Downtown Presbyterian Church

Downtown Presbyterian Church tickets: which one to buy

The Downtown Presbyterian Church stands on Church Street in the centre of Nashville, a few blocks from the honky-tonks of Broadway and the state capitol, and it is free to visit. The building is normally open on weekdays during office hours, with docents or staff on hand to let visitors in and answer questions, and on Sunday mornings for worship. Architecture and history walking tours of downtown Nashville include it, usually with the capitol designed by the same architect and the Ryman Auditorium, and it is the stop that surprises people most.

There is nothing to book. The congregation hosts concerts and community events in the sanctuary, and the acoustics are good. If you are in Nashville for the music, a weekday lunchtime visit is an easy detour between the museums and the bars; the whole thing takes twenty minutes and leaves an image of the city few visitors expect. Staff can sometimes show the gallery level, which gives the best view of the painted walls.

Visiting Downtown Presbyterian Church: what to see

William Strickland, the Philadelphia architect who also designed the Tennessee State Capitol and is buried in its walls, built the church between 1849 and 1851 in the Egyptian Revival style, then fashionable in America for buildings that wanted to suggest permanence. The front has two towers and a portico of lotus-capital columns under a winged sun disc. During the Civil War the Union army took the building over as a hospital, and soldiers' names survive from that period.

In the 1880s the congregation completed the interior in the same spirit, and it is the reason to come: the sanctuary is painted to look like the courtyard of an Egyptian temple, with columns and a deep blue sky painted on the walls, palm trees receding into perspective, and a ceiling of stylised decoration, all around a conventional Presbyterian pulpit and pews. The building is a National Historic Landmark and one of the best surviving Egyptian Revival interiors in the country. Stained glass panels in the windows use Egyptian motifs as well and were installed during the same campaign.

Downtown Presbyterian Church opening hours and the best time to go

Weekday daytime hours are the practical window, since the building is locked outside office hours except for services and events. Sunday worship is open to visitors and is the only time the interior is used as intended. Nashville summers are hot and humid and the downtown blocks have little shade, which makes the cool sanctuary welcome in the middle of the day. The city is busiest during festival weekends, including the big country music gathering in June, when hotels fill and downtown streets close.

The state capitol, a short climb up the hill, offers free tours on weekdays and explains the rest of Strickland's story. The Ryman and the country music museum are ten minutes on foot. Allow twenty to thirty minutes, and ask the staff to point out the Civil War details. Parking downtown is expensive on event nights, when concerts at the arena fill every garage nearby.