Haunted hotel guide · Nashville, Tennessee
The Haunted Union Station Hotel, Nashville: Room 711 and the Ghost of Abigail
A Romanesque stone railroad station from 1900, a World War II goodbye that never ended, and a hotel that happily tells you which room she stays in.
Union Station Nashville Yards is the city’s old railroad terminal, a castle-like limestone station that opened on Broadway in 1900 for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. After the trains stopped it stood empty for years, and in 1986 it reopened as a hotel. Today it is part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection, with 125 rooms and suites under a 65-foot barrel-vaulted lobby ceiling of stained glass.
It is also one of the few big-city hotels that tells its own ghost story. The hotel’s website describes Abigail, a young woman who saw her soldier off from this station during World War II and never recovered when he was killed in France. Guests in Room 711 report noises, flickering lights, faces in mirror photos and sudden cold, and in a USA Today 10Best readers’ poll the hotel was voted the best haunted hotel in America.
Union Station at a glance
Haunted Rooms Score
- Address 1001 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203
- Opened Station 1900; hotel 1986; renovated 2007
- Most haunted spots Room 711 on the top floor, and the tracks below the hotel
- Best-known ghosts Abigail, and a uniformed soldier seen on the tracks
- Booking the haunted room Request Room 711 when you book or call (615) 726-1001; it is not guaranteed
- Good to know A short walk from Lower Broadway, the Gulch and Midtown; on site are Stationairy, the Bar Car in the Grand Lobby and the Alligator Bar
The ghosts of Union Station
Abigail
During World War II, Union Station was where tens of thousands of troops shipped out from Nashville. The story the hotel tells is that a young woman in her twenties named Abigail came to the station to say goodbye to her sweetheart, a soldier bound for the front in France. He was killed in battle. Heartbroken, she is said to have returned to the station and stepped in front of a train.
Nobody has published a name, a date or a newspaper report that confirms Abigail was a real person, so she belongs to the hotel’s folklore rather than its records. Some older retellings describe her leaping from a window instead. The hotel calls her a “persistent, unaggressive presence”.
Room 711
Abigail is said to favor Room 711 on the top floor, because it looks out over the railroad tracks where she last saw him. Guests have reported strange noises in and above the room, lights that flicker, figures appearing in photos taken of the mirror and sudden drops in temperature. One guest said he heard furniture being dragged across the floor above him, even though there is no floor above 711. The hotel now treats the room as a tribute to her.
The soldier on the tracks
The only other spirit the hotel names is a uniformed soldier seen standing on the tracks below. Some guests like to think he is Abigail’s sweetheart, come back to find her.
The most haunted rooms and places to look
- Room 711: Abigail’s room, on the top floor above the tracks. Ask for it when you book and again at check-in.
- Track-side rooms: Other rooms on the railroad side share 711’s view, a good fallback if it is taken.
- The Grand Lobby: The old waiting room under the stained glass vault, now home to the Bar Car and live music most nights.
- Alligator Bar: A nod to the alligator pools that once sat in the station’s lobby.
History of Union Station Nashville Yards
Union Station was built between 1898 and 1900 to designs by Richard Montfort, an engineer for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, in a Richardsonian Romanesque style, and it opened on October 9, 1900. It sat above a railroad cut on Broadway, with a clock tower topped by a statue of Mercury (the original was toppled by a 1952 storm, and its replacement was lost in the 1998 downtown tornado before being replaced again) and, behind it, a train shed once described as the largest of its kind in the world. The L&N and the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway were its main users.
The station was busiest in the 1940s, when it served as a shipping-out point for tens of thousands of troops and ran a USO canteen. Inside were bas-relief figures said to depict the builder’s daughters, and alligator pools in the lobby. After the war, passenger travel declined; by the late 1960s only a handful of trains a day stopped here, Amtrak took over intercity service in 1971, and its Floridian made the station’s last regular passenger run on October 9, 1979.
The empty building passed to the federal government and pigeons moved in. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969 and later named a National Historic Landmark. In 1986 investors reopened it as the Union Station Hotel, with about 125 rooms and a dozen suites; the original project soon went bankrupt and a new investor group took over. The train shed was damaged by fire in 1996 and demolished in late 2000, and the Landmark designation was withdrawn in 2003, although the building remains on the National Register.
An $11 million renovation followed in 2007, the hotel joined Marriott’s Autograph Collection in 2012 and Historic Hotels of America in 2015, and Pebblebrook Hotel Trust bought it in 2014 for $52.3 million. It now trades as Union Station Nashville Yards, after the development growing up around it, and its 2021 Halloween page celebrated a USA Today 10Best readers’ vote as the best haunted hotel in America.
Tips for a haunted stay
- Request Room 711 when you book and call the hotel directly to confirm; it is popular, especially in October.
- If 711 is taken, ask for a room on the track side of the building.
- Spend an evening in the Grand Lobby. Sit under the stained glass ceiling, with live music most nights.
- Look for the bas-relief figures and the old fireplaces in the lobby, original features from the station days.
- Lower Broadway is a short walk away, so you can see the honky-tonks and be back in the room by midnight.
Want to investigate, not just sleep?
Sleeping in a haunted hotel is one thing. Investigating one after dark is another. On a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt our team takes you through the building with professional ghost hunting equipment, runs EVP sessions and lets you explore on your own during free roam.
- Haunted Thomas House Hotel Ghost Hunt and Sleepover: Our overnight event at the Thomas House, about 90 minutes northeast of Nashville.
- Old Moore County Jail and Funeral Home Ghost Hunt, Lynchburg: Investigate an old jail and a former funeral home in Lynchburg, south of Nashville.
- Hotel Metropolitan Ghost Hunt and Sleepover, Kentucky: A guided investigation and sleepover at the Hotel Metropolitan in Paducah.
More haunted hotels nearby
- Haunted places in Nashville: more of the city’s ghost stories
- Thomas House Hotel, Red Boiling Springs: Tennessee’s best-known haunted hotel
- Haunted hotels in Tennessee: Room 311 at the Read House and more
- Old Talbott Tavern, Bardstown: a haunted 1779 tavern in Kentucky
- Haunted hotels in Tennessee
Stayed in one of these hotels? Tell us what happened
We collect first-hand accounts from guests and add the best ones to our guides, with your first name and the date of your stay. We read every story before it’s published.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Union Station Hotel in Nashville haunted?
It is one of the best-known haunted hotels in the South. The hotel itself tells the story of Abigail, and guests report noises, flickering lights and cold spots, especially in Room 711.
Who is the ghost at Union Station Nashville?
Abigail, a young woman said to have seen her soldier sweetheart off from the station during World War II and to have died here after he was killed in France. Her story is folklore; no record of her has been published.
Can you stay in Room 711 at Union Station?
Yes. It is a regular guest room, so you can request it when you book, but it is not guaranteed. Calling the hotel on (615) 726-1001 gives you the best chance.
When did Union Station Nashville become a hotel?
The station opened in 1900, closed to passenger trains in 1979 and reopened as a hotel in 1986.
What other ghosts are at Union Station?
Guests also describe a uniformed soldier on the tracks, which some believe is Abigail’s sweetheart, Neither has been tied to any record.
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.
- Union Station Hotel: Best haunted hotel in America (2021)
- Union Station Nashville Yards: official site
- Union Station Nashville: The story behind Union Station
- Wikipedia: Union Station (Nashville)
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About the authors
The Haunted Rooms Team runs public ghost hunts and overnight investigations at historic venues across the United States. We research every hotel in our guides using hotel histories, local archives, news coverage and the accounts of guests and staff, and we review each guide regularly so you are not booking a hotel that has closed or changed its name. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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