A Leftover Army Hut Helped Start Music Row: The Real History of the Quonset Hut Studio

Every famous street starts out as an ordinary one. In Nashville, this one started as a house at 804 16th Avenue South, with a leftover piece of the Army added on out back.

The house was bought by brothers Owen and Harold Bradley, who converted it into a recording studio. The leftover piece of the Army was an Army-surplus Quonset hut, and it became a second studio behind the house. Wikipedia calls the result the first commercial recording studio facility in what would later become Music Row.

This is the real history behind that hut: what the sources say, where they disagree on the dates, and how one studio’s success drew the neighbors in. Where one source differs from another, we say so.

What Was the Quonset Hut Studio on Music Row?

The Quonset Hut Studio began as a house. In 1954, Owen and Harold Bradley bought a house at 804 16th Avenue South in Nashville and converted it into a recording studio. Wikipedia’s article on the Quonset Hut Studio and the history site Clio both tell that part of the story.

The hut came next. In 1955, the Bradleys added an Army-surplus Quonset hut to the back of the house as a second studio, according to Wikipedia and to Nashville Sites.

Wikipedia describes the Quonset Hut Studio as the first commercial recording studio facility in what would later become Music Row. Notice the wording: what would later become. In the mid-1950s this was a house with a hut behind it, and the name Music Row came afterward.

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Was It 1954 or 1955? Where the Sources Differ

The short answer is that the sources do not line up neatly, and we would rather say so than quietly pick a favorite.

Wikipedia’s article on the studio and Clio both put the house and its conversion into a studio in 1954. Wikipedia and Nashville Sites date the hut to 1955. Clio dates the conversion to 1954 and says the hut came soon after.

Wikipedia’s separate article on Music Row adds one more date: it says Music Row began developing in 1954.

So both 1954 and 1955 show up, and which one you call the beginning depends on whether you count from the house or from the hut. In this article, 1954 belongs to the house and 1955 belongs to the hut, because that is how the sources we found divide them.

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How Did a Surplus Hut Help Start Music Row?

The studio worked. According to Clio, as the Bradleys’ studio succeeded, other labels moved into the neighborhood, and the neighborhood became known as Music Row.

That is the whole mechanism, and it is a very Nashville one: a studio does well, and the labels that want to be near it move in next door. It is hard to argue with a business plan that simple, even if one of the two studios was a hut.

Wikipedia’s Music Row article fits the timeline, placing the start of the area’s development in 1954, the same year the Bradleys bought the house.

What Happened to the Quonset Hut Studio?

The studio later went to Columbia in 1962, according to Wikipedia.

A historical marker for Bradley Studios was erected in 2011, also per Wikipedia. The Music Row marker, as transcribed by the Historical Marker Database, adds a note about the map: street names in the neighborhood were changed in 1975 to Music Square East and West.

Why It Still Matters

A house, a hut, two brothers, and a studio that did well enough to draw its neighbors in: that, as the sources tell it, is how a Nashville neighborhood got its name. It would be easy to skip the modest beginnings and start the story with the famous part. We would rather keep them. A leftover Army hut is not a glamorous founding document, but it is a documented one.

Which brings us, a little sheepishly, to the design. Music Row, Drop 005 is our nod to all of it: a busted fiddle lying inside a chalk outline, with “MUSIC ★ ROW” in cracked woodblock lettering, in cream and gold on black. We won’t name a suspect. We just drew the outline.

There are six pieces in the drop: a tee ($17.55), a hoodie ($42.55), a trucker hat ($24.55), a coffee mug ($14.55), a 20 oz tumbler ($27.55) and a sticker ($5.55). Every price ends in 55, for 1955, the year the Army-surplus hut went up behind the house, according to the sources above.

You can see all six in the Music Row, Drop 005 collection, and you can find the rest of us in the Outlaw Circle.

Keep the record, even the leftover parts.

From the CCTV Shop

Sources

Wikipedia — “Quonset Hut Studio”: the Bradleys’ 1954 house purchase and conversion at 804 16th Avenue South, the 1955 Army-surplus hut, the first-commercial-recording-studio-facility description, the 1962 move to Columbia, and the 2011 Bradley Studios marker.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quonset_Hut_Studio

Wikipedia — “Music Row”: the neighborhood’s development beginning in 1954.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_Row

Clio — “Quonset Hut (Columbia Studio B)”: the 1954 conversion, the hut coming soon after, and other labels moving into the neighborhood as the studio succeeded.
https://theclio.com/web/entry?id=64458

Nashville Sites — “Curb College, Quonset Hut, and Columbia Records,” part of the Music Row neighborhood tour: the house and the 1955 Quonset hut.
https://nashvillesites.org/tours/music-row-neighborhood/curb-college-quonset-hut-and-columbia-records

Historical Marker Database (HMDB) — Music Row historical marker transcription: street names changed in 1975 to Music Square East and West.
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=147532

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