One of the walls on the third floor is painted to advertise a “blood medicine” that was manufactured here. This particular “medicine” was a concoction of alcohol and opium, and although it probably never cured anyone, it made the consumer unaware of their problems.

On the first floor, the pharmacy served ice cream sodas at the marble top fountain. In those days, some sodas contained opiates such as cocaine, which is why they were dispensed through pharmacies. Ice cream sodas were prohibited by law from being served on Sundays, so the pharmacy would serve the ice cream without the soda and call it a “sundae.”

When the hotel was added in 1892, Nashville was a booming town. Photographs in our grill depict Nashville developing from post civil war reconstruction through the industrial revolution. With steamboat trade on the Cumberland River, the hotel opened to accommodate all the merchants doing business on the waterfront. The Merchant’s Hotel in 1892 offered the “European Plan” which was 25 cents a day for lodging and another 25 cents for a meal. Each room had a bed and a fireplace, and privacy was not guaranteed. You might find yourself not only sharing a room with a stranger, but maybe your bed as well!

When you walk through the building you can see the vestiges of the rooms with fireplaces. On the walls you will find old receipts, menus and advertisements from the companies who did business here. You will even find some original letters from hotel guests and employees. One such letter is an exchange between Georgia Edmundson, an employee of the hotel, and Charlie Keenan, a former Confederate soldier, a cad, and the two timing lover of Georgia. In these sad letters, Georgia gives Charlie the boot, and Charlie’s ghost is rumored to still walk the halls of this building.

With the start of the Grand Ol’ Opry across the street at the Ryman in 1925, some notable folks started staying at the hotel: Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Porter Waggoner, Little Jimmy Dickens, and Roy Acuff. Other notables included Will Rogers, Wild Bill Hickock and the James Boys (they shot someone on Broadway). As the years went by the quality of the hotel began to decline. In the Roaring Twenties it became a “speakeasy” and was affiliated with Al Capone. In the 1940’s it was a brothel. In the 70’s it became a honky-tonk and “dive” bar. By the 1980’s it was ready for the wrecking ball, but Ed Stolman and the Nashville Arts Commission saved it by having it listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Ed opened the Merchant’s Restaurant in 1988 at a time when lower Broadway was not a nice neighborhood that was friendly to tourists and businesses. In spite of the adversity, the Merchant’s Restaurant has not only endured, it has prevailed. Known as THE place for a business lunch, or a special dinner, or just a romantic evening with soft piano music and candlelit tables overlooking Broadway, The Merchant’s has begun another century with a reputation for quality service and cuisine, only the meals are no longer 25 cents!