Haunted Hotels in Nashville: The 5 Most Haunted Places to Stay
A railroad station with a heartbroken ghost, a 1910 grand hotel with a crying baby, an 1891 hotel in Printers Alley and a woman in black at Opryland. These are the Nashville hotels with ghost stories you can actually book.
Music City’s haunted hotels are mostly within a few blocks of each other downtown. Union Station tells the story of Abigail in Room 711, the Hermitage Hotel has its crying baby in Room 912, and Dream Nashville is built around the 1891 Utopia Hotel in Printers Alley. Out by the Opry, Gaylord Opryland has the Lady in Black, and 90 minutes northeast the Thomas House Hotel in Red Boiling Springs is the most haunted hotel in the state, where Haunted Rooms runs overnight ghost hunts. We have checked each hotel against current sources and been clear about which stories are local legend. For the rest of the state, see our guide to haunted hotels in Tennessee.
$ · Under $150Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghostsHaunted Rooms ghost hunts
Address 520 East Main Street, Red Boiling Springs, TN 37150
Where to look Room 37, the White Hallway, Rooms 17 and 35, the dining room
Reported ghosts Sarah Cloyd, the Whistling Man, a boy named Edwin and R.V. Weston
Booking the haunted room Rooms, including Room 37, can be booked by calling the hotel, or as part of a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt and sleepover.
Zack and Clay Cloyd opened the Cloyd Hotel in 1890, when Red Boiling Springs was a busy mineral-water spa town. Fire destroyed it in 1924 and it was rebuilt in red brick in 1927; after the springs went out of fashion it became a boys’ summer camp, and in the late 1980s a group devoted to contacting the dead lived here. It reopened as the Thomas House in 1993 and is on the National Register.
It is one of the most talked-about haunted hotels in the South, featured on Ghost Hunters and Portals to Hell. Room 37 is linked to Sarah Cloyd, a child said to shake the beds and ask guests to play; staff also hear the Whistling Man in empty halls. Haunted Rooms runs overnight ghost hunts here.
Haunted Rooms tip: Join a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt and sleepover to investigate the whole building, including Room 37 and the White Hallway, with a team.
$$$ · Over $300Haunted room bookableHotel embraces its ghosts
Address 1001 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203
Where to look Room 711 and the old train shed side
Reported ghosts Abigail, and a soldier on the tracks
Booking the haunted room Request Room 711 when booking; it is not guaranteed.
Nashville’s Romanesque stone train station opened in 1900 for the L&N Railroad, sat abandoned for years, and reopened as a hotel in 1986. Today it is the Union Station Nashville Yards, part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection, with the original barrel-vaulted lobby and its stained glass.
The hotel tells the ghost story itself. Abigail is said to have come to the station during World War II to see off her soldier sweetheart, who was killed in France, and to have taken her own life here. Guests in Room 711 report noises, flickering lights, faces in mirrors and sudden cold, and some describe a uniformed soldier on the tracks.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for Room 711 when you book; the hotel itself promotes Abigail’s story, especially around Halloween.
Where to look Room 912, the upper floors and balconies, the lobby mirror and the elevators
Reported ghosts A crying baby heard in Room 912, a Lady in White, a girl seen on an upper balcony
Booking the haunted room Room 912 is a regular guest room. Request it when you book or by calling the hotel on 615-244-3121; it is not guaranteed.
Nashville’s first million-dollar hotel opened on September 17, 1910, a Beaux-Arts landmark by architect J. Edwin Carpenter, paid for by 250 local residents. Presidents from Taft to Nixon stayed or spoke here, and in 1920 it was a stage for both sides of the fight over the 19th Amendment, which is why it was named a National Historic Landmark in 2020. Today it has 122 rooms and the Jean-Georges restaurant Drusie & Darr.
Its best-known story belongs to Room 912, where guests say they have woken in the small hours to a baby crying. Local lore says an infant fell from a window there, but no newspaper record of such an accident has been found. Staff and guests also blame a Lady in White for doors that open on their own, misbehaving elevators and glasses that slide off the bar.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for Room 912 when you book and again at check-in, then take afternoon tea in the lobby and look for the mirror said to crack and mend itself.
Where to look The second floor of the old Utopia Hotel building and the historic corridors
Reported ghosts Tim Hanifin, said to have been shot in 1897; a weeping woman in Victorian dress
Dream Nashville backs onto Printers Alley and is built around two survivors of the old Men’s Quarter: the six-story Utopia Hotel of 1891, on the National Register since 1979, and the facade of the 1887 Climax Saloon, once the district’s most notorious saloon and bordello. The hotel opened at the turn of 2019 with 168 rooms and 21 suites, and it welcomes pets.
The ghost stories come from the old hotel. Local ghost tours tell of Tim Hanifin, said to have been shot dead by a sheriff on the Utopia’s second floor in 1897, whose misty figure is seen in the halls. Guests and staff also describe a weeping woman in Victorian dress and footsteps with nobody there. We have not found a newspaper record of the shooting, so treat it as tour lore.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for a room in the historic Utopia building rather than the new tower, then take a late walk down Printers Alley.
Where to look The Magnolia Lobby and its staircase and chandelier, stairwells, elevators and top-floor rooms
Reported ghosts The Lady in Black, said to be a member of the McGavock family
The giant resort beside the Grand Ole Opry opened on November 24, 1977, next to the old Opryland USA theme park, and has grown to 2,888 rooms under three glass atriums, the Garden Conservatory, the Cascades and the Delta. The May 2010 flood put parts of it under about 10 feet of water; it reopened that November. It is owned by Ryman Hospitality Properties and run by Marriott.
It is a young building for a ghost story, but Tennessee’s own tourism office tells one. Guests and staff describe the Lady in Black, a woman in a long black antebellum gown and sometimes a veil, seen at the top of stairs, in corridors and in rooms, and said to rattle the chandelier in the Magnolia Lobby. Legend links her to the McGavock family, who once owned much of this land.
Haunted Rooms tip: Stand on the Magnolia Lobby’s grand staircase late at night, when the crowds have gone, and keep an eye on the chandelier.
About this guide: Opryland was once left off our Tennessee list because we could not find a published account of its ghost; Tennessee’s tourism office and local media now tell the Lady in Black story, so it is included. The Drury Plaza Hotel downtown is sometimes called haunted, but it opened in 2019 and we found no specific story tied to it, so it is not listed. If you know a Nashville hotel ghost story we missed, tell us below.
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
What is the most haunted hotel in Nashville?
Union Station Nashville Yards is the best known. The hotel itself tells the story of Abigail, who is linked to Room 711, and it was voted best haunted hotel in USA Today’s 10Best readers’ poll. The Hermitage Hotel and its crying baby in Room 912 come a close second.
Can you book a haunted room in Nashville?
You can request one. Ask for Room 711 at Union Station or Room 912 at the Hermitage Hotel when you book and again at check-in. Both are ordinary guest rooms, so requests are not guaranteed.
Is the Hermitage Hotel in Nashville haunted?
Guests in Room 912 report hearing a baby crying in the early hours, and a Lady in White is blamed for doors, elevators and falling glasses. Local lore says a baby fell from the window, but no record of that has been found.
Is the Gaylord Opryland Hotel haunted?
It has a ghost story repeated by Tennessee’s tourism office: the Lady in Black, a woman in an antebellum gown seen on stairs and corridors and said to rattle the Magnolia Lobby chandelier. Legend links her to the McGavock family who once owned the land.
Which Nashville haunted hotels are walkable from Broadway?
Union Station, the Hermitage Hotel and Dream Nashville are all a short walk from Lower Broadway, so you can stay in one and visit the other two in an evening.
Are there ghost hunts near Nashville?
Yes. Haunted Rooms runs overnight ghost hunts and sleepovers at the Thomas House Hotel in Red Boiling Springs, about 90 minutes from Nashville, and ghost hunts at the old jail and funeral home in Lynchburg.
Is the Ryman Auditorium haunted?
It has some of Nashville’s most famous ghost stories, but it is a concert hall, not a hotel. See our guide to haunted places in Nashville for the Ryman and more.
Sources and how we research
Every hotel in this guide is checked against the hotel’s own website, historic register listings and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as the hotels, guests and local historians tell them; we note where a story can’t be confirmed. Read how we rate haunted hotels.
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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.
Booking links on this page are affiliate links. If you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It never affects which hotels we include or how we score them.
