Davidson County · Middle Tennessee
Living in Pennington Bend
Pennington Bend is the horseshoe loop of the Cumberland River east of downtown that holds the Grand Ole Opry House, the Gaylord Opryland resort and Opry Mills, with a small pocket of houses along Pennington Bend Road and McGavock Pike. It was McSpadden’s Bend when it was settled in 1797 and took the Pennington name from the family that arrived in 1814.
- County
- Davidson
- Distance to downtown Nashville
- ~6 miles
- Character
- The Opry, the resort, and a small residential pocket, wrapped by the river on three sides
- The thing to check first
- Flood. This bend went under in 2010
What’s actually there
- The Grand Ole Opry House at 2804 Opryland Drive
- The Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center at 2800 Opryland Drive, about four million square feet under glass
- Opry Mills at 433 Opry Mills Drive, built on the footprint of the Opryland USA theme park
- Two Rivers Mansion, an 1859 house listed on the National Register in 1972, and Two Rivers Park at 3130 McGavock Pike
- Wave Country at 2320 Two Rivers Parkway, the Metro Parks water park
- The Cumberland River pedestrian bridge off Two Rivers Parkway, connecting toward the Shelby Bottoms greenway
- The Roy Acuff house on the Opry grounds, which has housed WSM Radio’s broadcast studio since 2024
The housing stock
Be clear-eyed about what this place is. Land use inside the bend is dominated by the resort, the Opry, the mall and multifamily, with a genuinely small pocket of single-family houses along Pennington Bend Road and Miami Drive near Two Rivers. There is no reliable published median for Pennington Bend as a residential geography, because the sample is too thin to support one, and any number a portal shows you here is mixing hotels, apartments and a handful of houses. Ask me for the actual sold comparables on the specific street.
Getting around
About six miles to downtown, twelve to eighteen minutes off-peak, with Briley Parkway at the neck of the bend and McGavock Pike running through it. Nashville International is a short drive south, which is either a convenience or a noise consideration depending on the address.
Things to do in Pennington Bend
Places worth knowing before you decide whether you want to live here.
Grand Ole Opry House
2804 Opryland Drive. The Opry’s home since 1974, and the reason this bend is on the map at all.
Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center
2800 Opryland Drive. About four million square feet, with gardens under glass.
Opry Mills
433 Opry Mills Drive. Opened May 12, 2000 on the site of the Opryland USA theme park, which closed at the end of 1997.
Two Rivers Mansion and Two Rivers Park
3130 McGavock Pike. An 1859 house listed on the National Register in 1972, Metro-owned since 1965, with a park and golf course.
Roy Acuff House
On the Opry grounds at 2804 Opryland Drive, with a historical marker. Acuff lived here from 1984 until his death in 1992, and WSM Radio opened a broadcast studio in the house in 2024.
Wave Country
Metro Parks water park at 2320 Two Rivers Parkway, open seasonally from Memorial Day weekend.
Checked against each business as of August 17, 2026. Nashville loses restaurants faster than most cities, so if something here has closed since, tell me and I’ll get it corrected.
Subdivisions and named developments in Pennington Bend
Once you are actually looking, you stop searching by city and start searching by subdivision. These are the names that come up, and what is true about each one that will still be true in three years. No prices, no dues, no days on market, because those change and this page would go stale telling you about them.
The flood number you should see first
Before any subdivision name, this. It is the county’s own damage record, not an opinion.
- In the 2010 flood, structures were damaged on roughly 1,031 to 1,426 parcels in and around the bend, depending on where you draw the line.
- Davidson County recorded 11,648 flood damaged parcels in total. So this one river bend accounts for about twelve percent of every damaged parcel in the county.
- Metro’s mapping shows FEMA Zone AE, the 100 year floodplain, throughout the bend.
- None of that means do not buy here. It means the FEMA panel and an elevation certificate on the specific parcel come before contingencies come off, every time, without exception.
River Trace Estates
The largest subdivision in the bend, built across fifteen years.
- About 328 parcels, roughly 298 of them inside the bend itself.
- Section 1 Phase 1 recorded July 17, 1986, with sections continuing to a Phase 6 recorded June 4, 2001.
- Lots run roughly twenty-four to forty-six hundredths of an acre under RS10 zoning.
- On Riverbend Drive and Steamboat Drive.
Abbington Park
The newest of the large plats, and it was still being extended nine years after the flood.
- About 317 parcels, roughly 291 inside the bend. Phase 1 Section 1 recorded March 28, 2003.
- Phase 3 was platted August 5, 2019. That is nine years after the 2010 flood, which tells you the market kept building here.
- Lots run roughly nineteen to twenty-four hundredths of an acre under RS15 zoning.
- Centered on Frost Street.
Cabin Hill
Entirely inside the bend, and entirely attached or zero lot line product.
- About 105 parcels, and every one of them sits inside the bend.
- Section 1 recorded August 5, 1983, followed by zone lot division plats recorded from September 1984 through 1989.
- Every section carries a zone lot division, which means this is attached or zero lot line housing throughout rather than conventional detached lots.
- Lots run roughly eighteen to twenty-six hundredths of an acre under R15. On Kimberly Drive.
Two Rivers Mansion
Not a subdivision. The landmark that anchors the bend and the reason part of it cannot change.
- Built in 1859 for David H. McGavock, at 3130 McGavock Pike, sitting between the Stones and the Cumberland.
- Listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 23, 1972.
- It carries a Metro historic preservation landmark overlay, which is the strongest local designation Nashville applies and is permanent.
- The bend also sits under an airport impact overlay, which is a separate thing entirely and is worth understanding before you buy near the flight path.
The newer and smaller plats
Five more names people search, including one recorded this year.
- Pennington Bend Estates is the oldest of these, recorded June 20, 1977, about 9 parcels on half acre lots on Pennington Bend Road.
- Pennington Meadows recorded January 31, 1985. Pennington Villas Townhomes recorded August 12, 2004.
- Pennington Bend Chase recorded May 24, 2006, with The Summit at Pennington Bend Chase following September 8, 2021.
- Pennington Mills recorded March 27, 2025, the newest named development in the bend.
- Separately, Rudy’s Corner on McGavock Pike is zoned commercial. It is the Rudy family sausage farm land, not a residential neighborhood, and it turns up in searches as though it were one.
Schools
Metro Nashville Public Schools
Look up an address with the district →
Served by Metro Nashville Public Schools, assigned by address, with a separate choice and magnet application alongside zoned assignment. Confirm the specific address in the district’s Zone Finder.
I publish district and school zoning as published fact and nothing more. No ratings, no rankings, no comparisons. School zones are set by the district, assigned by address rather than by subdivision or city name, and they change. Confirm any address with the district itself, and evaluate the schools yourself against what matters to your family.
What a buyer needs to know here
Flood is the whole conversation here and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling. On May 1 and 2 of 2010, more than thirteen inches of rain put the Cumberland over its banks and Pennington Bend went under. Houses on Pennington Bend Road and Miami Drive took water and people were taken out by boat. The Grand Ole Opry House flooded across its stage, closed for five months and reopened on September 28, 2010 after a restoration north of $20 million, with the wooden stage circle salvaged and reinstalled. The Gaylord resort flooded across roughly 800,000 of its four million square feet, closed about six months and reopened that November, with combined damages reported above $200 million. What changed since: in 2012 Ryman Hospitality spent about $17 million building a ten-foot floodwall around the resort site, engineered to a 500-year standard, and raised pumping capacity from 50,000 to 125,000 gallons a minute. Read that carefully. That wall protects the resort. I have not found documentation of comparable protection for the residential streets in the bend. So on any house here we pull the flood zone at FEMA’s map service and Metro’s tool at nashvilletn.withforerunner.com, get an elevation certificate, price flood insurance before contingencies come off, and look at what the 2010 water actually did to that specific parcel. This can still be a good buy. It cannot be an uninformed one.
Common questions
Which country music stars actually lived in Pennington Bend?
One, verifiably, and the honest answer is more interesting than the myth. Roy Acuff lived in a house the Opry provided him on the Opryland grounds at 2804 Opryland Drive, from 1984 after his wife died until his own death in 1992. The house still stands, it carries a historical marker, and WSM Radio opened a broadcast studio inside it in 2024. Everybody else people associate with this area lived somewhere else, and those places get mixed up constantly.
Did Johnny Cash and Conway Twitty live near the Opry?
Near it, not in it. Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash lived on Old Hickory Lake in Hendersonville, and Conway Twitty built Twitty City in Hendersonville too. Marty Robbins, Little Jimmy Dickens, Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton are Brentwood, Barbara Mandrell is associated with Fontanel on Whites Creek Pike and earlier with Gallatin, Webb Pierce and his guitar-shaped pool were on Music Row, and Loretta Lynn was at Hurricane Mills, sixty-five miles west. The Opry is in Pennington Bend. Most of the Opry stars lived across the river or across town.
Does Pennington Bend flood?
It did, badly, in May 2010, when the Cumberland overtopped its banks and put water into houses on Pennington Bend Road and Miami Drive, into the Opry House across the stage, and into about 800,000 square feet of the Gaylord resort. The resort built a ten-foot floodwall in 2012 engineered to a 500-year standard and tripled its pumping capacity. That protects the resort. I have not found documentation of the same protection for the residential streets. Treat flood as the first question on any house here, not the last.
What happened to Opryland the theme park?
It ran from 1972 to the end of the 1997 season and closed permanently. The site was cleared by mid-1998 and Opry Mills opened on the same footprint on May 12, 2000. The Opry House, the Roy Acuff house and the former museum building stayed where they were, which is why the Opry itself never went anywhere.
Thinking about Pennington Bend?
What are some of your must haves to make it a perfect home for you in this neighborhood?