Noelle Hotel

The historic Noelle Hotel on Fourth Ave North was completed in 1929 and opened just days before Christmas. The Noelle has long been at the heart of the hustle and bustle of downtown, with Printers Alley right behind it and Broadway just blocks away. The hotel was designed in the Classical Revival style and came at a time when downtown Nashville was experiencing a boom of new hotels and department stores. 

The current hotel preserves many original features of the building. The 224-room Art Deco hotel also led to several other notable additions to the Nashville dining scene—the award-winning restaurant Makeready Libations and Liberation, as well as the Drug Store Coffee located in the hotel lobby, which is operated in collaboration with the owner of local coffee house Barista Parlor. 

The Noelle also pays homage to its history during prohibition in Nashville. Even before alcohol was made illegal by Constitutional Amendment, Tennessee was swept by temperance movements over a decade earlier. Tensions rose to a boiling point in 1908 when Edward Ward Carmack was shot on the corner of Union Street by a father and son, known for their opposition to prohibition. After the state’s no-sell rule in 1909, liquor sellers resorted to making gin in bathtubs and moonshiners took to the hills as almost all large producers had to move their operations out of the state lines. The inventive spirit of Tennessee distillers during Prohibition still exists in the Noelle’s Prohibition-themed, subterranean bar. Employees are even told to “speak easy” of the Hidden Bar at the Noelle – but keep an eye out for a large mirror and a storage closet. For more on the food and drink scene at Noelle, take our Food for Thought tour on Nashville Sites.

Continue down Church Street towards the illuminated Printers Alley sign. Turn LEFT onto Printers Alley and listen to the narration as you walk.