Ryman Auditorium

The Ryman wasn’t built to become one of America's most famous music venues.

It opened in 1892 as the Union Gospel Tabernacle, built by Nashville businessman Thomas Ryman for religious gatherings. But the room quickly became something bigger. Speakers, performers, musicians, and touring productions all came to its stage, turning the Ryman into one of Nashville's most important gathering places.

Then, in 1943, the Grand Ole Opry moved in.

For the next three decades, the Ryman became inseparable from country music. Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, and generations of performers stood on its stage while the Opry carried their music far beyond Nashville over the radio.

The Opry moved to its current home in 1974, and for a time the Ryman's future was uncertain. Instead, the building was restored and eventually returned to what it had always done best: bringing people together around a stage.

Today, artists from nearly every genre play the Ryman. The wooden pews remain, the room still feels like a church, and more than a century of music history seems to hang in the air.

They call it the Mother Church of Country Music, but the Ryman's real magic is simpler. Sit down in one of those old wooden pews, look toward the stage, and you're sitting almost exactly where generations before you watched music history happen.