Hugh Cathcart Thompson is Nashville’s Frank Lloyd Wright. Yet his name is virtually unknown to most people in Franklin. Thompson is the brilliant architect behind Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. He also designed the Franklin’s historic Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Haynes-Berry House in Franklin, the recently renamed LeHew Mansion, the Watson House, and the Harrison House, a beautiful Victorian tragically torn down in the Five Points district of Franklin at Main Street and 5th Avenue North.
Thompson designed fifty-six buildings during his career as an architect in Nashville. Sadly, only nine are still standing, and Franklin has three of them. His style was highly detailed, and all his structures were exquisitely designed from cottage homes to the massive tabernacle that became the Ryman.
The Ryman Auditorium originally opened in 1892 as the Union Gospel Tabernacle. Captain Thomas Ryman, a Nashville businessman who owned several saloons and a fleet of riverboats, hired Hugh Cathcart Thompson to design the tabernacle. Ryman had the idea of building a tabernacle after witnessing the preaching of Samuel Porter Jones.
It was 1885, and Captain Ryman attended a tent revival featuring Jones with the intent of heckling him. But a surprising turn of events happened. Ryman was converted to Christianity! Thereafter, he was determined to build a tabernacle for Nashville’s large revivals. After several years and $100,000 later, Jones held his first revival there on May 25, 1890.
“The Mother Church of Country Music” made its debut when Captain Ryman began renting the building because WSM needed a larger venue for its Grand Ole Opry shows. The Opry was first broadcast from the Ryman on June 5, 1943. The show continued every week for nearly 31 years until it moved to its new location by the Opryland Hotel.
The Cumberland Presbyterian Church has been penned “Franklin’s Ryman Auditorium” by Mary Pearce, former Director of the Heritage Foundation. This historic church was built in 1876 and is located at 615 West Main Street in Franklin. Thompson was an expert in designing church buildings that enhanced musical and choral performances magnificently.
Another magnificent church building Thompson designed was the First United Methodist Church in McMinnville. By a deed dated April 12, 1884, John H. French conveyed a lot, number 40, on which the First United Methodist Church is located. The purchase price of the lot was $1,100 cash. Clay Faulkner, owner of the Mountain City Woolen Mills, helped build the church. Like other Faulkner buildings, you will find great limestone foundations, handsome handmade bricks that have not changed or even chipped in the last hundred years, and arches that enhance all windows and doors.
Another Hugh Cathcart Thompson design is the Watson House. Located at 214 3rd Avenue South in Franklin, this incredible home was built in 1881. It’s so beloved that it was even featured in “Treasures of America and Where to Find Them” published by Reader’s Digest in 1974.
Only four Franklin families have lived in the Watson house, all highly prominent with interesting stories of their own. The Watson family lived in the home for over a century before it was sold to Dan and Denise Klatt, then later to Mike and Ann Bodnar, who now live in the historic Harris McEwen House. The lovely Ellen Smith with her two sons, Laird and Overton, now reside in the home.
The house was originally built for Susan Catherine “Kitty” Puryear Watson in 1881. The style is Second French Empire French Victorian and features a splendid mansard roof.
Avalyn Berry Swain’s family owned the old Berry Place that was located on Berry Circle. She is the daughter of Tyler Berry and the granddaughter of Walter Aiken Roberts. The Haynes-Berry house has been renamed the LeHew Mansion, after one of the Heritage Foundation’s major donors. The home is located next to Franklin Grove, formerly the O’More College of Design. Mr. Haynes, owner of a downtown hardware store, paid Nashville architect Hugh Cathcart Thompson $6,000 to construct the home. It was completed in the 1890’s and in the style of Romanesque Revival with Eastlake with High Queen Anne touches. The Heritage Foundation recently restored this beloved family home and is the new home of Williamson, Inc.
One of the most beautiful homes Hugh Cathcart Thompson designed was the Harrison House in the Five Points district on the corner of 5th Avenue and West Main in Franklin. This beautiful Victorian was tragically torn down. The home was built in 1881 for $28,000. It was the most expensive house in Williamson County at the time.
James W. Harrison was president of the Williamson County Bank and grocery store owner. The home was torn down in 1931 by Irby Watson for Ned Eggleston, who had bought the house and lot from Margaret Watkins.
The Harrison House sat on the corner of Main Street and 5th Avenue North, where Sweet Cece’s, the former Ford dealership, Interurban bus station and fire rescue squad building were located. Preservationist Bill Powell owns that building up to Sweet CeCe’s. Bill says the structure was built from brick, wood, and stone from the Harrison House.
Probably the one good thing that came out of this demolition was that all the materials used to build the shops next door were repurposed. Today, the building houses Franklin Road Apparel, Habit, Skin Theory Rx, and Heylee B.
In 1885, Hugh Cathcart Thompson designed and built his own lovely Victorian home in East Nashville. The home has been called “The Crown Jewel of Lockeland Springs.” This beauty is located at 1201 Holly Street in Nashville. Filled with original millwork, hardwoods, mantles, transom windows, and grand staircase, this is a true piece of Nashville history.
In 1910, he built this adorable Victorian cottage at 1615 Woodland Street in Nashville. The home is a one-of-a-kind piece of Nashville history. It features 15 ft. ceilings, and the intricate trim work Thompson was famous for on the exterior and front porch of the home.
Located between Fourth Avenue and historic Printers Alley, the Utopia was designed by Hugh Cathcart Thompson to be a luxurious European-style hotel. Now part of the Dream Nashville hotel, it was built in 1891. The hotel was designed to accommodate the visitors of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition held in Nashville from May 1 – October 31, 1897, in what is now Centennial Park. A reproduction of the Parthenon was built for this event.
In 2014, it was turned into a luxury boutique hotel alongside other buildings around it, by developer Bill Barkley and investors Alex Marks and Billy Frist. During the renovation, they found beautiful pocket doors, original trim and molding, ornate overhead light fixtures and rare Tennessee pink marble. All of those elements were preserved and incorporated into the new 160-room, six-story hotel.
The Utopia was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
This Porte-cochère, c. 1887, was likely designed by Hugh Cathcart Thompson for Glen Leven Farm in Nashville. Early settler Thomas Thompson established Glen Leven Farm in 1790, six years before Tennessee became the 16th state of the United States. The home at Glen Leven Farm was designed by John Thompson, for his fourth wife, Mary Hamilton House Thompson. In the 1880s, the house underwent a renovation that was attributed to Hugh Cathcart Thompson. Located on the corner of Franklin Road and Thompson Lane, the farm was left to The Land Trust of Tennessee.
Hugh Cathcart Thompson is buried in the Spring Hill Cemetery at 5110 Gallatin Pike South in Nashville. His gravestone says “Uncle Hugh Thompson” along with his wife, “Aunt Ellen Thompson.” The couple did not have children, but it was believed they raised their niece. We assume she purchased this marker to honor them.
"Hugh Cathcart Thompson is Nashville’s Frank Lloyd Wright, yet his name is virtually unknown to most people in Franklin." -- Buffie Baril