Woodland Theater

Item Name

Woodland Theater

Creator

Wes Dunbar

Lede

For thirty years, the Woodland Theater stood as a staple in the Five Points community.

Story-Subject

Located at 1011 Woodland Street, Woodland Theaters had a large impact on Nashville during its thirty years of operation. The earliest records of the property seem to be from the years 1899, when the property was being advertised for rent at $9 a month. In 1900 the lot was on sale for a total of $950, both times by a JC Smyth. However, by 1925 the Marr and Holman architectural firm had bought the land and, in collaboration with Crescent Amusement Company, built Woodland Theaters.

From 1925 through 1955, 1011 Woodland Street was the home of the Woodland Street Theater. The property was owned by the Crescent Amusement Company, a Nashville-based theater chain that dominated much of the south east. In 1955, the movie house closed and was rented as a Pentecostal revival center. After acquiring the gospel record label in 1967, Nashboro Records and its publishing arm Exello, Crescent Corp hired Glen Snoddy to convert the theater into a cutting-edge recording studio for Nashboro records. By 1969, recording requests ranging from country, pop, and rock artists were stacking up, prompting Snoddy to build a second studio.

The space was condemned in 2001 after damages sustained in the 1998 tornado that hit East Nashville caused a lawsuit between the owners and the tenant who operated the studio at the time. The property is now occupied by Acony Records, a record label owned by country/folk artists Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.

Subtitle

East Nashville’s Recording Studio

Subject

The history of the Woodland Theater

Source

File #87: “Woodland Theater”
Title- Woodland Theater
Description - Frontview of the Woodland Theater in Nashville, TN.
Source - Tennessee State Library and Archives

Related Resources

JC Smyth advertisement. The Tennessean. January 22, 1899: 6.

JC Smyth advertisement. The Tennessean. September 16, 1900: 10.

Tennessee State Library and Archives. “Marr and Holman Architectural Firm Records 1910-1965.” Accessed November 28, 2018 from https://sos.tn.gov/products/tsla/marr-and-holman-architectural-firm-records-1910-1965.

Wood, Thomas E. “Woodland Studios in Legal Whirlwind.” Nashville Post. February 23, 2001. Accessed November 28, 2018.

Bibliographic Citation

Wes Dunbar, “Woodland Theater,” Bygone Nashville, accessed September 15, 2025, https://bygone-nashville.mtsu.edu/admin/items/show/33.

Title/Location

Woodland Theater

Address

1011 Woodland St, Nashville, TN 37206