Alan LeQuire's 1990 re-creation of the Athena Parthenos statue in the naos (the east room of the main hall) is the focus of the Parthenon just as it was in ancient Greece.

Originally built of plaster, wood, and brick,[6] the Parthenon was not intended to be permanent, but the cost of demolishing the structure combined with its popularity with residents and visitors alike resulted in it being left standing after the Exposition.

[5] Within the next 20 years, weather had caused deterioration of the landmark; it was then rebuilt on the same foundations, in concrete, in a project that started in 1920; the exterior was completed in 1925 and the interior in 1931.

The 1913 performance was entitled The Fire Regained, a play written by Sidney Mttron Hirsch, and featured a mythological story line enhanced by theatrical spectacle popular in that era.

As an art museum, the Parthenon's permanent collection on the lower level exhibits 63 paintings by 19th and 20th century American artists, donated by James M. Cowan in 1927–1929.

In 1982, Alan LeQuire was commissioned to create the statue of Athena Parthenos[7] as a reconstruction, to scholarly standards, of the long-lost original: she is cuirassed and helmeted, carries a shield on her left arm, a 6-foot-high (1.8 m) statue of Nike (Victory) in her right palm, and stands 42 feet (13 m) high, gilt (as of 2002)[7] with more than 8 pounds (3.6 kg) of gold leaf; an equally colossal serpent rears its head between her and her shield.

[9] In the summertime, local theater productions use the building as a backdrop for classic Greek plays such as Euripides' Medea and Sophocles' Antigone, performing (usually for free) on the steps of the Parthenon.

The Parthenon served as the location for the political rally in the climactic scene of Robert Altman's 1975 film Nashville.