Captain Thomas Ryman's Home

The best-known and most successful of the steamboat operators was Tom Ryman. Growing up on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, Tom Ryman worked alongside his father as a commercial fisherman. During the Civil War, Ryman escaped military service by providing food to the Union army in Nashville. Using these profits, he traveled to New Orleans in 1867 to buy his first steamboat. Despite the hot and long trip, Captain Ryman never took off his coat as he had sewn the cash into his coat to avoid robbery. By the 1880s, Ryman owned 35 steamboats—the largest passenger and commercial steamboat operation in Nashville. Liquor sales on his boats, and in his saloon, were substantial. Ryman’s daughter, Daisy, recalled: “[The river men] had a glorious time doing the town, and as the town had plenty of saloons, they got plenty drunk.”

When evangelist Sam Jones came to Nashville in the spring of 1885, he warned of the evils of greed and liquor. Ryman was in no mood to hear a message that challenged his livelihood and lifestyle and went to challenge the famous preacher. Instead, as the story goes, Captain Ryman had a religious conversion. He not only quit drinking but ended liquor sales on his boats, converted his saloon into a makeshift church, and led fundraising efforts to construct the Union Gospel Tabernacle, which opened in 1892.

Captain Ryman lived in this neighborhood, called Rutledge Hill, which was developed after the Civil War. In 1885, Captain Ryman built a large Queen Anne-style turreted house in this location where he could also watch his steamboats coming up and going from the wharf. The house contained wrap-around porches that reminded many Nashvillians of the decks of a steamboat.

Tom Ryman died in his home on December 23, 1904. His funeral was held on Christmas Day at the Union Tabernacle, and Sam Jones gave the funeral sermon. With 4,000 people in attendance, Reverend Jones asked that the building’s name be changed to Ryman Auditorium. His wife, Bettie Ryman, lived here for another twenty years. After Bettie passed away in 1926, the home was sold, divided, and rented as apartment units. Sadly, this once beautiful home was demolished in 1940 and the lot was used as a trailer park until the 1980s.

Continue up Second Ave. and turn LEFT onto Lea Ave. Walk one block farther to the intersection of Lea Avenue and Rutledge Street, where you will find Rose Hill, our second stop on the tour.