Hermitage Hotel- Nashville, TN

The Hermitage Hotel is absolutely opulent. Walking into its grand lobby is like visiting an art museum- layers of intricate molding, terra cotta ornamentation, elegant arches and a stunning skylight make it difficult to linger on any one detail for too long. All around magnificent, the lobby is a welcoming space you won’t want to leave; one that will remain with you long after you check out.

Designed by École des Beaux-Arts trained architect James Edwin Carpenter, later known for his luxury high rise Park Avenue apartment buildings, the hotel was commissioned in 1908 by a group of Nashville locals, who raised $300,000 in financing through sale of stocks. Named after Andrew Jackson’s plantation, the ten floor brick hotel with paired columns and arched windows would be Nashville’s first Beaux Arts building.

Opening with an elaborate affair on September 17, 1910, The Hermitage became the city’s first million dollar hotel. The lobby, available only to men, was built of a warm Sienna marble, with ornamental plaster details and a soaring ceiling featuring a painted glass skylight. The dining room boasted Circassian walnut walls, and an intricate coffered ceiling. Each of the 250 guest rooms featured mahogany walls, hot and cold distilled water, private baths, telephones, and electric fans.

Other amenities at the hotel included a cigar store and newsstand in the lobby, an oak paneled tap room, barber shop and exercise room. On the 8th floor, sample rooms were available for traveling salesmen to display their wares.

Originally, female guests had their own entrance on Union Street, with hallways leading only to the portions of the hotel they were allowed, including the dining room, loggia, and the mezzanine. They could look at the lobby, they just couldn’t visit it. Fittingly, in 1920, the hotel was the national headquarters for the suffrage movement, witnessing history when Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment. I hope the ladies present celebrated in the lobby with a cigar.

Due to its proximity to the state capitol, the hotel hosted many political figures, starting with President Taft in 1911, followed by Wilson, Nixon, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton and Bush. Legislators often met in the lobby, while several governors resided at the hotel before taking office. Later, when Nashville became known for its country music, the hotel hosted legends such as Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, and Johnny Cash. In 1941, both Gene Autry and his horse Champion stayed at the hotel, the later in a room cleared of furniture and blanketed in canvas.

For decades the fabulous hotel flourished, but by the 1960s lack of maintenance took its toll, and its popularity waned. As people moved from the city to the suburbs, the hotel struggled to stay open; in 1977, the hotel was shuttered. Although the property reopened only a few years later, it floundered, and was sold several times before being purchased in 2000 by the Historic Hotels of Nashville. Following a massive $17 million restoration, the hotel reopened as a 122 room, 5 star boutique hotel.

Today, the hotel shines. The public areas retain many original details, and a few relics from past renovations, including the Art Deco men’s restroom on the lower level. The rooms sadly are no longer paneled in mahogany, but they are comfortable and classically decorated. Once again a world class hotel, a stay at the storied space is an experience in itself.

MDT Rating:

 5/5