Nashville’s Patsy Cline Museum Shuts Down May 15 to Make Way for Johnny Cash Expansion

On May 15, the Patsy Cline Museum in downtown Nashville will close its doors. The space will become a 4,000-square-foot addition to the Johnny Cash Museum, marking the end of an eight-year run since 2017. The expansion will open in mid-summer.

"It has been our privilege and honor to be able to showcase the incredible legacy of the great Patsy Cline over the past eight years in the Patsy Cline Museum," said Icon Entertainment & Hospitality CEO Bill Miller to American Songwriter. "It has been a pleasure to work with her family, and we are proud of what has been accomplished." Cline is famous for hits like "Walkin' After Midnight" and "Crazy," and she died in a tragic plane crash in 1963.

At 119 3rd Avenue South, the Patsy Cline Museum houses a rich collection of the singer's personal items, photos, and mementos. The future home of these treasured pieces remains unclear.

The Cash Museum will add cutting-edge features to the space. New exhibits will let guests feel the ground shake from stomping Folsom Prison inmates and sense rising heat while learning about Cotton Fields.

This is the second closure in Nashville's music scene. In 2021, the George Jones Museum shut down after struggling with COVID-19 impacts and damage from a 2nd Avenue bombing.

USA Today's Readers Poll ranked the Cash Museum as the nation's top music museum in 2023, 2024, and 2025. The Cline Museum placed ninth in 2025's rankings.

In just a decade of performing, Cline released three studio albums. She blazed trails as the first woman to join the Grand Ole Opry solo, and in 1973, she made history as the first female inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame.