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Sale Could Open Historic Recording Studio To Public
By: JEANNE ANNE NAUJECK Staff Writer
Known as the "Quonset Hut" and tucked inside what became Columbia Studios on 16th Avenue, it was home to some of the most famous musical recordings that launched the rise of country music in the 1950s. The office complex is for sale by its most recent owner, Sony Music Nashville, opening an opportunity for a buyer to restore the hut in the old Columbia building for either public tours or live recordings. "Two parties have already expressed interest in putting the studio back into use, not just for their own use but also for the public," said Ira Blonder, with The Blonder Group, who is listing the building. "They would try to allow it to be included on tours and also allow third-party usage so somebody could record in the studio where Patsy (Cline), or George (Jones) or Bob Dylan did. It's just exciting." If the studio were restored, it would be a welcome addition to tours offered by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, said its director, Kyle Young. "No question, that's hallowed ground. It's an integral part of Nashville history. Even if it were a patch of grass, a lot of important things happened there." More than a dozen parties have made inquiries since the 23,446-square-foot building was listed last Monday. More than half of those have made one or more tours. And five tours are scheduled for next week of the property, which sits at a corner two blocks off the Music Row roundabout. Prospective buyers include record labels, a television production company, a law firm, a publishing company that might also start a label here and several religious institutions. There have been calls from Atlanta and Los Angeles, Blonder said. No list price has been set, although he said it should go for more than its most recent tax-assessed value of $2.08 million. Commercial real estate brokers put the asking price at about $3 million. Sony is divesting its Nashville headquarters as a result of its merger last year with Bertelsmann Music Group. The record company hopes to sell the property by April, when about 50 Sony staffers will move to the BMG campus on 17th Avenue A Music Row pioneer Only a curved ceiling in the room that houses Sony's art department hints at the frame of the Quonset Hut, where several country and pop stars recorded from about 1956 until 1982. Producer Owen Bradley and his brother, Harold, originally purchased a steel-frame and metal-covered Quonset hut, designed for military use during World War II, to house ''Bradley's Film and Recording Studio,'' Owen's son Jerry Bradley recalled. Owen Bradley had been recording music in an adjacent small house, but they needed more room. Jerry Bradley recalls that there wasn't much money, so they jury-rigged the Quonset hut for sound, using old curtains, pieces of wood made into louvers, and raw insulation covered with burlap. "My dad had a way of dealing with materials to acoustically fix a room," he said. "Today, you hire an acoustic engineer to come in and tune the room. Owen and Harold, they tuned that room by trial and error and with their ears." The Hut and other recording sites at the property became the first recording complex on 16th Avenue, then a scrappy neighborhood, which later developed into what is known as Music Row. A block away, businessman Dan Maddox built a studio in 1957 for RCA Victor, where producer Chet Atkins churned out hundreds of hits. Other studios followed. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum leases RCA Studio B for tours, and it also serves as a studio lab for Belmont University students. Additions overtook Hut The original recording studio continued after Bradley sold the Quonset Hut to Columbia Records in 1962 and it became Columbia Studios. A building was added around the Quonset Hut, enlarging the complex with offices and other studio space. In 1982 Columbia ceased using the Quonset Hut for making records. When Sony took over the building after it bought Columbia/CBS Records six years later, it called in Tom Bulla of Bulla & Associates Architects to do a major overhaul. "I do remember there were signs in the building to the Quonset Hut," Bulla said. "There was a building around it. They built on three sides of it." Bulla added several thousand square feet to the building, as well as a new skin and interiors. He also encased the Quonset Hut, incorporating it into the structure. Bulla recalls walking into Sony about 1967 after he got out of the military to visit his brother, a producer. "There stood Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash and June Carter. They were recording Nashville Skyline," Bulla said. "Little did I know I would become an architect and work on that building." Location sought-after The musical heritage of the building is just one element that's attracting interest, Blonder said. Location and size are others. The building layout, while a bit of a maze, could be reconfigured to accommodate more than one tenant. It also has a parking lot. The neighborhood has grown to include both entertainment-related businesses and others that simply wish to be close to downtown. Tom Harwell, a partner with Eakin Partners, recently opened a new nine-story 205,000-square-feet Roundabout Plaza on the traffic circle connecting Demonbreun and Division streets with 16th and 17th avenues. Booking agency William Morris leased nearly 17,000 feet of space in the building to house 60 employees, and other music-related tenants include an accountant and a music publisher. But other tenants include law firm Boult Cummings Conners & Berry, AmSouth Bank and Northwest Mutual insurance company. Harwell cited the Christian Science Church's purchase of a building on Music Row and the sale of a 17th Avenue building to a company that sells boat parts as signs that the area is changing. "Not every property value has skyrocketed, but on balance, the area has gotten a ton of interest from other businesses. The retail and residential growth of the area has begun to have an effect on commercial as well. "It's a walkable neighborhood, unlike the West End corridor." History adds value Blonder said a price couldn't necessarily be pulled from comparable sales on the Row. Waylon Jennings' building at 1117 17th Ave. S., which was sold in 2003 by his widow and trust "had a value that couldn't be pulled from an appraisal. It embodied Waylon and Willie (Nelson) and Johnny (Cash) and Kris (Kristofferson.) That building had tremendous history. It attracted a different buyer. The same would apply here." The house sold for $663,000. For example, a turning point in the 2001 sale of Ocean Way Studios on 17th Avenue South to Belmont University, which Blonder also brokered, was when record label head and philanthropist Mike Curb sat down at a piano in the main studio and sang gospel music in the former church dating to the 1850s. The studio is part of Belmont's Mike Curb College of Music and Entertainment Business. The university paid $2.4 million for the real estate, although the market value was estimated at $6 million. The deal also involved gifts from the owners. "He understood it," Blonder said of Curb, who he said was not among those who had contacted him about the Sony building. "People who truly have a respect for the past and understand what impact it's had on music would have a greater interest in this building, say, than just another 24,000-square-foot building." Jerry Bradley sums up the Quonset Hut's mystique in one word: magic. "Those records still stand up today to any records that were made during that time. The Quonset Hut had the magic. I don't think you can find anyone who'll tell you it didn't." |
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What is a Quonset hut?
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Originally Published In The Tennessean On January 22, 2005
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