Belle Meade Plantation facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Belle Meade Historic Site and Winery
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Belle Meade Historic Site and Winery
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| Location | 5025 Harding Pike Belle Meade, Tennessee |
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| Built | 1807 |
| Architectural style | Greek Revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 69000177 |
| Added to NRHP | December 30, 1969 |
Belle Meade Historic Site and Winery is a famous historic home in Belle Meade, Tennessee. It is now a fun place to visit, with a museum, a winery, and a restaurant. The property also has several old buildings on its 30 acres.
Long ago, in the late 1800s, Belle Meade was a huge farm, covering about 5,400 acres. Today, you can explore many original buildings. These include the first cabin bought by the family, a dairy, a gardener's house, and a large carriage and stable house built in 1892. There's also one of Tennessee's biggest smokehouses and a family mausoleum.
Since the 1990s, Belle Meade has worked hard to share the stories of the African Americans who lived and worked there. This includes people who were enslaved and those who worked there after slavery ended. Two special tours help tell these important stories. The Mansion Tour shares the history of the Harding and Jackson families, and everyone who worked at Belle Meade. The Journey to Jubilee Tour focuses on the lives of the enslaved African Americans from 1807 through the years after they became free.
Contents
Exploring the Belle Meade Mansion and Grounds
The Mansion's Design and Look
John Harding bought a log cabin and 250 acres of land in 1807. Enslaved workers helped clear the land and build the farm. They also built their own homes, which were simple two-family cabins.
In the 1820s, Harding and his workers built the first red brick house. It was designed in the Federal style. The front of the house had two stories and five sections, built on a limestone foundation. It had matching one-story wings on each side.
His son, William Giles Harding, took over Belle Meade in 1839. William focused on raising high-quality animals, especially thoroughbred horses. He bought more land, eventually owning 5,400 acres. In 1853, he changed the house to the Greek Revival style. The red bricks were covered with stucco, and a two-story porch was added to the front. This porch had six large limestone pillars from Belle Meade itself.
A two-story kitchen was added to the house, connected by a covered walkway. This was common to keep the heat and fire risk away from the main living areas. Over time, this walkway was enclosed. Later, a Dairy, a Carriage House, and a Stable were also built. William G. Harding also built a mausoleum in 1839 for his family.
Inside the Mansion
The main Entrance Hall is 14 feet high and runs through the center of the house. This design helped keep the house cool. The walls show beautiful paintings of thoroughbred horses by famous artists from the 1800s. These paintings feature some of Belle Meade's most well-known horses.
On one side of the hall, you'll find two connected living rooms. These rooms feature wood from poplar trees, which is Tennessee's state tree. On the other side are the library and dining rooms. These rooms display portraits of the Harding family and chandeliers that used to be lit by gas.
The second and third floors also have a central hall. A beautiful, winding staircase made of cherry wood connects the floors. On the second floor, there are two bedrooms connected to each other, plus a guest bedroom and the main bedroom. In 1883, William Hicks Jackson, who married William Giles Harding's daughter, updated the house. He added three full bathrooms with hot and cold running water. The third floor, called a Garret, has two smaller rooms with 8-foot high ceilings.
The Mansion also has a cellar, which was unusual for homes at that time. It held a steam engine and a boiler that provided hot and cold water for the house.
Exploring the Grounds
Today, Belle Meade covers 30 acres and has 10 historic buildings. One of these is the original log cabin from the 1790s, which John Harding bought in 1807. Harding added the Smokehouse in 1826. It grew to be the largest in the South, smoking up to 20,000 pounds of pork each year.
Other buildings added later by the Harding and Jackson families include an 1870s Children's Playhouse. The 1884 Dairy provided fresh milk, cream, and cheese, and made up to 240 pounds of butter weekly. The 1892 Carriage and Stable House displays an impressive collection of carriages used by the families.
A Visitors' Center was built in 1990. It's where guests arrive, buy tickets, and find the Gift Shop. In 2009, Belle Meade opened Nashville's first Winery. It makes Tennessee red and white wines from native muscadine grapes and blackberries. There's also an onsite restaurant, the Belle Meade Meat and Three, which serves smoked meats and fresh vegetables.
The famous landscape designer Ossian Cole Simonds designed the grounds in the 1910s. He focused on the natural shape of the land and created some of Nashville's first small, public green spaces, known as pocket parks.
Belle Meade's History
In 1807, Virginian John Harding bought a log cabin and 250 acres on the Natchez Trace. This was an old Native American path. He started a farm and called it "Belle Meade", which means "beautiful meadow." Harding also ran other businesses like a blacksmith shop and mills. By 1816, he was boarding horses for neighbors, including Andrew Jackson, and breeding and racing thoroughbreds. Middle Tennessee became known for raising purebred animals.
William Giles Harding inherited Belle Meade in 1839. Over the next few decades, he bought more land, making the property 5,400 acres. Before the Civil War, he held 136 enslaved African Americans. In 1853, he made his father's house much larger. William Giles Harding married Elizabeth McGavock, and they had two daughters, Selene and Mary.
When the Civil War began in 1861, Harding stopped his horse racing and breeding. He strongly supported the Confederate States of America. He gave $20,000 of his own money and helped raise $500,000 for the Confederate States Army. He was made a Brigadier General and put in charge of the Nashville Munitions Factory. After Union forces took Nashville in 1862, Harding was arrested. He was held in Michigan for six months. He was released after paying a large bond and agreeing to support the United States. He then returned to Belle Meade under house arrest.
Confederate General James Ronald Chalmers used Belle Meade as his headquarters during the Battle of Nashville. On December 15, 1864, Union and Confederate soldiers fought at the family's racetrack, about a mile from the Mansion.
After the Civil War, Harding continued his horse farming. Many of the enslaved people who had worked at Belle Meade chose to stay and work for pay. They signed contracts with "18 Rules & Regulations" that included fines for breaking them.
In 1868, Harding's oldest daughter, Selene, married William Hicks Jackson. He was a friend of the family and had been a Confederate General. William Giles Harding agreed to the marriage if the couple lived at Belle Meade. Selene managed the household, and Jackson helped his father-in-law manage the farm.
In 1875, Harding and Jackson decided to stop racing horses and focus only on breeding them. They held yearly horse sales, sometimes at Belle Meade and sometimes by train in New York. They made Belle Meade a famous thoroughbred farm known for high-quality animals. The farm also sold ponies, cattle, sheep, and goats. The estate even had a 500-acre deer park.
Belle Meade had many successful thoroughbred stallions, like Bonnie Scotland and Enquirer. Their bloodlines are still important in horse racing today. In 1886, Jackson bought the famous stallion Iroquois. Iroquois was the first American-bred thoroughbred to win the Epsom Derby in England in 1881.
William Hicks Jackson died in 1903, and his adult son, William Harding Jackson, died later that same year. Due to money problems and changes in popular sports (baseball became more popular than horse racing), the estate was sold in 1906.
A group called The Belle Meade Land Company bought a large part of the land to build a new neighborhood, also called Belle Meade. In 1938, most of the former Belle Meade land became part of the independent city of Belle Meade, Tennessee.
The Mansion and 30 acres were saved by private owners. Five other families lived in the home until 1953. Then, the State of Tennessee bought the Mansion and eight buildings to protect them. The state gave the property to the Association for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities. Today, it is a popular attraction, museum, winery, and restaurant. In the 1970s, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
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Belle Meade Historic Site and Winery
