Join over 5,000 Nashvillians to help save Fort Negley Park.
Choose History. Choose Parks. Not Condos.
Our
Proposal
Cloud Hill Development Proposal
Act Now.
Mayor Megan Barry's administration intends to award a for-profit developer the right to build condos and office space on Nashville's Fort Negley Park. This development would permanently destroy 21 acres of parkland in Nashville's urban core, where greenspace is dwindling because of boom-time development.
What's at stake?
Mayor Barry's administration's development plan raises four serious problems.
01. Save our Parks
If we destroy Fort Negley Park to build condos and offices, then no parkland in Nashville is safe. Downtown is already starved for greenspace.
02. preserve history
Fort Negley is a nationally recognized Civil War Heritage site.
In 1862, hundreds of African Americans, former slaves and freedmen, worked and died here building the Union fort, the largest inland masonry fort constructed during the War. Historians believe many unmarked graves remain.
03. Fix the process
Mayor Barry's administration chose the for-profit developer through a closed-door process.
They never considered leaving Fort Negley Park a park.
04. Find the graves
Metro Council has already allocated funding for a Fort Negley Park Cultural Survey to locate the unmarked African American graves and explore the Park's historical significance.
This survey should not be rushed in Nashville's race to convert this Park to condos.
Join Us
Experts Weigh In
Liz Atack – Wedgewood-Houston Resident
My memories of Fort Negley begin in high school: I distinctly remember stroking the back of a giant (caged!) pigeon on the roof of the Cumberland Science Museum while staring at the brambly ruins of what I would later know was the Fort. And St. Cloud Hill, with its amazing panoramic views of Nashville, served as a prime firework-watching location throughout high school and college. But I didn’t know Fort Negley intimately until December 2004, when my partner and I bought our home, just one week after Fort Negley Park reopened to the public.
DR. LEAROTHA WILLIAMS — PROFESSOR
"In short, Fort Negley Park is important because it is one of the foundations upon which the culture of modern-day Nashville sits. We as Nashville citizens should not value commercial development over the preservation of our culturally precious sites. And there is none more precious to Nashville’s African American history than Fort Negley Park."
NAACP NASHVILLE BRANCH
"With its historic background, Nashville would make a terrible mistake to convert any portion of Fort Negley Park to private, for-profit development."
Fort Negley Park nominated for UNESCO Slave Route Project Site
The Friends of Fort Negley Park, in partnership with the Nashville chapter of the NAACP and Dr. Jane Landers and Dr. Angela Sutton of Vanderbilt University, are pleased to announce that Fort Negley Park has been nominated as a site for UNESCO’s Slave Route Project. Fort Negley Park is the first site in the United States to be nominated for such designation and would join other globally significant sites such as, Valongo Wharf in Rio de Janeiro and Santo Domingo Square in Mexico City.
Latest News
the washington post | february 7, 2018
Fort Negley was a Union Civil War fort, part of a series of fortifications that sat on the hills that ringed Nashville like a wooden and stone necklace. It was built in the last five months of 1862 by 2,771 African American laborers, many of whom — some estimate up to 800 — died while working on Nashville’s fortifications.
THE TENNESSEAN | MARCH 13, 2018
Nashville Mayor David Briley on Tuesday proposed the demolition of Greer Stadium and the restoration of the land so it can be reincorporated into Fort Negley Park, ushering in a dramatic change of fate for the historic site just days into his new job.
THE TENNESSEAN | February 12, 2018
Three months after filing a lawsuit against Metro government alleging mishandling of plans to redevelop the Greer Stadium site, plaintiffs on Monday withdrew their lawsuit.
Nashville Councilman Steve Glover, of Hermitage, called a news conference with attorney Jim Roberts to announce the decision, telling reporters that the group accomplished what it had set out to do: hold the city accountable to following its own rules when receiving bids on development projects.