The Hermitage Hotel in Tennessee has been designated a National Historic Landmark/NPS HO

The Hermitage Hotel, which was front and center in the women's suffrage movement in the 1920s, has been designated a National Historic Landmark by the Trump administration.

The hotel, in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, was used as a headquarters by suffragists to secure Tennessee’s ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.

“The Hermitage Hotel played a pivotal role in our nation’s fight to secure the right of women to vote through the passage of the 19th Amendment,” said U.S. Interior Secretary David L. Bernhardt. “I thank Senator (Marsha) Blackburn and Senator (Lamar) Alexander for their leadership in emphasizing the importance the Hermitage Hotel has as a National Historic Landmark.”

“During this milestone year, visitors can explore the story of the suffrage movement through national parks, national historical landmarks, and other places where history happened,” said National Park Service South Atlantic-Gulf Regional Director Stan Austin. “The Hermitage Hotel’s role in the history of ratification of the 19th Amendment was so significant it earned the name the ‘Third House’ of the Tennessee State Legislature, referring to the extraordinary presence and influence of the major stakeholders and dealmakers who convened there.”

In the summer of 1920, the nationwide effort to secure voting rights for women narrowed to Tennessee as the last state needed to ratify the 19th Amendment. Local, state, and national figures in suffrage, politics, industry and media converged on the Hermitage Hotel that served as the headquarters of both the pro- and anti-suffrage forces as they lobbied state legislators.

Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, stayed at the Hermitage Hotel for nearly six weeks, guiding the strategy and tactics to win the final vote in the state legislature.

When Tennessee became the “Perfect 36th” state to ratify the 19th Amendment on Aug. 18, 1920, the achievement fulfilled more than 70 years of tireless efforts by suffragists to enfranchise American women under the U. S. Constitution.

As National Historic Landmark, the Hermitage Hotel joins other buildings, sites, districts, structures and objects that have been deemed to be nationally significant to the development of the nation. Mount Vernon, Pearl Harbor, the Apollo Mission Control Center, Alcatraz and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthplace are among the almost 2,600 existing national historic landmarks.