diff --git a/torchaudio/models/_wavernn.py b/torchaudio/models/_wavernn.py
index cd2e89a10c..6a3108d6f3 100644
--- a/torchaudio/models/_wavernn.py
+++ b/torchaudio/models/_wavernn.py
@@ -4,7 +4,16 @@
 from torch import Tensor
 from torch import nn
 
-__all__ = ["_ResBlock", "_MelResNet", "_Stretch2d", "_UpsampleNetwork", "_WaveRNN"]
+from .utils import load_state_dict_from_url
+
+
+__all__ = ["_ResBlock", "_MelResNet", "_Stretch2d", "_UpsampleNetwork", "_WaveRNN", "_wavernn"]
+
+
+model_urls = {
+    # FIXME Replace URL by final one once determined
+    '_wavernn': 'https://download.pytorch.org/models/_wavernn.pth',
+}
 
 
 class _ResBlock(nn.Module):
@@ -329,3 +338,19 @@ def forward(self, waveform: Tensor, specgram: Tensor) -> Tensor:
 
         # bring back channel dimension
         return x.unsqueeze(1)
+
+
+def _wavernn(pretrained=False, progress=True, **kwargs):
+    r"""WaveRNN model based on the implementation from
+    `fatchord <https://github.com/fatchord/WaveRNN>`_.
+
+    Args:
+        pretrained (bool): If True, returns a model pre-trained on LJSpeech
+        progress (bool): If True, displays a progress bar of the download to stderr
+    """
+    model = _WaveRNN(**kwargs)
+    if pretrained:
+        state_dict = load_state_dict_from_url(model_urls['_wavernn'],
+                                              progress=progress)
+        model.load_state_dict(state_dict)
+    return model
diff --git a/torchaudio/models/utils.py b/torchaudio/models/utils.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..638ef07cd8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/torchaudio/models/utils.py
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+try:
+    from torch.hub import load_state_dict_from_url
+except ImportError:
+    from torch.utils.model_zoo import load_url as load_state_dict_from_url