Hotel Tulane

Did you know that Nashville was a major battleground in the fight for woman’s suffrage? In 1920, Tennessee became the thirty-sixth state to ratify the 19th Amendment and it only passed by one vote! In the summer of 1920, suffragists including Carrie Chapman Catt and others descended upon the city to join local efforts to influence state legislators to ratify the amendment. Much of the activity centered around the Hermitage Hotel, but to your right, where you now see a parking lot was once the Tulane Hotel. Completed in 1894, the Tulane Hotel served as the meeting place for the Nashville Equal Suffrage League and the headquarters of the National Woman’s Party. 

In 1911, Nashville’s Anne Dallas Dudley and eight other women met in the back parlor of the Tulane. Dudley was chosen as their president and they began to mobilize. They organized the first suffrage march in the South and they brought the National Suffrage Convention to Nashville in 1915. Dudley ultimately became the vice president of the suffrage association led by Carrie Chapman Catt. 

Sue Sheldon White was another Tennessean who played a major role in the fight for the vote. Born in West Tennessee, White graduated from college and joined the suffrage movement in 1912. According to historian Betty Spark Huehls, “[White] came to believe that the policies and methods of the more radical National Woman’s Party (NWP) were more effective and changed her allegiance in 1918.” She worked with Alice Paul, picketed at the White House, was arrested for disorderly conduct, and protested through hunger strikes. Paul sent Sue Sheldon White to Nashville as the NWP representative to lobby legislators, and White set up headquarters at the Tulane Hotel. After the 19th Amendment passed, White graduated from law school and helped write the 1923 Equal Rights Amendment. She also worked as a lawyer in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Social Security Administration. If you are interested in learning more about this story, check out the Woman’s Suffrage or Women’s History Highlights tours on Nashville Sites. 

Another major piece of Nashville’s history took place at the Tulane Hotel in the 1940s. WSM, founded by National Life and Accident, was growing tired of their Grand Ole Opry artists traveling to New York City or Chicago to record. They decided to start a studio of their own. They converted on old dining room on the second floor of the Tulane into Castle Studios, Nashville’s first recording studio. Some of the greats who recorded there included Ernest Tubb, Red Foley, and superstar Hank Williams. In fact, Williams’ smash hit "Lovesick Blues” was recorded there and spent 16 weeks at number one. The studio continued to produce hits from their room in the Tulane until the mid 1950s and the building was razed in 1957. Castle Studios is now located just outside of the city in Franklin, TN. 

Turn LEFT and walk down Church St. Click on “Next Stop” and listen as you walk. You will hear about hidden history sites along Church Street. When you reach the intersection of Church and 7th Avenue, cross to the other side of the street. The next stop, McKendree Methodist Church, will be on your right—three blocks down Church Street.