Michael Cass

mcass@tennessean.com

Fort Nashborough, the riverfront representation of a fort built by some of Nashville’s first settlers and a destination for generations of schoolchildren, is on track to reopen with a much different look next year, Metro’s parks director said Tuesday.

Metro is redesigning the site to be an open plaza with contemporary interpretive elements such as touch screens rather than an enclosed structure, Parks Director Tommy Lynch told The Tennessean. Lynch said he expects demolition to start by the end of this summer, and the $1 million project should be completed in the summer of 2015.

“It needs to be fixed,” he said. “It’s a connection to our past and to the founding.”

The original Fort Nashborough was built around 1780 on about 2 acres of land along the western bank of the Cumberland River, just north of the current, smaller site. Settlers such as James Robertson wanted to defend themselves from attacks by Native Americans, who used the area as a hunting ground and depended on it for their livelihood.

Bill Carey, founder of Tennessee History for Kids, said the plan to reopen the site is “good news,” especially for students who will need to understand the founding of Nashville to meet the state’s new social studies standards.

The fourth-grade “History of America (to 1850)” standards starting in 2014-15, for example, will include this directive: “Explain the purpose and obstacles in creating the new Cumberland Settlement.”

“The reason it’s important is not because of you or me or tourists,” Carey said. “It’s because of fourth-graders and eighth-graders.”

The city closed the site on First Avenue North a year ago for safety reasons as consultant David Currey, principal with Encore Interpretive Design, worked on a plan to rebuild it and make it more visitor-friendly.

Reach Michael Cass at 615-259-8838 and on Twitter @tnmetro.