Shelby Avenue and the Cumberland River. It contains baseball and softball fields, multiple playgrounds, two golf courses (Shelby Golf Course is 18 holes), bike and hiking trails, tennis courts, a dog park, and direct access to the Shelby Bottoms Greenway. The greenway extends the park experience along the Cumberland River for another 960 acres of natural habitat, including forests, wetlands, and riverside trails.
On a weekend morning in good weather, the park fills with people running, cycling, walking dogs, playing with children, and generally doing what a functional urban park allows. The proximity to residential neighborhoods means that people walk to the park regularly rather than driving to it, which is not something you can say about most Nashville parks.
The Cumberland River frontage gives Shelby Park its best feature: river views without the commercialized riverfront infrastructure of downtown. This is just a river with trails next to it, which is exactly what it should be.
Lockeland Springs
Lockeland Springs is the residential neighborhood bordered by Shelby Park to the south, Five Points to the north, and the Shelby Golf Course to the east. It was originally developed as a streetcar suburb in the 1880s, and its grid street layout is one of the most walkable in East Nashville. The housing stock runs from large turn-of-the-century Victorians on the more prominent streets to 1920s bungalows on the residential blocks.
Lockeland Elementary Design Center, one of Nashville’s top-performing magnet schools with an arts-integrated curriculum, is in Lockeland Springs. The combination of good schools, walkable streets, park access, and proximity to Five Points makes it the most sought-after residential address in East Nashville. Prices reflect this: homes in Lockeland Springs move quickly and carry a premium over comparable properties elsewhere in East Nashville.
Restaurants and bars that serve Lockeland Springs specifically include Lockeland Table (community kitchen and bar on Woodland Street), Dino’s (late-night on Gallatin), and the general Five Points cluster a walkable distance away. Residents are close enough to both Five Points and the park to use both daily.
Shelby Hills
Shelby Hills is the neighborhood between Shelby Park to the east and the Cumberland River to the south, a more transitional area that has been gentrifying steadily but remains less uniform than Lockeland Springs. The housing mix includes renovated historic homes alongside properties that haven’t been touched in decades, new construction appearing on previously vacant lots, and the general mix of a neighborhood mid-process.
The direct park adjacency is Shelby Hills’ main selling point. Access to the greenway from the neighborhood’s southern edge is walkable from most addresses. The neighborhood’s own commercial infrastructure is thin; residents mostly use Five Points or the Shelby Avenue corridor for restaurants and bars.
The Greenway as Infrastructure
The Shelby Bottoms Greenway is not just a recreational amenity; it’s a commuting route. Cyclists use it to reach downtown without dealing with Gallatin Avenue traffic. Runners use it year-round. Dog walkers use it daily. The paved multi-use trail runs through 960 acres of natural habitat between the Shelby Street Pedestrian Bridge to the west and roads to the east, creating a continuous outdoor corridor that connects East Nashville to the riverfront.
For visitors, the greenway is one of Nashville’s most underrated experiences: a long, flat, scenic river walk that functions as a complete break from urban infrastructure.
Sources
- Nashville Roots Real Estate, East Nashville sub-neighborhoods: https://nashvilleroots.com/east-nashville/
- Nashville MLS, Living in East Nashville: https://www.nashvillesmls.com/blog/what-you-need-to-know-about-living-in-east-nashville.html
- City Living Group, Discover East Nashville: https://nashvillecityliving.com/neighborhoods/east-nashville
- Living TN, East Nashville: https://livingtn.com/east-nashville/
- Nesting in Nashville, East Nashville Neighborhoods Map: https://nestinginnashville.com/blog/east-nashville-neighborhoods-map
- Wikipedia, East Nashville, Tennessee: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EastNashville,Tennessee