Holston House Nashville, in The Unbound Collection by Hyatt ★★★★

A 1929 Art Deco Landmark, Reopened as a Hotel

Before it was Holston House, the building at 118 7th Avenue North spent decades as the James Robertson Hotel, raised in 1929 to a design by the Nashville architecture firm Marr & Holman and listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1984. HRI Lodging took on the renovation in partnership with Hyatt, placing the result in the Unbound Collection, a brand built for hotels with their own architectural identity rather than a shared template. The Art Deco bones, the proportions, the period detailing, were kept rather than stripped out, which is a choice not every developer makes when a building this old gets a full-service hotel brand attached to it. The building had sat for years as a fading downtown fixture before HRI took it on, which makes the current result as much a civic rescue as a hospitality project.

Why It Works

We selected Holston House because it solves a problem most downtown hotels don’t bother with: how to update a historic building without flattening what made it worth keeping. The renovation brief called for “rugged modernism with authenticity,” and that shows in guest rooms and public spaces that nod to Tennessee’s founding history and its music industry without turning either into a theme. For a city whose hotel supply leans heavily on new-build glass towers, a genuine 1929 landmark stands out by default, and the Unbound Collection flag means Hyatt's loyalty program comes attached without forcing the building into a standardized look.

Why This Location

Holston House sits a few blocks from the Cumberland River, inside the core of downtown Nashville and an easy walk from both the honky-tonks on Broadway and the quieter business district around it. It works equally well as a base for a conference trip or a weekend that mixes live music with some distance from the loudest blocks of it. The Cumberland riverfront path is close enough for an early walk or run before a day of meetings.

Fast Facts

• Price: €€€

• Vibe: Art Deco heritage, modern Tennessee design

• Chambres: 191 rooms, including four one-bedroom suites and two penthouse suites

• Best For: history-minded travelers, business travelers, rooftop seekers

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: the preserved 1929 Art Deco facade and detailing

• Dining: TENN, Bar TENN, TENN on Top (rooftop pool bar)

• Amenities: rooftop pool bar, fitness center, 2,200+ sq ft of event space

• Attractions: Cumberland River, Broadway honky-tonks, downtown Nashville

Named for a River, Built Around Tennessee History

The hotel takes its name from the Holston River, one of the waterways tied to Tennessee’s earliest European settlement, and that founding-era reference runs through the design rather than stopping at the sign out front. Guest rooms and corridors work in details tied to the state’s history and its music industry, giving the property a point of view that a standard business-hotel renovation would have skipped in favor of neutral carpet and generic framed prints. It is a smaller gesture than The Joseph's art collection across town, but a deliberate one, and it gives the hotel a reason to exist beyond its address that a purely cosmetic renovation would not have earned.

Three Ways to Eat and Drink Under One Name

TENN, the hotel’s signature restaurant, anchors the ground floor, with Bar TENN running the lobby lounge for guests who want a drink without committing to a full meal. TENN on Top takes the program to the roof, pairing a pool bar with skyline views over downtown Nashville, open through the warmer months as the hotel’s most requested spot for an evening drink. Together the three venues cover a full day without asking guests to leave the building, which matters for a conference crowd as much as it does for a weekend visitor who would rather not plan every meal around a walk to Broadway.