Opry Mills

Opry Mills is a super-regional shopping mall owned by Simon Property Group, formerly by its initial owners Mills Corporation and Gaylord Entertainment. It opened in Nashville, Tennessee in 2000 on the former site of the Opryland USA theme park.

The mall is adjacent to the Grand Ole Opry House and the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center.

Description

Prior to its temporary 2010-2012 closure, Opry Mills was a single level mall that contained over 200 stores (although no department stores), including Bass Pro Shops, Blacklion, Bed Bath & Beyond, Gibson Showcase, Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th, and Barnes & Noble. There is also a large food court that contains Which Wich, Chili's Too, T.G.I. Friday's, Burger King, and Villa Pizza. Johnny Rockets, Tony Roma's, Rainforest Cafe, Dave '& Busters, Aquarium Restaurant and Romano's Macaroni Grill restaurants are located outside the court.

The General Jackson and Music City Queen showboats, which operate on the Cumberland River, are docked just outside Opry Mills.

Mills

Mills is the plural form of mill, but may also refer to:

As a name

Places

United States

Opry

The word opry is a diminutive form of the word opera, coined by broadcaster George D. Hay in 1927 as the new name of his program, the WSM Barn Dance, to demonstrate the realism of folk and country music compared to the theatrics of grand opera. At that time Hay's show followed a program of operatic music. One night Hay began the Barn Dance by stating, "You have just heard opera. Now you are going to hear the Grand Ole Opry".

The first reference in print to the WSM Barn Dance as the Grand Ole Opry occurred on December 11, 1927, in The Nashville Tennessean. Within six months of Hay's renaming of the program, the title Grand Ole Opry supplanted the generic Barn Dance and became used exclusively as the name of the show. “Opry” is a shortened form of "Grand Ole Opry" and is used by the brand owner and the public to refer to the Grand Ole Opry.

Dedicated to honoring country music and its history, the Opry showcases a mix of legends and contemporary chart-toppers performing country, bluegrass, folk, gospel, and comedic performances and skits. Considered an American icon, it attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world and millions of radio and Internet listeners. The Opry is the "show that made country music famous" and has been called the "home of American music" and "country’s most famous stage". The Grand Ole Opry is owned and operated by Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc.

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. Nashville is the second largest city in Tennessee, after Memphis, and is the fourth largest city in the Southeastern United States. It is located on the Cumberland River in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the music, healthcare, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home to numerous colleges and universities. Reflecting the city's position in state government, Nashville is home to the Tennessee Supreme Court's courthouse for Middle Tennessee. It is known as a center of the music industry, earning it the nickname "Music City".

Since 1963, Nashville has had a consolidated city-county government which includes six smaller municipalities in a two-tier system. Thirty-five of 40 members are elected from single-member districts; five are elected at-large. According to 2013 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, the total consolidated city-county population stood at 659,042. The "balance" consolidated population, which excludes the semi-independent municipalities and is the figure listed in most demographic sources and national rankings, was 634,464. The 2013 population of the entire 13-county Nashville metropolitan area was 1,757,912, making it the largest metropolitan statistical area in the state. The 2013 population of the Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Columbia combined statistical area, a larger trade area, was 1,876,933.