Music Row Neighborhood

Nashville’s Music Row—it is arguably the most concentrated creative center in the world. This less-than-two-square mile area houses all of the major components of the music industry. The area is also historic—once part of the sprawling antebellum estate of Judge Oliver Hayes. His daughter Adelicia Acklen built the Belmont Mansion in 1853. After her death, the estate was sub-divided and sold as plots for houses in the late nineteenth century. Many of the remaining historic homes you will pass today were built during this era. The center of the estate, including the mansion itself, was sold to Susan Heron and Ida Hood, who opened Belmont College for Young Women in 1890. In 1913, Belmont merged with Ward Seminary to become the Ward-Belmont School.

WSM, the famed radio station of the Grand Ole Opry, maintained their broadcasting center at Ward-Belmont from the 1920s to the 1940s. In 1951, the school became a co-ed, four-year college, which is today’s Belmont University. So what is Music Row? There are the physical boundaries from Music Square East to Music Square West and from Demonbreun Street to Wedgewood Avenue. Music Row is also shorthand for the music business.

First called “Record Row”—the name shifted to “Music Row” in the mid-1960s as the music industry scene exploded in Nashville. In the 1970s, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Avenues were made one-way streets and renamed Music Square East and West, respectively. It is ironic that of all the streets renamed, none were actually named Music Row. There are circles and squares, but no rows! We are pleased to give you a tour of the neighborhood that gave us the Nashville Sound and launched our reputation as Music City U.S.A. Some of these sites will actually be recorded in the very studios you’ll be seeing—so keep an ear out as we’ll let you know at the beginning of the stop. Hello! My name is Michael Janas, and I work at Belmont University in the audio engineering technology department. Begin the tour at Owen Bradley Park. You will have three stops here: Owen Bradley Park, Musica, and Buddy Killen Circle.