With the announcement of the upcoming Pride of Ownership publication, I’ve finally had the incentive that I need to actually produce something worthwhile in the PoO category. I could also use a little help to determine the final entry from among the pictures that I’ve taken. I’ve seen your entries, and I must say that the bar has been set very high!
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In the original Pride of Ownership competition, I abstained because it simply didn’t seem fair for me, a site author, to enter the competition. Now that it’s for everyone’s consumption, I felt that I could add a little something to the mix with a little effort on my part.

As I’ve mentioned before, I live in Franklin, Tennessee, a town about 15 miles from Nashville, Tennessee. I’m a Nashville native as well. I’ve included pictures from both towns in this group.

The raw photos are on Flickr.

I’m open to input on these; if you see a picture that’s better, than another, I’m all ears. At the moment, I’m partial to the 1st Avenue shot because it’s got interesting depth and the lines are well arranged toward a common vanishing point — the street, roof tops, flags, car, etc.

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The Parthenon, located in Nashville’s Centennial Park, was built for the state of Tennessee’s Centennial celebration in 1897. It is an exact full-scale replica of the original Parthenon in Athens, Greece, complete with a full-scale replica Athena Parthenos sculpture inside. It was inspired by Nashville’s identity as the “Athens of the South” due to the numerous universities and colleges located here.

The likeness of the Parthenon is frequently used as a symbol for the city of Nashville, and Centennial Park is certainly the major city park.

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Nashville, Tennessee is known as “Music City USA”, a reference to the city’s place as the world capitol of the country music industry. Nashville gained this status in the early days of radio broadcasting in the early part of the 20th century. The Grand Ole Opry, broadcast from Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium since the 1920′s, is still a country music mainstay and one of the world’s oldest running broadcasts of any kind. It created an entire entertainment district in downtown Nashville that includes the Printer’s Alley, lower Broadway and Riverfront areas. Tourism and entertainment is Nashville’s single largest industry by revenue.

This picture shows the Riverfront area along 1st Avenue in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. The Saab is parked in the riverboat tour terminal on the banks of the Cumberland River.

Also in the entertainment district, the Ernest Tubb Record Shop is a local icon. Formerly owned by the celebrated country singer/songwriter, his record shop is known for hosting a clear-channel country music radio program on Saturday nights that featured a single performer, historically the up-and-coming artists in country music. They pioneered mail order music to fill the vast number of requests from outside the immediate area for recordings produced by the weekly guest. Plus, they’ve preserved the cool old-school 1960′s-era sign.

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Franklin, Tennessee is a small town just outside of Nashville, Tennessee on the Harpeth River. During the War Between the States (aka the American Civil War), Franklin was considered a strategic location for two reasons: its was a major agricultural center that controlled a great portion of the region’s economy and it is surrounded by a ring of hills that could serve as defensive positions. The Battle of Franklin was a major event in the War Between the States, resulting in over 8,000 deaths and innumerable wounded.

The town square pictured includes the traditional monument for the Confederate war dead — a spire topped with a Confederate soldier in the uniform of the region facing towards Richmond, Virginia, the former capitol of the Confederate States of America. The canon on the monument mound are the real thing — 1860′s brass canon barrels with concrete pedestals in lieu of the original cast-iron stands.