Cultivated as farmland by some of the earliest families in Nashville, the territory became controlled by the state and used as a park after the American Civil War.

[3] Some of the land was part of the Burlington plantation established by Joseph T. Elliston, who served as the fourth mayor of Nashville from 1814 to 1817.

[4] The Ellistons were slaveholders,[5] and their plantation extended into what are now part of the campus of Vanderbilt University and West End Park.

The lake was named for an area in western North Carolina that was the origin of a number of early settlers of Nashville.

Lake Watauga, the gardens, bandshell and the Parthenon were the most prominent features when the park was officially dedicated in May 1903.

On July 18, 1961, six African Americans were turned away when they tried to use the public swimming pool in the park, which, was, of course, supported by their tax dollars.

[12] It was not until after passage in 1964 of a national civil rights law ending discrimination that African Americans were allowed to use the park.

Finally, in the 1920s the city and park officials agreed to replace the temporary plaster building with a permanent, concrete and steel structure.

[citation needed] In the 1960s, the park was the site of Sunday afternoon concerts; Pat Boone was among the early performers in this series.

In 1990, a statue of Pallas Athena, designed by Nashville sculptor Alan LeQuire, was added to the art gallery inside the Parthenon.

[citation needed] In 2012, workers found the source of the spring that was a major feature during Anne Robertson Johnson Cockrill's ownership of the land.

It features depictions of Carrie Chapman Catt, Anne Dallas Dudley, Abby Crawford Milton, Juno Frankie Pierce, and Sue Shelton White, local activists for women suffrage.

[citation needed] American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift mentioned Centennial Park twice in her song "Invisible String" from her eighth studio album Folklore.