Thirty years after the estate auction removed his family from the property, a daughter’s quiet drive past a brick wall became the town’s last chance to save it. The mansion he built in 1982 at Twitty City had already lost its tours, its lights, and much of its public memory. Then an EF-3 tornado ripped through Sumner County on December 9, 2023, lifting and twisting the roof of the empty house.
When the Trinity Broadcasting Network bought the nine-acre Hendersonville compound at the 1994 estate auction, the family packed their belongings and left the houses inside the brick perimeter. Conway Twitty had died in June 1993, and probate liquidation removed legal control from his daughter, Joni Ryles, and her siblings.
For three decades, Ryles held no deed to the property along the East Main Street and Walton Ferry corridor, leaving her no legal power to block the bulldozers. She could only see the gates from the road. The new owners poured about $13 million into the site and nearby Music Village grounds, renamed the estate Trinity Music City, and made it the broadcast hub for WPGD-TV.
The pavilion and auditorium where Conway once played for neighbors became television soundstages for gospel concerts and later hosted the Huckabee program. For more than twenty years, the network kept parts of the colonial-style mansion open to the public and continued the winter tradition of thousands of Christmas lights.
That ended on July 3, 2016, when guided tours closed forever. The two-story brick residence sat empty behind the gates until the storm tore into the campus. In early January 2024, network real estate representative Frank Amedia brought a redevelopment plan before the Hendersonville Regional Planning Commission. He asked to demolish the house and build new production offices and independent and assisted living apartments for seniors.
Amedia told commissioners the tornado displaced about 100 television editors and staff members on the property. He said the network was heavily underinsured for the older buildings and the mansion had suffered major structural damage. He also pointed out that the iconic Twitty Bird emblem had vanished years earlier and that little of the singer’s identity remained. He suggested a small memorabilia display inside a new building if the family granted name and likeness rights.
Local reporters reached Ryles and her brother Jimmy Jenkins. The siblings confirmed no one from the network had contacted them about a museum or memorabilia project. Speaking with Nashville television station WTVF, Ryles acknowledged the family had had no legal control since the 1994 probate liquidation.
Even so, Ryles noted the Hendersonville Standard had reported earlier proposals to clear campus buildings before the December tornado. For her and siblings Kathy, Jimmy, and Michael, the brick walls held childhood memories, Thanksgivings, Christmas mornings, and the pavilion concerts her father hosted so fans and relatives could share the same space.
“Her family simply wanted to keep driving past the brick wall in Hendersonville and see their father’s life’s work still standing.”
Her words spread across Middle Tennessee. Residents and country fans packed the public conversation. The Planning Commission refused to endorse the demolition after a 4 to 4 tie vote and sent the request to the city board with a negative recommendation.
Before the final vote scheduled for Tuesday, January 23, 2024, Amedia and network executives met privately with Ryles and her sister Kathy. The daughters shared their family history on the grounds and explained why the physical house still mattered to the town.
When the Board of Mayor and Aldermen convened that night, Amedia announced the network had withdrawn the tear-down request. Architects had redrawn the plan to reduce assisted living units and wrap the new campus around the original brick mansion so it could be restored.
“Saving the building would cost more money, yet respecting the heart of the city was the right thing to do.”
The board voted unanimously to approve the preservation plan on its first reading. Along Walton Ferry Road, three decades after the gates of Twitty City closed, the two-story home Conway Twitty built in 1982 stayed behind the iron gates, and a daughter’s voice kept her father’s life’s work standing.