The Haunted Hermitage Hotel, Nashville: Room 912 and the Lady in White

The Hermitage Hotel has been the smart address in downtown Nashville for more than a century. It opened in 1910 as the city’s first million-dollar hotel, survived a closure in the late 1970s, and is now a Forbes and AAA award winner and a National Historic Landmark, a short walk from the Tennessee State Capitol.

It also has a small but persistent set of ghost stories. The best known is the crying baby of Room 912, followed by a Lady in White who is blamed for doors, elevators and falling glasses. None of these stories is backed by a record of a death, and the hotel itself does not promote them, so treat them as Nashville lore. This guide sets out what guests report, what the history actually says, and how to ask for the room.

The ghosts of the Hermitage Hotel

The crying baby of Room 912

This is the story most people know. Guests staying in Room 912 have reported waking in the early hours to the sound of a baby crying, sometimes close by, sometimes as if from the hallway, with no infant on the floor. The cries are said to stop as soon as someone gets up to look.

The usual explanation is that a baby was accidentally dropped from a window of the room years ago. Both a Nashville ghost tour company and the local history newsletter The Pamphleteer note that no newspaper of the time records such an accident. It may be a story that grew up to explain the sounds, so we file it as legend.

The Lady in White

The second figure is a woman in white, usually described as Edwardian in dress, as if she has been here since the hotel’s early years. She gets the blame for doors that open by themselves, elevators that stop at the wrong floor, and drinks that slide off the bar.

One of the stranger tales is about the large ornate mirror in the lobby. Guests have said they saw a crack run across the glass, only for the crack to be gone when staff came to look. Nobody has put a name to the Lady in White, and there is no known record behind her.

A girl on the balcony

A travel feature on Nashville’s haunted hotels adds a young girl seen on an upper balcony, sometimes outlined against the night sky, and wails heard at night. It is a thinner story than the other two, but it fits the same theme of a child on the upper floors.

Why the stories stick

A grand hotel full of marble, stained glass and long hallways makes a natural setting for ghost stories, and the Hermitage has more than a century of guests behind it. Ghost walks in downtown Nashville often include it, which keeps the tales in circulation. The hotel itself talks about its history, not its ghosts.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• Room 912: The crying-baby room on the ninth floor, a regular guest room. Ask for it when you book and again on arrival.
• Ninth-floor rooms: If 912 is taken, any room on the ninth floor puts you on the same corridor where the cries are reported.
• The lobby: Marble columns, a stained-glass ceiling and the ornate mirror at the center of the crack story. Afternoon tea is served here.
• The elevators: Where the Lady in White is said to make her presence felt. Note any unexpected stops.

History of The Hermitage Hotel

In 1908 a group of 250 Nashville residents, with help from the city’s Board of Trade, commissioned a first-class hotel for the growing state capital. Architect J. Edwin Carpenter designed it in the Beaux-Arts style, with Tennessee and Carrara marble in the lobby and a stained-glass skylight, and it opened on Saturday, September 17, 1910. It was Nashville’s third downtown skyscraper and was promoted as the city’s first million-dollar hotel. Early guests marveled at running ice water and a telephone in every room.

Its position near the Capitol made it a political hub. There was a banquet for President Taft in 1911, a visit from Governor Woodrow Wilson in 1912, and later stays by John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. Legislators used it as an after-hours meeting place. In the summer of 1920, when Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment and gave American women the vote, the Hermitage was a national platform for both the suffrage and anti-suffrage campaigns. That role is why it was designated a National Historic Landmark on August 28, 2020. The hotel still marks the moment with a Suffrage High Tea.

It was also part of Nashville’s music history. The Francis Craig Orchestra played the dining room and Grille Room from 1925 to 1945, and Craig’s musicians took part in the first day of broadcasting on WSM, the station that would launch the Grand Ole Opry. Guests over the years included Johnny Cash.

Like many downtown hotels, the Hermitage struggled in the postwar decades and closed at the end of 1977 with its future in doubt. It was renovated and reopened in 1981 as a Park Suite Hotel, bought in 2000 by Historic Hotels of Nashville, LLC, and restored again. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, won AAA Five Diamond status in 2007 and a Forbes Five-Star rating in 2008, and is a member of Historic Hotels of America.

A major refresh in 2021 and 2022 updated the rooms, public spaces and kitchens. The old Grille Room is now Drusie & Darr, run under license by chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The hotel originally had 250 rooms; combining them into larger rooms and suites has brought that down to 122.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Request Room 912 when you book and call the hotel to confirm. It is a normal guest room, so it is never guaranteed.
• If 912 is not available, ask for any room on the ninth floor.
• Book afternoon tea in the lobby and take a look at the ornate mirror at the heart of the crack story.
• Walk up to the Tennessee State Capitol, where the 1920 suffrage vote took place, before you turn in.
• Combine your stay with a night at Union Station, Nashville’s other famous haunted hotel, about a 15-minute walk away.
• The hotel has long welcomed pets with in-room beds and treats; check the current fee when you book.

More haunted hotels nearby

• Union Station Nashville Yards: Abigail and Room 711, a short walk away
• Haunted hotels in Nashville: every haunted hotel in and around the city
• Thomas House Hotel, Red Boiling Springs: Tennessee’s best-known haunted hotel
• Haunted places in Nashville: more of the city’s ghost stories
• Haunted hotels in Tennessee
• Haunted hotels in Nashville

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the hotel’s own website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. Read how we rate haunted hotels.

• The Hermitage Hotel: official site
• Hermitage Hotel (Wikipedia)
• Ghost City Tours: The Haunted Hermitage Hotel
• The Pamphleteer: Nashville's most haunted spots (Oct 2021)
• Only In Your State: Haunted hotels in Nashville
• Five Star Alliance: pet policy at the Hermitage Hotel

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