Karnak on the Cumberland

There are so many magnificent churches to see – architectural jewels abound! (They're like free art and history museums.) One of my favorites is right here in the U.S. and just 2-hrs away in Nashville. The Downtown Presbyterian Church (1849) is a favorite because it is in such a unique style for a church – Egyptian Revival, both exterior and interior! Apparently, only three churches were built in this style in the U.S. and the other two, located in Essex, Connecticut (1846) and Sag Harbor, New York (1844), are both white clapboard buildings that do not carry the style to the interior. The Downtown Presbyterian Church is, indeed, very unusual – and very beautiful! It was designed by Philadelphia architect William Strickland, who also designed the Tennessee State Capitol (1845).

The 1849 church was the third building of the First Presbyterian congregation on this site (the first two burned down). It originally had plain glass windows and the congregation ran out of money before the interior was completed. The painting scheme, which includes tromp l’oeil frescoes of Karnak, was not done until 1880-82. (Being that Nashville is on the Cumberland River, the church acquired the nickname “Karnak on the Cumberland.”)

Egyptian revival architecture uses ancient Egyptian motifs such as lotus columns, sphinxes, winged sun disks, pylons, cavetto cornices, and obelisks.

The 1917 addition to the church also incorporates winged sun disks in the cavetto cornices

The outdoor lamps on the addition have sphinxes on top

The rise of the Egyptian revival style in the 19th century is attributed to the public awareness of ancient Egyptian monuments generated by Napoleon’s scientific expeditions in Egypt and the later publication in the U.S. of the expedition’s findings. (The discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb in 1922 began a later Egyptian revival combined with Art Deco.) The first Egyptian revival building in the U.S. was the Mikveh Israel Synagogue in Philadelphia, built in 1824 and also designed by William Strickland. It was demolished in 1902, leaving the three still-existing churches as the only ecclesiastical examples of the style in the U.S. The most well-known Egyptian revival structure in the U.S. is the Washington Monument (begun in 1848). The obelisk originally featured doors with cavetto cornices and winged sun disks which were later removed. I wish they would put them back!

The stained glass windows were added in 1887.

Beautiful seats in the balcony

View from the balcony. The curved walnut benches replaced the original box pews in 1882.

President Andrew Jackson was a member of the church, and the first church building (1814) was the site of his presentation with a ceremonial sword after the Battle of New Orleans. The second building (1832) was the site of Tennessee Governor (and later U.S. President) James K. Polk’s inauguration. The current building was used as a military hospital during the Civil War (by Federal troops), as a refuge from floods in 1927 and 1937, as a place to sleep for thousands of soldiers on leave during WWII, and it currently tends to the needs of the less fortunate in the downtown community.  In 1954, the First Presbyterian congregation sold the building to some of its members and moved to the suburbs. It then became known as the Downtown Presbyterian Church.  

Original gas lamp shades previously used on either side of the lectern platform, 

on display in the history room

You can take a self-guided tour of the church on weekdays by ringing the bell at the Fellowship Hall door. They will let you in and take you to a room with displays on the history of the church, and you can tour the church from there on your own.

Metal and Mounds in Memphis

There are so many fantastic things to see in Memphis that the lesser known National Ornamental Metal Museum doesn’t usually show up in a top 10 list. However, it is worth a visit if you are at all interested in metal arts. According to their website, “The Metal Museum is the only institution in the United States devoted exclusively to the art and craft of fine metalwork. Unlike conventional art museums, it isn't just a place where art is displayed; it's a place where art is made. At the Metal Museum you can see works of art, see artists work, learn the craft and craft the art.” It is housed in several historic buildings right on the banks of the Mississippi River. Mark Twain described the view from this spot as the finest between Cairo and New Orleans.

The permanent collection includes sculpture, hardware, architectural pieces, and tools from the Renaissance to contemporary. I especially liked some of the architectural pieces such as this front door (made for the artist’s home in Hawaii, but it never got there).  

They have a small sculpture garden. I can't resist a sculpture garden of any size!

They also have temporary exhibitions. When my daughter and I visited they had two. In the first, jewelry maker Arline Fisch combined “jellyfish, crochet and wire with blown air and lighting effects in order to transform the Metal Museum’s exhibition space into an underwater environment.” I was skeptical when I read about it, but I really liked it.  

The second was contemporary South African studio jewelry, and it consisted of “provocative, experimental and formally engaging works.”  It was hard to tell that these items were actually jewelry.  They included ornamented animal skulls and rings with huge glass bubbles containing animal bones.  I assume that these are meant to be museum pieces and not to be worn!

It’s always fun to see artists and artisans at work; we watched some of them pouring liquid metal outdoors and working inside the blacksmith shop.

As we were leaving the metal museum, a brick structure on the side of a hill across the street caught my eye. The hill is in a park so we walked over to it and climbed up to check out the arched brick doorway. It was bricked up and we couldn’t see inside.

We climbed to the top of the hill and saw that it was hollowed out on top.  I wondered if maybe it had been some type of small reservoir. It was very windy up there, and there was a great view of the river. We climbed down a different side and found three signs:  

Well, that explained it all and we saw that there is another mound a short distance away. Very cool! (Later, I did some reading and found that this park is called De Soto Park and the mounds were long deserted when De Soto arrived, so they date back further than 1500.)

Dinosaur World

Traveling on the I-65 through Kentucky you probably notice “Dinosaur World” and, depending on your inclination for the kitschy, you are either thrilled or you keep on driving. From the signs, and the huge tiger-striped dinosaur, I thought this would be a very cheesy (i.e. super cool) place to visit so I stopped during a trip to Cincinnati. It turned out to be that and much more; I really enjoyed it! They have 150 life-size dinosaurs displayed outdoors, along paths through the woods. 

Signs give scientific information about the dinosaurs, including interesting information about the fossil finds. It’s less than a 3½-hr drive from Huntsville, just past Mammoth Cave National Park and next to the Jellystone Park campground. (Can you get any kitschier than that?!) It’s a great stop during a longer drive north or as a destination combined with other nearby attractions (Kentucky Down Under, Cave City, Mammoth Cave, Lincoln’s Birthplace, the Corvette factory tour, etc.).

When you see the herd of towering brachiosauruses you feel like you are in a scene from Jurassic Park. The outdoor setting is what makes this so much more impressive than a typical dinosaur replica exhibit (including the ones that have the actual dinosaurs used in the Jurassic Park movies – although those are awesome too).

Baby dinosaurs!!

There is a lot more here than just the well-known species of dinosaurs.

The tiger-striped roadside dinosaur is the only one in the park that 

does not represent an actual dinosaur species.

The 20-acre park also includes a museum with real and cast fossils, a playground, and activities for children.

“Dinosaur World!” is a chain with two other locations in Florida and Texas.