Explore Nashville, From a Quieter Block
Stay in an 1865 boutique inn five minutes from downtown — and use it as your base for the Ryman, the Opry, the Symphony, the Frist, and dinner reservations you'll talk about for years.
The Nashville Inside This 1865 Home
The Germantown Inn was built in 1865, the year Lincoln died and the year Tennessee began rebuilding from the Civil War. Twenty years later, Andrew Carnegie's railways reached Nashville. Forty years later, in 1925, a new radio station downtown started broadcasting a "barn dance" program that would become the Grand Ole Opry. The home you'll sleep in was already sixty years old by the time WSM's signal first carried country music out of Nashville and into the rest of the country.
What we're saying is: this isn't a hotel built to look historic. It's a building that was here for the part of American history you came to see.
Germantown is Nashville's first residential neighborhood, listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979.
Music Heritage
The Ryman Auditorium
Built 1892 — The Mother Church of Country Music
Built as the Union Gospel Tabernacle by riverboat captain Thomas Ryman after he heard a sermon by Sam Jones, the Ryman became the home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974 and is the room where Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, and Loretta Lynn all played their most-remembered shows. Take the self-guided daytime tour for the stained glass and the original pews; book a night show for a concert in what is, hands down, the best-sounding room in Nashville.
The Grand Ole Opry
1925 → Today
The Opry left the Ryman in 1974 for a custom-built theater attached to the Opryland complex eight miles east. A six-foot circle of oak from the Ryman's original stage was cut out and installed center-stage at the new Opry House, where every performer still walks across it. Friday and Saturday night shows are the long-running tradition — if you have a single Nashville night, this is the one to spend it on.
RCA Studio B
Built 1957 — The Nashville Sound
Just off Music Row, this is the room where Elvis Presley recorded over 200 songs (including "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" and "It's Now or Never"), and where Dolly Parton, Roy Orbison, the Everly Brothers, and a generation of country stars cut hundreds of hits between 1957 and 1977. Tours run from the Country Music Hall of Fame — a combo ticket is the right move, and it's the one tour we recommend even for repeat Nashville visitors.
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Two blocks from Lower Broadway and worth a slow afternoon. The permanent collection traces the genre from its Appalachian and African-American roots through Hank, Patsy, Cash, the outlaws, the new traditionalists, and the 21st-century stars. Hatch Show Print — the working letterpress shop that has been printing concert posters since 1879 — is now part of the museum and runs short studio tours.
Music Row
The two-mile stretch of 16th and 17th Avenues South where the recording studios, song publishers, and label offices have been clustered since the 1950s. It's not a single attraction so much as a walking neighborhood — short on flash, long on history if you know what to look for. Pair a Music Row walk with the Studio B tour.
The National Museum of African American Music
Opened January 2021
At 510 Broadway — the first museum in the world dedicated solely to the African-American influence on more than 50 genres of American music: blues, jazz, gospel, R&B, hip-hop, and the Black roots underneath country itself. Interactive, immersive, and one of the most thoughtfully curated music museums anywhere. Skip if you're short on time and you've done the Hall of Fame; visit first if you only have one museum afternoon.
Tennessee State Museum
Just south of the inn at Bicentennial Mall — Nashville's official state history museum, with strong sections on the state's musical lineage from the Carter Family forward. Free admission, weekday mornings are best.
Live Music for Grown-ups
The Schermerhorn Symphony Center
Home to the Grammy-winning Nashville Symphony, in a 2006 building modeled on the great European concert halls. Classical, pops, jazz, and visiting headliners. The building alone is worth the visit; the Saturday-night classical programs are the easiest way to spend a refined Nashville evening.
The Bluebird Cafe
Twenty miles southwest of the inn in a Green Hills strip mall, with about 90 seats and acoustic-only songwriter rounds four nights a week. This is where Garth Brooks was discovered, where Taylor Swift was first seen by industry, and where you'll spend an evening listening to four songwriters trade stories and the songs other artists have made famous. Reservations open online a week in advance and sell out in minutes.
City Winery Nashville
Concert venue, restaurant, and working winery on Eighth Avenue South. Programming skews Americana, singer-songwriter, soul, and jazz; the room is intimate, dinner is competent, and the audience tends to actually listen. A reliable adult night out.
Rudy's Jazz Room
A Gulch staple — small, candle-lit, New Orleans-leaning. Reservations recommended.
The Station Inn
A small bluegrass and roots room in the Gulch that has been booking pickers since 1974. Sunday-night jam sessions are local legend; weeknight headliners include genuinely top-tier players. No table service, $20-ish cover, cash bar, the real thing.
The Listening Room Cafe
Songwriter rounds in a more polished room than the Bluebird, downtown and easier to book. A good plan B.
Museums, Estates & Historic Sites
The Frist Art Museum
Nashville's flagship rotating-exhibition art museum, in the 1934 Art Deco former post office at 919 Broadway. The building alone is worth the ticket; the visiting exhibitions punch above their weight. Closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays — plan around it.
Andrew Jackson's Hermitage
The seventh president's plantation home, twelve miles east of downtown. A serious half-day. The site has done substantive work in recent years interpreting the lives of the 150+ enslaved people who lived and worked the land alongside the Jackson family story. Audio tour included with admission.
Belle Meade Historic Site & Winery
The 1853 Greek Revival mansion of one of America's most important Thoroughbred breeding operations — many of today's racehorses trace back to Belle Meade bloodlines. Guided mansion tours, the original carriage house, food-and-wine pairings on the grounds, and bourbon tastings. Seven miles west of downtown.
Cheekwood Estate & Gardens
55 acres of formal gardens, woodland trails, and a 1932 Georgian mansion turned art museum. Spring brings 250,000 tulips; fall brings the Cheekwood Harvest; winter brings the Holiday LIGHTS event. A reliably refined afternoon at any time of year.
The Parthenon at Centennial Park
A full-scale 1897 plaster replica of Athens's Parthenon, rebuilt in stone in the 1920s. Now an art museum housing a 42-foot statue of Athena. Yes, really.
Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park
A nineteen-acre walking park north of the Capitol with a 200-foot granite map of Tennessee, a World War II memorial, and a Pathway of History timeline. Walkable from the inn; pair with a Tennessee State Museum visit.
Where to Eat Outside Germantown
(Germantown's own food scene is covered in detail on our Neighborhood page. The list below is what's worth crossing town for.)
Special-Occasion Dinners
- Husk Nashville (Rutledge Hill) — Sean Brock's flagship Southern restaurant in a restored 1880s home.
- The Catbird Seat (Belmont) — chef's-counter tasting menu, seats about 22, books weeks ahead.
- Bastion (Wedgewood-Houston) — small, ambitious tasting menu in the back of a casual bar.
- Lockeland Table (East Nashville) — wood-fired Italian, neighborhood-restaurant feel, real consistency.
- The Continental at the Grand Hyatt (the Gulch) — supper-club steakhouse from John Fraser; high-room, big-night atmosphere.
Brunch Worth a Cab
- Pinewood Social (downtown) — coffee, brunch, bowling, and pool in one room. Civilized after 11 a.m.
- Marsh House (the Thompson, the Gulch) — coastal brunch in a hotel with a real kitchen.
A Reliable Lunch
- Arnold's Country Kitchen (the Gulch) — meat-and-three institution, lunch only, weekday-only, James Beard "American Classic."
- Monell's (Germantown) — family-style Southern at a shared table; the local introduction to fried chicken and biscuits.
Day Trips Worth the Rental Car
Franklin
25 Minutes South
A genuinely beautiful 1799 town, well-preserved Main Street, the Carter House, and the Carnton Plantation — both pivotal Civil War sites with thoughtful interpretation. Lunch at Gray's on Main or 55 South. Time it for a Saturday morning farmers' market and you'll spend an entire day.
Leiper's Fork
45 Minutes South
A village of about 650 people that has somehow become one of the South's most refined small-town stops: Country Boy Restaurant for breakfast, Puckett's Grocery for lunch and an open-mic listening room, art galleries, and antique shops. Marty Stuart, Sheryl Crow, and a dozen other Nashville musicians keep places nearby.
The Tennessee Whiskey Trail
Half- or Full-Day Loop
Several distilleries are within two hours of Nashville: Nelson's Green Brier in Marathon Village, Corsair in the Nations, Belle Meade Bourbon at the Belle Meade estate, and the longer drive south to Jack Daniel's in Lynchburg or George Dickel in Cascade Hollow. Pick two; book tasting reservations.
Loretta Lynn's Ranch
2 Hours West
Hurricane Mills, the working ranch and museum complex Loretta built. A summer day trip for serious country fans.
How to Handle Broadway
Lower Broadway — the strip of three- and four-story honky-tonks with rooftop bars and live cover bands — is what Nashville sells to first-time visitors and what 80% of bachelorette parties are after. It is fun in 30-minute doses, exhausting after that, and not what you came for.
Our honest take: Walk Lower Broadway for an hour, in daylight, between the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Ryman. Step into Robert's Western World for a free afternoon set (the bands are excellent). Buy a souvenir at Hatch Show Print. Then walk back uptown and eat at one of the restaurants in our neighborhood guide.
Skip: the rooftop bars. The pedal taverns. The "Transportainment" buses. The cover-band bars after 8 p.m. on a weekend.
Better evening alternatives: the Ryman, the Schermerhorn, the Bluebird, City Winery, the Station Inn, Rudy's Jazz Room, or one of the songwriter rounds at the Listening Room.
Getting Around Without Renting a Car
Germantown to Downtown
5 minutes by Uber/Lyft, 25 minutes on foot, 12 minutes by bike on the Cumberland River Greenway.
Germantown to Music Row / Hall of Fame
8–12 minutes by car.
Germantown to the Opry House
18 minutes by car.
Germantown to BNA Airport
20 minutes off-peak, 30 in traffic.
Walkable from the Inn
Bicentennial Capitol Mall, Tennessee State Museum, Nashville Farmers' Market, First Horizon Park (Sounds), every restaurant and bar on the inn's Food & Drink Guide.
The Inn's Own Music City Weekend
Friday Afternoon
- Arrive at the inn, settle in.
- Walk to Bicentennial Capitol Mall and the Tennessee State Museum (90 minutes).
- Drinks in the inn courtyard or rooftop.
- Dinner at City House or Pelato (90-second walk).
- Late at Close Company (cocktails) or Sonny's (next door).
Saturday
- Coffee + pastry at Steadfast or Babychan.
- Mid-morning: Drive or Uber to the Country Music Hall of Fame; book the RCA Studio B combo tour in advance.
- Lunch on Lower Broadway — Husk if you want a sit-down, Arnold's Country Kitchen if you want the Nashville meat-and-three rite of passage.
- Afternoon: the Ryman daytime tour, then Hatch Show Print.
- Late afternoon: walk back through Music Row, photograph the studios, drop into the Musicians Hall of Fame.
- Drinks back in Germantown — Le Loup, Mother's Ruin, or the inn rooftop.
- Dinner at Henrietta Red (book weeks ahead) or Geist (in Nashville's 1886 blacksmith shop).
- Show at the Ryman, the Bluebird (if you got lucky), the Station Inn, or City Winery.
Sunday
- Brunch at Pinewood Social, Marsh House, or back at Henrietta Red.
- Late morning: the Frist Art Museum or NMAAM.
- Afternoon: Cheekwood Estate & Gardens or Belle Meade Historic Site & Winery.
- Light dinner in the courtyard before heading to the airport.
Make The Germantown Inn Your Base
Ten suites in a Federal-style home built the year the Civil War ended. Five minutes from everything that matters in Music City.