A blog by Opry staffers, Opry members, friends, and others about the flooding of the Opry House, subsequent clean up and refurbishment, and an eventual return home for the show that made country music famous.
Photos From The Opry House
by Dan Rogers, Opry Senior Marketing Manager
“Time is a great healer,” says the much-quoted Italian proverb. In the case of the Grand Ole Opry House, the great healer/cleaner/refurbisher is a virtual army of professionals working almost non-stop with hammers, vacuums, saws, and other tools to ready the Opry House for the moment when country music’s top artists and biggest fans gather to see the Opry staged in its permanent home once again.
While photos of the House taken during last month’s flood spurred emails from around the world noting fans were heartbroken by what they saw, the shots accompanying this blog show a House no doubt on the mend. The pews on the main floor of the auditorium have been removed, as has the stage, such that both can be replaced. We’ve been assured that the iconic circle of wood placed center stage in 1974 is being treated with tender loving care in anticipation of its return. Walls that once divided dressing rooms inside country’s home have been removed such that new ones can take their place.
When the Opry House was under water on Tues., May 4 and the show moved to the War Memorial Auditorium for the evening, Marty Stuart opened the show, saying, “our family, our songs, and our spirit live on.” Looking at the photos from this week, it’s not terribly difficult to imagine that family, those songs, and that spirit once again inhabiting the walls of the Grand Ole Opry House in the not-too-distant future.
Until then, please allow me to once again remind you we’d love to see you in Nashville during this historic Opry summer. The city is alive with more music than you can possible experience in the days in which you’ll visit. In the past week alone, I’ve seen performances by two of my very favorite artists– Mary Chapin Carpenter and Vince Gill–, and within then next couple of weeks, I’ll have the chance to see performances by Carrie Underwood, Josh Turner, The Oak Ridge Boys, Miranda Lambert, Keith Urban, Wynonna, Emmylou Harris, and more.
I couldn’t be happier to live in Nashville this summer, and I swear you’ll leave us feeling you couldn’t be happier you visited.
The Grand Ole Opry stage
The iconic Opry barn backdrop
The Opry House auditorium
Backstage hallway of the Opry House
The backstage offices at the artist entrance of the Opry House