Southern states are rich in history and heritage, making them desirable locations for meeting planners who want to host events at historical venues that will immerse attendees in bygone eras. Here are six historic Southern venues to consider for your next event.
Historic Beale Street
Memphis, Tennessee
Established in 1841, Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee, was a thriving area of Black commerce and culture around the time of the Civil War. After yellow fever hit Memphis in 1879, the population dwindled, and the city lost its charter. A formerly enslaved man acquired land in the area and helped restore the business community. Robert R. Church Park at Fourth and Beale honors him, and the park became a gathering place for blues musicians.
Many of the country’s most famous blues musicians performed on Beale Street, including W.C. Handy, Muddy Waters, B.B. King and Louis Armstrong.
B.B. King’s Blues Club, which opened on Beale Street in 1991, can host groups of up to 400. Itta Bena, the speakeasy and restaurant upstairs, is named after King’s Mississippi hometown and can host seated dinners, cocktail parties or receptions for up to 150 guests.
Just off Beale Street, The Peabody Memphis hotel celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2025. It has 80,000 square feet of event space for up to 2,000 guests.
The New Daisy Theatre on Beale Street, which opened as a movie theatre in 1937, was converted to a music venue in the 1980s. It can host groups of 500. The original Daisy Theatre across the street opened in 1913 and can accommodate 250 people for an event.
Castle & Key Distillery
Frankfort, Kentucky
Colonel Edmund Haynes Taylor Jr. built a new kind of bourbon distillery in 1887 in Millville, Kentucky, just outside of Frankfort. Inspired by European architecture, it featured a castle, classical springhouse and a sunken garden. Prohibition shut down the distillery in 1920, and the property changed owners several times over the next century.
In 2014, Will Arvin purchased the Old Taylor Distillery, which was in ruins, and restored it to its former glory. He named it Castle & Key Distillery, and it produces several spirits, including vodka, gin, rye whiskey and bourbon.
The distillery can host events for up to 200 guests. There is an approved list of caterers, and meeting groups are required to include the distillery’s spirits as part of their events. The Springhouse can be used for an outdoor cocktail hour for upwards of 500 guests, and attendees are encouraged to take a guided tour of the distillery as part of their event, learning about its history and how it distills different spirits. After the tour, they can participate in a formal tasting.
The property is located between Frankfort and Versailles, so it’s about a 40-minute drive from Lexington.
Springer Opera House
Columbus, Georgia
Built in 1871, Springer Opera House is about to celebrate its 155th season producing theater. It was originally built as a theater but morphed into a movie house then became a grocery store and a hotel. The Opera House has since returned to its roots and presents 14 theater shows from September to May. It also runs day camps in the summer offering improv, writing, musical theater and dance classes.
The building is 145,000 square feet. Emily Woodruff Hall seats 650, and the Dorothy McClure Theatre seats about 300. A banquet hall can seat 300 for a seated meal, and six studio spaces can be rented for breakout sessions. Springer Saloon is perfect for a dinner party of 75. The courtyard and veranda can also be reserved for smaller events. The Grand Lobby and Promenade can accommodate 100 seated guests.
The Opera House recently completed a $10.7 million capital campaign to build an open-air stage and park, boost its education program and upgrade its building. The outdoor theater should be completed by April and will be able to host 300 seated guests or 600 standing.
Tchoupitoulas Plantation at Cedar Grove
Waggaman, Louisiana
The Drouet family built Cedar Grove Plantation on the outskirts of New Orleans in 1790, just before the Louisiana Purchase. The plantation quickly became a large producer of sugar cane and rice.
Because the home wasn’t protected by a levy, the family was forced to move it off the river four times. The last time it was moved, the bottom floor was taken off. Now it looks more like a farmhouse than a grand plantation home. The original family sold the property in 1948, and in the 1950s, a madam opened a brothel there. After going to jail in 1963, she decided to get out of the brothel business, so she opened Tchoupitoulas Plantation Restaurant. In 2006, owners of the property renovated the home and added a ballroom, buffet room and chapel to turn it into an event venue. The current owners, Patrick and Laura Higgins, offer a full-service event experience. Groups that book events receive an all-inclusive package with a scratch-made dinner and a dessert buffet, entertainment, tables, chairs, decor, linens, flowers and a full bar.
The facility sits on eight acres on the Mississippi River and can host up to 400 guests. The house is set up in a plantation style, and the pavilion can seat 160. In total, the plantation has 10,000 square feet of event space.
Longview Mansion
Lee’s Summit, Missouri
Longview Farm in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, was the country estate of Kansas City lumber baron and philanthropist R.A. Long. Longview Mansion and 50 other farm structures were built there in 1913 and 1914. The farm included a horse racetrack for 1,000 guests; giant greenhouses that produced prizewinning roses; barns for cattle and hogs; a hotel for men; housing for employees; a church; a police and fire department; and a community newspaper.
The 22,000-square-foot mansion features 48 rooms, six fireplaces, 14 bedrooms and 10 baths. It was ahead of its time, outfitted with electricity, filtered water, steam heating and indoor plumbing.
Groups can rent out several different locations on the farm, including the first floor of the mansion, which was restored to its former glory in 2018. It can accommodate 270 for an event. The library can host groups of 60 to 70.
The mansion is surrounded by cultivated gardens, wooded sites and native prairie fields with quiet paths, gazebos and lake settings. The beautifully landscaped property has two outdoor ceremony locations for weddings: the Historic Sunken Garden and the West Lawn. The Pavilion is a permanent structure on the property that seats up to 270 guests.
Berkeley Springs Castle
Berkeley Springs, West Virginia
Berkeley Springs Castle was built by Samuel Taylor Suit for his wife, Rosa Pelham, in a time when many wealthy city dwellers were building vacation homes in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, to take advantage of the healing waters. Construction began in 1885, but after Suit died in 1888, the home wasn’t completed until 1891.
Over the years, the castle served as a private home, a retreat center, a museum and a boys’ camp. The castle has been owned by the Berkeley Castle Foundation since 2020 and is now used as an event venue and meeting space. There have been murder mystery parties, conferences and weddings held there. The 9,300-square-foot castle was modernized and expanded over the years. In 2024, the foundation began offering guided tours of the castle.
When guests enter the castle, they emerge in the great hall, which has two large fireplaces, one on each end, a dining room and kitchen. Upstairs, there is an event room that can hold about 85 guests for a catered meal. The downstairs can accommodate 30 for a banquet at round tables. The foundation has a list of approved caterers.
