Nashville Sites

What Nashville Sites does

Nashville Sites is a digital public history platform operated by the Nashville Historical Foundation, a Nashville-based nonprofit organization founded in 2017. The platform provides free, scholar-curated self-guided walking and driving tours of Nashville's historic and cultural sites via a mobile-friendly website — no app download required — with GPS navigation, audio narration, historic imagery, and QR code access at physical locations. The product portfolio includes more than 60 themed tours covering civil rights history, music heritage, architecture, food, women's sports, neighborhoods, and university campuses, available in English, Spanish, and Arabic, with curriculum-aligned lesson plans for classroom use and a virtual tour mode for remote access from any device.

The technology stack is intentionally lightweight: a web-based frontend backed by Firebase storage for media assets, integrated with Google Maps for directions and Spotify for curated playlists. Tours are produced through collaborations with five major universities (Fisk, Tennessee State, Vanderbilt, Belmont, Middle Tennessee State) and cultural organizations, drawing on credentialed narrators including university faculty, the Davidson County Historian, and public officials such as Mayor Freddie O'Connell.

Nashville Sites generates no revenue from tour access; the entire user-facing product is free and ad-free. The organization is sustained by donations (collected via Donorbox), merchandise sales, and grants/foundation funding from sources including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Mike and Linda Curb Foundation, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Its GTM motion is purely product-led/self-serve, relying on social media (Instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok, Spotify) and earned media for awareness, with a hybrid customer segmentation spanning tourists, local residents, students/educators, and history enthusiasts.

Name

Nashville Sites

Legal name

Nashville Historical Foundation

Website

https://nashvillesites.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Nashville Sites is a nonprofit digital platform that provides free, scholar-curated self-guided walking and driving tours of Nashville's historic and cultural sites to tourists, local residents, students, and educators via a web-based interface with GPS navigation and audio narration.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cultural Heritage Tourism Services

NAICS

Historical Sites (71212), Museums, Historical Sites, and Similar Institutions (7121)

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)

akta.pro primary industry

Historic Sites, Heritage Landmarks & Archaeological Sites (THAJACAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

Cultural Heritage & Historic District Tours (THAJAAAB), Neighborhood & Local Life Tours (Communities & Hidden Gems) (THAJAAAJ), Museum & Landmark Guided Tours (Skip-the-line/Docent-led) (THAJAAAC), Religious Landmarks & Pilgrimage Sites (Temples, Churches, Shrines) (THAJACAG)

Keywords

• Digital history tours
• Self-guided walking tours
• Cultural heritage platform
• Public history education
• Audio tour content

Headquarters

HQ city

Nashville

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Donations: Nashville Sites accepts donations through Donorbox platform to support creation of new tours and content. The platform is free to users.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Nashville Sites is a free, mobile-friendly web platform that delivers theme-based self-guided walking and driving tours of Nashville's historic and cultural sites. Each tour pairs historic images, written narrative, audio narration, and GPS-guided navigation, and is accessible via web browser, QR code at physical locations, or a virtual online mode. Tours are curated by credentialed historians and university faculty and offered at no cost to individual users.

Product overview

Nashville Sites is a digital public history platform operated by the Nashville Historical Foundation that provides free, ad-free walking and driving tours of Nashville's historic and cultural sites. The platform offers a portfolio of theme-based tours including Civil Rights Movement Driving Tour, Music in Music City (North Broadway) Tour, Centennial Park Tour, City Hall and Public Square Tour, Women's Sports History Driving Tour, and various neighborhood/campus tours. Tours are available as in-person walking/driving experiences with GPS navigation, QR code access, and audio narration, or as virtual tours accessible online from any device. Educational tours with accompanying lesson plans are also available for classroom use.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Nashville Sites Walking Tours Platform Mobile-friendly web platform providing theme-based walking and driving tours of Nashville's historic and cultural sites, featuring text, historic images, GPS navigation, and audio narration. Free of charge and ad-free.
• Civil Rights Movement Driving Tour

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Centennial Park ConservancycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 25 February 2026Collaborative partnership to launch self-guided Centennial Park audio tour featuring QR codes at various park locations. The tour highlights the park's history, cultural significance, and environmental features with narration from notable figures.
• Tennessee Civil War National Heritage AreacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSponsored Civil War Driving tour developed in partnership with Center for Historic Preservation at Middle Tennessee State University.
• Nashville Historical FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerParent organization that operates Nashville Sites, providing organizational infrastructure, staff, and resources for tour development.
• Metro Nashville ParkscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner for tours at public parks including Centennial Park, with staff involvement in tour content development and historical curation.
• Fisk UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUniversity partner contributing scholars for tour development including Civil Rights Movement Driving (Prof. Linda Wynn) and Jefferson Street Driving tour.
• Tennessee State UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHBCU partner with multiple collaborations on tours including Dr. Learotha Williams as Director of Public History for Nashville Sites.
• Vanderbilt UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUniversity partner contributing graduate students, faculty expertise, and funding for multiple tour projects including Mellon-funded initiatives.
• Belmont UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUniversity partner with student involvement in tour creation, particularly in Honors Program collaborations for multiple tour topics.
• Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner through Center for Historic Preservation for Civil War tours and Public History program student involvement.
• The District and Downtown PartnershipminorGTM or Marketing PartnerSponsor of Historic Second Avenue tour supporting downtown Nashville tourism and economic development.
• El Mahaba CenterminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner for Arabic translation of City Hall and Public Square tour, making content accessible to Arabic-speaking communities.
• Belmont University Honors ProgramminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerStudent collaboration for multiple tour development projects including Capitol and Church Architecture and Downtown Public Art.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Atlas Obscura: Atlas Obscura curates unique places, experiences, and food/drink tours across global destinations, with a focus on history, culture, and hidden stories — overlapping thematically with Nashville Sites' approach to uncovering hidden Nashville narratives.
• Storyteller Travel / Storyteller App: Storyteller produces self-guided historical audio walking tours and digital storytelling experiences, analogous to Nashville Sites' theme-based self-guided format with narrator-led audio.

Direct peers

• VoiceMap: VoiceMap is a global marketplace and platform for self-guided GPS audio walking tours, monetized via per-tour purchases. Comparable to Nashville Sites on technology (GPS-triggered audio narration) and walking-tour delivery format, though monetized.
• Clio: The Clio is a free web and mobile platform for discovering historical sites and walking tours across the U.S., with scholar-curated entries and GPS-guided exploration — directly comparable to Nashville Sites' model, content category, and free access approach.
• izi.TRAVEL: izi.TRAVEL is a self-guided audio tour platform used by museums, cities, and cultural institutions to publish mobile-based tours via QR codes. Highly comparable on audio tour delivery, institutional publishing model, and QR-code integration at physical sites.
• GPSmyCity: GPSmyCity offers self-guided walking tours and travel articles with GPS navigation across thousands of cities. Comparable on self-guided city walking tour format, scale across multiple destinations, and freemium monetization approach.
• Detour: Detour produces location-based audio walking tours featuring notable narrators, distributed via a mobile app. Comparable to Nashville Sites on self-guided, narrator-led audio tours and theme-based storytelling, though app-based and paid.
• TravelStorys: TravelStorys is a GPS-triggered audio tour platform partnering with tourism boards, national parks, and historic sites. Comparable on technology (location-triggered audio) and on serving a similar audience of tourists exploring historic places.

Broad incumbents

• Free Tours by Foot: Free Tours by Foot operates free tip-based walking tours across many U.S. cities led by human guides. Comparable on free-to-the-user pricing model and city-themed tours, though differs by relying on live guides rather than self-guided technology.

Others

• National Trust for Historic Preservation: The National Trust is a national nonprofit that funds and operates historic preservation initiatives and is a direct funding partner of Nashville Sites. It is not a direct competitor but a relevant ecosystem partner for grant economics and preservation-themed peer comparison.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/nashvillesites
• Facebookfacebook.com/nashvillesites
• Instagraminstagram.com/nashvillesites
• TikTokvm.tiktok.com/ZM8b5kJuR
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/nashville-sites

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Nashville Sites