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Ryman Auditorium (originally Union Gospel Tabernacle and renamed Grand Ole Opry House for a period) is a historic 2,362-seat live-performance venue located at 116 Rep. John Lewis Way North, in the downtown core of Nashville, Tennessee, United States. A Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Landmark, National Historic Landmark, and the former home of the Grand Ole Opry, it is one of the most influential and revered concert halls in the world. It is best known as the home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974. It is owned and operated by Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. Ryman Auditorium was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and was later designated as a National Historic Landmark on June 25, 2001, for its pivotal role in the popularization of country music. A storied stage for Rock & Roll artists for decades, the Ryman was named a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Landmark in 2022. History Union Gospel Tabernacle The auditorium opened as the Union Gospel Tabernacle in 1892. Its construction was spearheaded by Thomas Ryman (1843–1904), a Nashville businessman who owned several saloons and a fleet of riverboats. Ryman conceived the idea of the auditorium as a tabernacle for the influential revivalist Samuel Porter Jones. He had attended one of Jones' 1885 tent revivals with the intent to heckle, but was instead converted into a devout Christian who pledged to build the tabernacle so the people of Nashville could attend large-scale revivals indoors. It took seven years to complete and cost US$100,000 (equivalent to $3,391,111 in 2023). Jones held his first revival at the site on May 25, 1890, when only the building's foundation and six-foot (1.8 m) walls had been completed. Architect Hugh Cathcart Thompson designed the structure. Exceeding its construction budget, the tabernacle opened US$20,000 (equivalent to $678,222 in 2023) in debt. Jones sought to name the tabernacle in Ryman's honor, but Ryman denied the request several times. When Ryman died in 1904, his memorial service was held at the tabernacle, with Jones officiating. During the service, Jones proposed the building be renamed as Ryman Auditorium, which was met with the overwhelming approval of the attendees. Jones died less than two years later in 1906. The building was originally designed to contain a balcony, but a lack of funds delayed its completion. The balcony was built and opened in time for the 1897 gathering of the United Confederate Veterans, with funds provided by members of the group. As a result, the balcony was once called the Confederate Gallery. Upon completion of the balcony, the Ryman's capacity rose to 6,000. In 2017, the "Confederate Gallery" plaque was removed and replaced with one that reads "1892 Ryman Auditorium." A stage was added in 1901 that reduced the capacity to just over 3,000. Under the leadership of Lula C. Naff Though the building was designed as a house of worship – a purpose it continued to serve throughout most of its early years – it was often leased to promoters for nonreligious events in an effort to pay off its debts and remain open. In 1904, Lula C. Naff, a widow and mother who was working as a stenographer, began to book and promote speaking engagements, concerts, boxing matches, and other attractions at the Ryman in her free time. In 1914, when her employer went out of business, Naff made booking these events her full-time job. She eventually transitioned into a role by 1920 as the Ryman's official manager. She preferred to use the name "L.C. Naff" in an attempt to avoid initial prejudices as a female executive in a male-dominated industry. Naff gained a reputation for battling local censorship groups, who had threatened to ban various performances deemed too risqué. In 1939, Naff won a landmark lawsuit against the Nashville Board of Censors, which was planning to arrest the star of the play Tobacco Road due to its provocative nature. The court declared the law creating the censors to be invalid. Naff's ability to book stage shows and world-renowned entertainers in the city's largest indoor gathering place kept the Ryman at the forefront of Nashville's consciousness and enhanced the city's reputation as a cultural center for the performing arts, even as the building began to age. Harry Houdini in 1924, W.C. Fields, Will Rogers in 1925, Charlie Chaplin, Bob Hope with Doris Day in 1949, and John Philip Sousa (among others) performed at the venue over the years, earning the Ryman the nickname "The Carnegie Hall of the South". The Ryman also hosted lectures by U.S. presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft in 1907 and 1911, respectively. Italian opera singer Enrico Caruso appeared in concert there in 1919. It also hosted the inaugurations of three governors of the state of Tennessee. The Ryman through the mid-1960s hosted many musicians: Marian Anderson in 1932, Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys in 1945, Little Jimmy Dickens in 1948, Hank Williams in 1949, The Carter Sisters with Mother Maybelle Carter in 1950, Elvis in 1954, Johnny Cash in 1956, trumpeter Louis Armstrong in 1957, Patsy Cline in 1960, Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs (bluegrass) in 1964, and Minnie Pearl in 1964. The first event to sell out the Ryman was a lecture by Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan Macy in 1913. While being a trailblazer for working women, Naff also championed the cause of racial diversity. The building was used as a regular venue for the Fisk Jubilee Singers (they performed there in 1913) from nearby Fisk University, a historically black college. The state's Jim Crow laws required Ryman audiences to be segregated, with some shows designated for "White Audiences Only" and others for "Colored Audiences Only". But period photographs show that, in practice, Ryman audiences were often integrated. Naff retired in 1955 and died in 1960. Grand Ole Opry After debuting in 1925, the local country music radio program known as the Grand Ole Opry (originally called the WSM Barn Dance) became a Nashville institution. Broadcast over clear-channel AM radio station WSM, it could be heard in 30 states across the eastern part of the nation. Although not originally a stage show, the Opry began to attract listeners from around the region who would go to the WSM studio to see it live. When crowds got too large for the studio, in 1934 WSM began broadcasting the show from the Hillsboro Theatre (now Belcourt Theatre). The Opry moved to East Nashville's Dixie Tabernacle in 1936 and then to War Memorial Auditorium in 1939. After four years – and several reports of upholstery damage caused by its rowdy crowds – the Opry was asked to leave War Memorial and sought a new home yet again. Thanks to the Ryman auditorium's wooden pews and central location, Naff and other institution leaders thought the auditorium would be a perfect venue for such an audience. They began renting the venue to WSM for its shows. The Grand Ole Opry was first broadcast from the Ryman on June 5, 1943, an.... Discover the Union Gospel popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Union Gospel books.