Downtown Nashville: homes, schools, parks and commute

Last checked Oct. 19, 2026. Sources: the Metro Planning Department’s Downtown Community Plan page, the Downtown Community Plan, amended Oct. 6, 2022 (PDF), Metro’s community planning area boundaries and park locations, Metro Nashville Public Schools’ zone finder, the Tennessee Department of Education’s 2024-25 letter grades, the Zillow Home Value Index, WeGo Public Transit’s schedule data, 2020 Census blocks and OpenStreetMap. Metro Planning: 615-862-7190.

Downtown is the smallest of the 14 community plan areas that the Metro Planning Department uses to divide Nashville and Davidson County. The plan describes it as about 1,780 acres, bounded by Jefferson Street on the north and the inner ring of the interstate loop on the east, south and west. The Cumberland River runs through it, so it includes the East Bank as well as the business district. About 11,700 people lived inside the line at the 2020 census, in about 9,400 homes, by our count of Census blocks.

What this means for you

• High school: nearly all downtown residents are zoned for Pearl-Cohn High.
• Home value: Zillow’s typical value in ZIP code 37203 was $608,496 in September 2026.
• Interstate: I-40/I-65 Exit 209 (Broadway and Demonbreun Street) is about half a mile from the area’s population center.

Where it is

The Downtown Community Plan names three features that shape the area: Capitol Hill to the north, Rutledge Hill to the south and the river. For planning, it splits downtown into 15 neighborhoods:

• James Robertson, the Core (central business district), Upper Broadway and 2nd & Broadway
• SoBro (South of Broadway), Rutledge Hill, Lafayette, and Rolling Mill Hill & Rutledge River
• Gulch North and Gulch South
• Hope Gardens, Sulphur Dell and Bicentennial Mall
• East Bank

Downtown is zoned under its own Downtown Code, not the countywide base zoning; see the Downtown Code page. About 43% of residents live in ZIP code 37203 (the Gulch and SoBro side), 21% in 37201, 20% in 37219 and 10% in 37210, by 2020 Census block counts.

Schools

Metro Nashville Public Schools assigns schools by address. In a public copy of the district’s 2025-26 high school zone map, about 99% of downtown residents fall in the Pearl-Cohn zone:

Elementary and middle school zones change from street to street. Check one address in the MNPS zone finder. Magnet schools such as Hume-Fogg, on Broadway inside the plan area, admit by application, not by zone. Grades are from the Tennessee Department of Education’s 2024-25 A-F letter grade file. More in our schools guide.

Home values

According to the Zillow Home Value Index (Zillow Research):

The index is a modeled typical value for the middle third of homes, not a sale price. Most downtown homes are condominiums and apartments. More in our home prices guide.

Parks and trails

From Metro Parks’ park locations:

• Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park, about 51 acres, 600 James Robertson Parkway, run by the state.
• Riverfront Park, about 19 acres, 170 1st Ave. N., on the river.
• Public Square Park, about 6 acres, 10 Public Square, at the Metro Courthouse.
• Walk of Fame Park, 121 4th Ave. S., and Frankie Pierce Park, 130 Lifeway Plaza.
• Wasioto Park, about 13 acres, 592 S. 1st St., on the East Bank.
• Hope Gardens Park, 1009 Phillips St.

Metro’s greenway map shows the Cumberland River Greenway along the river and the Gulch Greenway. See our parks and trails guide.

Getting around

• Interstates: from the population center, I-40/I-65 Exit 209 (Broadway and Demonbreun Street) is about 0.6 mile, I-40 Exit 210 (I-65 south) about 0.9 mile and I-24 Exit 49 (Korean Veterans Boulevard and Shelby Avenue) about 1 mile, as the crow flies, per OpenStreetMap exit numbers.
• Airport: about 8.7 miles by road to Nashville International Airport (BNA), measured on the OpenStreetMap road network. That is a distance, not a drive time.
• Buses: WeGo Public Transit’s Music City Central transit center is on 4th Avenue North. In WeGo’s current schedule data, 31 of its 37 routes stop downtown, including local routes such as 3 West End, 4 Shelby, 52 Nolensville Pike, 55 Murfreesboro Pike and 56 Gallatin Pike, the 18 Airport route and commuter express routes to Clarksville, Murfreesboro, Franklin and other cities. The WeGo Star commuter train (route 90) also stops downtown. Route maps are on WeGo’s bus page.

See our getting around guide and Lower Broadway guide.

Groceries and everyday stores

From OpenStreetMap:

• Publix on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
• Whole Foods Market on Broadway.
• Walgreens on 5th Avenue North.

More neighborhoods

Downtown is one of the areas in our Nashville neighborhoods guide. Next door: North Nashville across Jefferson Street, East Nashville across the river and Green Hills-Midtown to the southwest.

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Plan area boundaries and parks: Metro Nashville. School zones: Metro Nashville Public Schools. Population and housing counts: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census.

Frequently asked questions

What are the boundaries of downtown Nashville?

Metro’s Downtown Community Plan covers about 1,780 acres bounded by Jefferson Street on the north and the inner interstate loop on the east, south and west. It includes the East Bank across the Cumberland River.

What high school is downtown Nashville zoned for?

Nearly all downtown residents are zoned for Pearl-Cohn High, 904 26th Ave. N., which earned a D in Tennessee’s 2024-25 letter grades. Check one address in the MNPS zone finder.

What is the typical home value in downtown Nashville?

Zillow’s typical value was $608,496 in ZIP code 37203 and $484,279 in 37201 in September 2026, according to the Zillow Home Value Index.

How many people live in downtown Nashville?

About 11,700 people lived inside the Downtown plan area at the 2020 census, in about 9,400 homes, by our count of Census blocks inside Metro’s boundary.