The Standard at the Smith House

The Smith House has been a downtown Nashville landmark on 8th Avenue/Rosa Parks Blvd since 1843. That year, John Tyler was in office as the 10th President of the United States. Future President William McKinley was born. And lawmakers voted Nashville the permanent capital of Tennessee. Since opening the grand ballroom in 1895, The Standard has played host to literally hundreds of famous Tennesseans who either lived, dined, danced, relaxed or filmed music videos (like Allison Krauss and Brad Paisley's "Whiskey Lullaby" which won the Country Music Association’s Music Video of the Year in 2004.) And in 2005, Joshua Smith and his family restored the property to its Victorian-era glory – first as their home, then as the award-winning Smith House restaurant downstairs and the prohibition-style Standard Club on the upper floors. Today the home itself has six bedrooms and bathrooms on three floors, with two grand parlors, a formal dining room, breakfast room, large kitchen, outdoor courtyard, a grand ballroom for 200 guests, two trap doors, a secret room and a tunnel under 8th Avenue rumored to have been part of the Underground Railroad during the Civil War.