Towering above Printers Alley, the Southern Turf Building has stood through fires, prohibition, jazz and death. Now, its doors open to those who dare to stay the night inside its most haunted space.

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The building’s tragic history is legendary. David “Skull” Schulman, beloved owner of the Rainbow Room, was murdered on-site in 1998.  Decades earlier, Ike Johnson, a bootlegger and former proprietor, took his own life in an upstairs room—his spirit still said to linger above.

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Guests have reported phantom footsteps, cold spots in the basement, and bar stools mysteriously pulled out… as if waiting for someone no longer there.​​​

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Isaac “Ike” Johnson was once the king of Nashville’s nightlife. In 1895, he opened the Southern Turf, a five-story palace of whiskey, gambling, and grandeur that dazzled the city’s elite. Hand-carved mahogany bars, stained glass windows, marble spittoons, and sweeping staircases made the Turf a marvel of the Gilded Age. Politicians, gamblers, and visiting celebrities flocked there not just for the spectacle, but for Ike himself — a sharp-dressed, quick-witted host whose booming laugh could fill the room.

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But success proved fragile. By 1909, prohibition forced the Southern Turf to close its doors. Stripped of the empire that defined him and burdened by mounting debts, Ike spiraled into despair. On March 13, 1909, in the upstairs Room 201, he took his own life with a gunshot. Newspapers across Nashville mourned the fall of a man once larger than life — but many say Ike never truly left.

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Guests who have entered Room 201 describe rattling doors, heavy footsteps in the hall, whispers when the room is still, and shadows that stretch just a little too long. His presence lingers where fortune, fame, and tragedy met their end.

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