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An Apollonaut travel guide
Red brick off Broadway.
An introduction to downtown Nashville, where the Ryman Auditorium stands half a block from Broadway.
On this page
Read the city around you
The Ryman stands between Fourth and Fifth Avenues, half a block north of Broadway, among the newer buildings of downtown Nashville.
A city guide can give context without turning a neighbourhood into a backdrop. Notice how the older brick building sits among taller ones, and how the street still leads people towards it.
Brick, glass and wooden pews
Hugh Cathcart Thompson’s design uses red brick trimmed in white, with tall pointed windows along its sides and a great arched window in its gable. Inside, curved wooden pews face the stage.
Begin with a detail and ask how it was made, repaired and maintained. A photograph alone cannot tell you who laid the brick or shaped the pews, or the conditions in which they worked.
A Nashville chapter
The Ryman shows Nashville changing over more than a century: a revival tabernacle of the 1890s, a city concert hall, then the stage that gave country music a home.
Look at the meeting of the two: a nineteenth-century building and a working music venue.
Make room for context
Pair this city reading with the Ryman’s history and the Journal. This is an introduction for visitors, not a claim that our team manages these places, commissions their restoration or represents their makers.
Read at the source
Sources & further reading
Links lead to the original publishers.
