It stands just a block off the street in downtown Nashville known affectionately as “Music Row.

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An unassuming old theater, the Ryman Auditorium could easily be mistaken as just another
building in any city. Indeed, if one did not know what the Ryman was famous for, one would
likely just ignore the brick-covered, church-shaped structure. But the Ryman is one of the most
important buildings in Nashville and one of the most legendary shrines in all of American pop
cultural history. The Ryman is the historic full-time and current part-time home of the Grand Ole
Opry, the show responsible for making country music a part of American life.

When the Ryman first opened, though, one could not imagine its impact. Country music was not
yet a genre, and the building was constructed not as a music venue but rather as a church
(which probably explains why it looks so much like a church on the outside!). Thomas Ryman, a
Nashville saloon owner and riverboat captain, had funded the building as a space to house the
famed revivalist preacher Samuel Porter Jones. Ryman had actually gone to see Jones speak
in 1885 with the intention of heckling the preacher for a lark. Instead, Jones’ oratory won Ryman
over, and Ryman decided then and there to build a permanent “revival tent” for Jones.

The Ryman Auditorium opened in 1892 as the Union Gospel Tabernacle. Jones did use it for a
series of revival meetings in the 1890s, and it became a regular church for other pastors too.
Seeing an opportunity to make money on the venue, Ryman himself built a stage in 1901 to
host touring operas from New York. The Union Gospel Tabernacle thus became a home of both
religion and culture in downtown Nashville. Upon Ryman’s death in 1904, Jones suggested the
building be renamed for its founder, and unanimous applause supported the decision. Thus,
with no objections was born the Ryman Auditorium.

Over the next four decades, the Ryman transitioned from a church into a permanent auditorium.
Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft spoke there, as did Helen Keller and
Anne Sullivan Macy. Will Rogers, Charlie Chaplin, Harry Houdini, and Enrico Caruso all had
events there too. Judging by the list of names to appear there, the Ryman had clearly become
an important Nashville institution. But, in 1943, it would become even more important to the city,
as it became the permanent home of the Grand Ole Opry.

The Birth of Country

The Grand Ole Opry is a radio program that airs nationally out of Nashville and features live
performances by the biggest names in country music. While today Nashville is synonymous with
the genre, before the Grand Ole Opry existed, this was not the case. The genre’s rise—along
with the show’s rise—is a big reason Nashville grew into the city it is today.

Nashville’s history is not that dissimilar from that of the other river towns that dominated cultural
life in America. Cities on rivers tend to be breeding grounds for motley musical blends. It is no
coincidence that New Orleans birthed jazz, given the way cultures floated both down the
Mississippi and in from the Gulf of Mexico to meet there. Similarly, St. Louis helped develop
blues, with white merchants coming down the Mississippi from the North and black migrants
meeting them on their move from the South. And we all know about the role of Memphis
(another Mississippi River town) in creating rock ‘n’ roll. So it is with Nashville. The Cumberland
River opened Nashville up to the country folk singers of the Appalachians as well as the blues of
the Deep South. And its location in the center of the South made Nashville receptive the blues
from St. Louis too. Thus, it was almost inevitable that country music—that blend of Appalachian
folk and black blues—would be incubated there. Nashville became the home of many of the
genre’s earliest stars, and recording studios and concert venues made Nashville a city that all
country performers had to pass through regularly.

As the geographic center of the South and the eastern part of the Midwest, Nashville also
became an important radio town, as its radio signal would stretch for hundreds of miles
uninterrupted (since there were no other cities or mountains to interfere with the signal). Since
the city had so many performers stopping through, it seemed only logical to feature them on the
radio. In 1925, WSM put together a weekly showcase of these acts, eventually calling the
program the Grand Ole Opry. The show grew in popularity and fanfare, and by the 1940s, the
show was even picked up nationally by the NBC Red Network. As such, the show needed a
large venue to support its larger audience. The program moved around various Nashville
theaters until landing in the Ryman in 1943, just years before the start of country music’s golden
age. The Ryman, as such, became the host for the best-known country acts of all time,
including Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Hank Snow, Loretta Lynn, Kitty Wells, Dolly Parton,
Merle Haggard, and Patsy Cline. The auditorium even hosted a young Elvis Presley, though he
had a contract with the Opry’s rival program, The Louisiana Hayride.

The Ryman Today

In 1974, the Grand Ole Opry opened a venue outside Nashville to house the show during busy
tourist seasons. It still performs regularly out of the Ryman though during the off-season. Today,
the Ryman Auditorium is officially recognized as a National Historic Landmark, even while it
continues to host some of the biggest acts in music and film.

Visitors today still even sit in pews, in honor of the revival show tradition embraced by the
building’s creator more than a hundred years ago. It is a welcome throwback to country music’s
traditions and a welcome reminder that downtown Nashville was not always full of glass
skyscrapers and condominiums. More than anything, the Ryman serves as a bridge between
America’s cultural past, present, and future.