"I'm Never Leaving the Station"

There is more than meets the eye to the haunting beauty of Union Station. Built in the Romanesque Revival style, the train station-turned-hotel is one of Nashville’s historical gems. But, if the 450-pound statue of Mercury perched atop its clocktower draws you in off Broadway, you may experience more than a wistful walk through the past as you take in the splendor of stained glass, marble, and stone.

Upon entering through heavy stone archways, you’re immediately dwarfed by a 65-foot, barrel-vaulted ceiling adorned with stained glass windows and complimentary crystal chandeliers. This spectacular feat of architecture is framed with motifs of angels holding cornucopias, tools, and bushels of grain, highlighting the agricultural, mechanical, and commercial achievements of Tennessee. As you explore the atrium, it won’t be long before you spot the seven-story, wood-carved staircases that some say beckon ascenders to jump. 

The captivating beauty serves as a charming veil between the living and the other worldly phenomena experienced by patrons of the century-old building. Many of the hotel’s ghostly encounters feature Abigail, a woman who sent her beau off to war from the station in which tens of thousands of U.S. troops also departed from during World War II. Unfortunately, Abigail’s true love was fated to an untimely death during combat in Europe. In her grief, she came back to the train station where she swore her affections—having vowed to faithfully await his return—and threw herself off the platform in front of a moving train. 

Since its restoration in 1986, many guests have reported strange happenings during their stay. Room 711 has become notorious for flickering lights, strange sounds, and drops in room temperature. Abigail’s ghost is said to appear in the reflection of a glass door adjacent to the main level’s robust stone fireplace, where marriage ceremonies are often held. Hotel attendants hint that she is attracted to weddings and music, perhaps in mourning for the love she had lost. 

Many of those who’ve had a brush with Abigail believe her to be a benevolent ghost. An engineer who had a run-in with the heartbroken spirit just days ago would agree. While making his way up the rudimentary staircase that leads to the clock tower, he lost his footing. Pale and terrified, he recounted the hair-raising tale to his colleagues—swearing that a ghostly hand reached out and grabbed him, saving him from falling to his death. Over the years, such lore has both chased off night shift workers and attracted ghost hunters hoping to tap into the supernatural energy they believe emanates throughout the old train station. 

The building’s colorful history—including rumors about mobster Al Capone’s escort through the station, and morbid stories inspired by the fact that the hotel used to house live alligators—adds a playful dimension to Union Station’s historical grandeur. So if you have a chance to grab a cocktail from The Bar Car this All Hallows’ Eve, make sure to look twice at your reflection in the window. MEGAN PODSIEDLIK

✹ ELECTION NIGHT PARTY

🎃 Trick Or Treat And Vote Though donning a trash bag has become an election costume that transcends Halloween antics, today happens to be the last day of early voting in Nashville. And while the presidential election is certainly the main event, there are some important down ballot races in Davidson County that you can brush up on using our quick guide. 

We’ve also seen an extensive campaign roll out in favor of Mayor O’Connell’s transit referendum, which will appear as the last question on your ticket. You can check out his full plan here, and read through our articles and interviews of those who have come out against Choose How You Move. Happy Voting!

🚌 Freddie’s Fake Bus If you haven’t seen it already, Freddie O’Connell took a page from his mayoral campaign playbook and released a new advertisement encouraging Nashvillians to support his transit referendum. Reminiscent of his cardboard cutout, door-knocking ad from last year, the mayor kept the same energy in a new ad released yesterday. Somehow, he convinced his Chief Development Officer Bob Mendes and award-winning photojournalist and Metro Videographer Joe Gregory to make a cameo “driving” down the street in a cardboard WeGo bus.

Depending on what platform you’re on, the reaction to the pro-transit ad is a mixed bag. “Mayor is giving BRAT energy,” said one commenter about the video set to Chappell Roan’s "Hot to Go!" “You are so Nashville if...your Mayor is a 14 year old girl,” said another. It’s hard to tell if this latest media push—which seems to leave either an entertaining or cringeworthy impression on voters—will be the oomph needed to get Choose How You Move over the finish line next week. 

💰 Follow The Money On Monday, we took a look at how the campaign for Mayor O’Connell’s transit plan was being funded. One of the main pro-transit nonprofits, the Nashville Moves Action Fund, has been funneling money through the Green Lights For Nashville PAC to carry out many of Choose How You Move’s media marketing initiatives.  

As it turns out, the Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance has some questions regarding the arrangement. According to the Banner, the largest donations made to the Nashville Moves Action Fund were from two major engineering and architecture firms: Gresham Smith and HDR. The Bureau has since ordered the nonprofit to file disclosures, despite it not being a political campaign committee. Unsurprisingly, many lobbyist firms and labor and construction groups are also among the donors to the fund.

DEVELOPMENT

• Local restaurateur, Grammy-winning artist launch Nashville rum brand (NBJ)
• Residential development eyed for Germantown-area site (Post)
• Corsair owner sells large Bells Bend property (Post)

✹ HALLOWEEN MOVIE ROUND-UP

Twenty years ago, Halloween was the territory of exhausted parents taking trick-or-treaters around the neighborhood and hip urbanites going on pub crawls in revealing attire. But this year, the days surrounding Samhain have become a bona fide $12.2 billion year seasonal juggernaut more lucrative for event planners than the summer wedding blitz and Christmas. 

There may be no better symbol of our cathartic escape from the realities of economic and cultural devolution than the ever-expanding footprint of Spirit Halloweens in our hollowed-out Flyover State strip malls. Yet, the public appetite for horror movies that have turned this historically sluggish box-office period into fertile terrain for high-profile releases deserves equal attention because no movie genre better reflects the cultural anxieties du jour. 

Is our desire for the Terrifier franchise’s carnage tapping into similar currents that made the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre an interrogation of Vietnam’s effects on the homefront? Is Smile 2 a continuation of horror’s recent religious turn that we discussed earlier this year or just a limp successor to 2024’s instant classics like Longlegs and MaXXXine? For those tired of Jack Skellington and Rocky Horror rep programming, we rank the five horror releases playing in theaters this long Halloween Weekend.

THINGS TO DO

View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.

📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.

🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.

👨🏻‍🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide and yearly festival guide.

TONIGHT

🎸 Being Dead @ The Blue Room, 7p, $32.36, Info

🪕 The Borrowed Mules @ Station Inn, 9p, $20, Info

🎸 HANSON with Phantom Planet @ Cannery Hall, 7p, $100, Info

🎸 Harrison Storm @ 3rd and Lindsley, 7p, $24.76, Info

🍀 Live Irish Music @ McNamara’s Irish Pub, 6p, Free, Info

🎸 Kelly’s Heroes @ Robert’s Western World, 6:30p, Free, Info

🎸 Open Mic @ Fox & Locke, 6:30p, Free, Info
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