Decoding Nashville’s Streets
Make sense of our sometimes-confusing streets and byways.
Picture a wheel with downtown Nashville as its hub. The “spokes” will take you from the metro area to almost any part of town. Originally they were pikes connecting satellite cities and named accordingly (Franklin Pike, for example). Heads up: we use names like Franklin Pike and Franklin Road interchangeably.
Sorry to say, you’ll discover that we like to change the names of streets. So what’s 4th Avenue S. in town becomes Nolensville Pike once you leave the city proper. Same road, different name. If you’re in East Nashville, Main Street becomes Gallatin Pike (or Road) once you’re a few blocks out of town.
What’s called Broadway when you’re downtown becomes West End Avenue once you cross 16th Avenue and changes to Harding Road a few miles out of town. Again, apologies.
Decoding Avenues and Streets
Numbered streets are on the east side (11st Street) of the Cumberland River. Numbered avenues are on the west side of the river (e.g. 21st Avenue).
The red lines on the map want to be your friends.
Broadway (in the heart of the Honky Tonk District) aka West End Avenue divides north and south, thus French’s Boots is at 126 2nd Avenue, N. and the Johnny Cash Museum is at 119 3rd Avenue, S.
Main Street/Gallatin Pike, on the east side of the Cumberland, divides north and south. Thus, funky hot dog stand I Dream of Weenie is found at 113 South 11st Street.
For reasons I can’t explain, we have 1st Avenue, North but it’s traditionally called North 1st Street.
