When Tyler Cauble and Lynna Paradiso Cauble bought the former Congress Inn on Dickerson Pike, they knew they were taking on a motel that had seen better days.
“We didn’t know what we were gonna find,” Tyler says.
And as the couple began pulling away decades of alterations, the oldest part of the property started revealing itself: original hardwood under endless layers of flooring. Beautiful brick walls and casework covered with plaster and drywall. Carved doors completely encased.
Ultimately, what the couple found was the kind of treasure true lovers of Nashville history go nuts over—a house dating to 1824, originally built as a summer home for the Hart family, the family for whom nearby Hart Lane is named.
And that was only the beginning of the story.
By the 1950s, more than 100 years after it was built, the property had become Maple Manor. Motel buildings were added around the original house, and the property later operated as Maple Motel and Maple Manor Motor Inn before becoming the Congress Inn around the mid-1960s—the name most Nashvillians today remember.
Over the decades, the once-bucolic property changed along with Dickerson Pike, eventually becoming the kind of place where guests checked in through a window and the main house itself was kept largely off limits.
But thanks to the Caubles, that same house is now the centerpiece of Salt Ranch, a 48-room hotel, bar and pool club spread across two and a half acres just minutes from downtown Nashville. And rather than erase the property’s many lives, Tyler and Lynna used them as the starting point for what came next.
A Different Kind of Design School
For Tyler, a Nashville native who has worked in commercial real estate since 2013, Salt Ranch may be his first hotel, but reimagining an existing property is familiar territory. He previously developed The Wash in East Nashville, transforming a long-vacant six-bay car wash into a micro-restaurant food hall that earned a 2023 ULI Nashville Excellence in Development Award.
For Lynna, Salt Ranch became an unexpected crash course in something she had long wanted to pursue. Working in tax policy by day, she had always been drawn to interiors and was even accepted to Belmont University’s interior design program. But with work, life and the hotel already demanding more of their time, Tyler offered another option.
“Why don’t you just help me with the hotel?” he remembers telling her. “Because everybody’s gonna go to design school hoping that they get to work on something like this.”
So Lynna deferred Belmont and got to work, ultimately shaping the interiors of the guest rooms and main house.
The resulting design doesn’t attempt to return the property to one particular moment in its 200-year history. Instead, Lynna pulled from different eras—and from the property itself.
Vintage Maple Manor postcards she found online now hang together in gold frames, some still bearing handwritten messages from former guests. Their photographs show the old pool surrounded by umbrellas, imagery that inspired the new pool area.
“I was so excited to see what the people were saying,” Lynna says of finding the old correspondence.
Now, guests can add another generation to that history. Lynna found a vintage mailbox for the hotel, where visitors can drop postcards that Salt Ranch will send for them.
Poolside Perfection
Outside, the connection between then and now becomes even clearer. Maple Manor once had a pool, but it was eventually buried and the area turned into a parking lot. During the renovation, the Caubles had it all dug up, and Oasis Pools built an entirely new pool in its place—a near twin of its predecessor.
Fringed umbrellas nod to those in the old postcards, while iconic breeze block, recreated by Definition of Concrete, pale pool decking and a palette of peach, green, pink and mustard pull from another source of inspiration: Palm Springs. Tyler had recently visited when he began considering what the old motor court could become.
“Why don’t we kind of bring a little bit of the Palm Springs vibe to Nashville?” he recalls.
But Salt Ranch doesn’t read as a Palm Springs transplant. The references are filtered through a property that is unmistakably Nashville—from the historic main house rising behind the pool to the buffalo painted along the fence, a nod to Dickerson Pike’s history as a buffalo trail.
Inside, Lynna mixed what they uncovered with pieces sourced specifically for the project. She found salvaged doors at Doc’s Architectural Salvage in Springfield, then had new frames built around them.
“This is the character,” she says.
And preserving that character sometimes meant changing their plans. When making the second floor fully public would have required removing the original staircase railing, the couple chose instead to keep it and reserve the space for a later phase.
Throughout the main house, exposed brick, original wood floors and old architectural details mingle with vintage furniture, contemporary lighting, dark-painted millwork and art. Lynna worked with Alisa Jernigan of Ebb & Iv to source many of the furnishings, giving the rooms the collected quality she wanted.
Local artist Leah Samuelson created a hand-stenciled mural inside the main house, distressing the pattern for an aged effect. Samuelson also created a stained-glass piece based on her own watercolor design.
For Lynna, the goal wasn’t to make everything precious—or perfect. She wanted it to feel “comfortable, cool,” but not like everything else.
The guest rooms in the outdoor motor lodge buildings are intentionally straightforward, with comfortable beds, good finishes and the essentials. The bigger idea is to give guests reasons not to stay in them.
“My goal is to have all these outdoor communal spaces where people wanna be out of their rooms,” Lynna says.
There’s the pool and bar, along with a swim club and day passes for locals. A large dog park and fire pit offer more places to gather, while the main house library doubles as a flex space. The hotel can also accommodate events and private buyouts, and Tyler and Lynna have talked about weddings, chef residencies, markets and communal dinners.
In some ways, that’s another restoration. Maple Manor once had its own dining club, an idea Lynna hopes to bring back.
And Salt Ranch isn’t conceived solely for travelers. Behind the hotel is the Cottage Park neighborhood, whose residents Tyler has encouraged to treat the property as their clubhouse. The larger ambition is to make Salt Ranch part of the life of Dickerson Pike rather than an island for visitors passing through.
“We wanted to really celebrate old Nashville, bringing in people who aren’t from here while letting locals enjoy it as well,” Lynna says.
It’s an especially fitting next chapter for a property that has been welcoming people—in one form or another—for generations.
The Hart family once left town to spend summers here. Decades later, travelers pulled off Dickerson Pike and checked into Maple Manor. Now, beneath the fringed umbrellas beside a newly rebuilt pool, another generation is gathering here.
Only this time, the doors are wide open.
HOTEL
48 guest rooms with 24-hour check-in. Room rates vary by date and availability, with special offers for Tennessee residents, advance bookings and extended stays.
MAIN HOUSE & BARROOM
Open daily, 7 a.m.–11 p.m., with coffee and breakfast in the morning and food, cocktails, beer and wine throughout the day.
SWIM CLUB
Open May through October. Hotel guests swim free. Local day passes are $25 and include a chaise lounge and towel service. Seasonal and annual memberships start at $125 per month.
PRIVATE EVENTS
Salt Ranch hosts weddings, corporate retreats, private dinners, celebrations and other gatherings, with options ranging from events in the main house to full-property buyouts. The 2.5-acre property includes the main house, pool and pool deck, bar, library lounge and outdoor gathering spaces.
CONTACT
2914 Dickerson Pike
615-732-0322
howdy@saltranchhotel.com
saltranchhotel.com
