
Restricted · see it from the road
6404 Centennial Boulevard, Cockrill Bend, West Nashville, Tennessee
Tennessee State Prison
The old state prison in West Nashville played the outside of Cold Mountain Penitentiary; the story is set in Louisiana.
It opened in 1898: a Gothic, fortress-like building inside rock walls about 20 feet high and 3 feet thick, with 800 small cells.
The Historic American Buildings Survey noted that, at first glance, it looks less like a prison than a romantic European castle.
It closed in June 1992. The interior was declared off-limits in 2011 because of asbestos, and an EF3 tornado badly damaged the building in March 2020.
It has been a film set before and since, from Nashville (1975) and Ernest Goes to Jail (1990) to The Last Castle (2001) and Walk the Line (2005).
Closed since 1992 and not open to the public; the buildings are unsafe. It can be seen from a distance from public ground on Centennial Boulevard.























