Ryman Auditorium
Victorian tabernacle turned concert hall, long-time home of the Grand Ole Opry radio show.
The building opened in 1892 as the Union Gospel Tabernacle, paid for by the riverboat operator Thomas Ryman after he heard the revivalist Samuel Porter Jones preach. Designed by the Nashville architect Hugh Cathcart Thompson in red brick with Gothic Revival lancet windows, it seated a large congregation on a sloping floor and in a horseshoe balcony added in 1897 for a Confederate veterans' reunion. Renamed after Ryman's death in 1904, it became the city's principal hall for lectures, opera and touring companies.
From 1943 to 1974 it housed the Grand Ole Opry, the radio programme that spread country music nationally, and the wooden pews and unamplified acoustics became part of the genre's identity. After the Opry moved east to a purpose-built house, the Ryman stood largely unused until a restoration completed in 1994 returned it to year-round use. A further expansion in 2015 added a lobby, exhibition space and cafe; the auditorium now hosts concerts across many genres and daytime tours.
Highlights
- Curved oak pews and horseshoe balcony of 1897
- Stage where the Grand Ole Opry broadcast from 1943 to 1974
- Gothic Revival brick exterior with lancet windows
- Backstage tour taking in dressing rooms and the stage itself
