NASHVILLE (AP) — Construction is starting this week on the first blockhouse to be part of Nashville Metro Parks' new Fort Nashborough Interpretive Center.

The center will be located on the Cumberland River's west bank in downtown Nashville. The first phase is to be completed late next spring.

Metro Parks Director Tommy Lunch says the facility will offer somewhere for people to learn about the city's beginnings as well as add a riverfront tourist destination.

A reproduction frontier station was built in the 1930s. It was replaced in the 1960s near where the original fort was located in the 1780s. It fell into disrepair and was razed in 2015.