The Hermitage (Nashville, Tennessee)
Encyclopedia
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
and museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
located in Davidson County
Davidson County, Tennessee
Davidson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2010, the population was 626,681. Its county seat is Nashville.In 1963, the City of Nashville and the Davidson County government merged, so the county government is now known as the "Metropolitan Government of Nashville and...
, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, 12 miles (19.3 km) east of downtown Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
. The plantation was owned by Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...
, the seventh President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
, from 1804 until his death at the Hermitage in 1845. Jackson only lived at the property occasionally until he retired from public life in 1837. It is a National Historic Landmark.
History
The plantation that Jackson named Hermitage was ideally located 2 miles (3.2 km) from the CumberlandCumberland River
The Cumberland River is a waterway in the Southern United States. It is long. It starts in Harlan County in far southeastern Kentucky between Pine and Cumberland mountains, flows through southern Kentucky, crosses into northern Tennessee, and then curves back up into western Kentucky before...
and Stones
Stones River
The Stones River is a major stream of the eastern portion of Tennessee's Nashville Basin region.-Geography and hydrography:The Stones River is composed of three major forks: the West, Middle, and East forks. The West Fork, long, rises in southernmost Rutherford County near the Bedford County...
rivers; the land was originally settled by Robert Hays, grandfather to legendary Texas Ranger, John Coffee Hays and Confederate General, Harry Thompson Hays in 1780. Hays sold the 420 acres (170 ha) farm to Jackson in 1804. Jackson and his wife Rachel
Rachel Jackson
Rachel Donelson Robards Jackson, born Rachel Donelson, was the wife of the 7th President of the United States, Andrew Jackson....
moved into the existing two-story log blockhouse, built to resist Indian attacks. After Jackson built the main house, it was disassembled and rebuilt as two one-story buildings used as slave quarters; a part of it still stands behind The Hermitage. Initially Jackson operated the cotton farm with nine African slaves, but this number gradually grew to 44 slaves by 1820 as the farm expanded to 1000 acres (404.7 ha).
The original Hermitage mansion was a two-story, eight-room, Federal
Federal architecture
Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the United States between c. 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815. This style shares its name with its era, the Federal Period. The name Federal style is also used in association with furniture design...
-style brick building built with skilled slave labor and completed between 1819 and 1821. In November 1828, Jackson was elected 7th President of the United States; however, his wife Rachel died the following month. In 1831, while Jackson was away in the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
, he had the mansion remodeled with flanking one-story wings (one with a library and the other with a large dining room and pantry), a two-story entrance portico
Portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls...
with Doric columns
Doric order
The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian.-History:...
and a small rear portico. Jackson also had a classicising “temple & monument” for Rachel's grave constructed in the garden. Craftsmen completed the domed limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
tomb with a copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
roof in 1832. In 1834, a chimney fire seriously damaged all of the building with the exception of the dining-room wing. This prompted Jackson to have the current Greek Revival
Greek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
structure built, which was completed two years later. The carpenter contractors were Joseph Reiff and William C. Hume, who were constructing Tulip Grove
Tulip Grove
Tulip Grove is an antebellum house built nearby the Hermitage in 1836 for Andrew Jackson Donelson, who was the nephew of Andrew Jackson. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.-History:...
across the road. The entry hall is decorated with block-printed wallpaper by Joseph Dufour et Cie
Joseph Dufour et Cie
Joseph Dufour et Cie, founded 1797 by Joseph and Pierre Dufour, was a s a French Manufacture de Papier Peints et Tissus manufacturer located in Mâcon, France.-General:...
of Paris, depicting scenes from Telemachus
Telemachus
Telemachus is a figure in Greek mythology, the son of Odysseus and Penelope, and a central character in Homer's Odyssey. The first four books in particular focus on Telemachus' journeys in search of news about his father, who has been away at war...
' visit to the island of Calypso. Many of Jackson's furnishings and mementos are preserved in the house, which was guarded by Union troops during the Civil War, as it had been sold to the State of Tennessee by Andrew Jackson Jr. in 1856.
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
, specifically those from Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, approached the grounds of the Hermitage. Pvt. Joseph C. Taylor wrote of the account in his diary.
In 1889, the Hermitage was opened to the public as a museum, both of Jackson's life and the antebellum South in general. Each year, the home receives more than a quarter million visitors, making it the fourth most-visited presidential residence in the country (after the White House, Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon
The name Mount Vernon is a dedication to the English Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon. It was first applied to Mount Vernon, the Virginia estate of George Washington, the first President of the United States...
, and Monticello
Monticello
Monticello is a National Historic Landmark just outside Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was the estate of Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, third President of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia; it is...
). The property was declared a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
in 1960.
The tomb of Andrew and Rachel Jackson is located in the Hermitage garden.
It escaped a near-disaster during the 1998 Nashville tornado outbreak. An F-3 tornado crossed the property at approximately 4:00 p.m. CDT on April 16, 1998, missing the house and gravesite, but toppling many trees that had reportedly been planted by Jackson himself nearly 200 years earlier. Although the trees had once hidden the house from view of passers-by on U.S. Route 70
U.S. Route 70
U.S. Route 70 is an east–west United States highway that runs for 2,385 miles from eastern North Carolina to east-central Arizona. As can be derived from its number, it is a major east–west highway of the Southern and Southwestern United States...
, it is now in plain sight.
The Hermitage as namesake
The area of Davidson County surrounding the Hermitage is known as Hermitage, TennesseeHermitage, Tennessee
Hermitage, Tennessee is a section of Metropolitan Nashville, Tennessee located in eastern Davidson County, adjacent to, and named in honor of, The Hermitage, home of Andrew Jackson, seventh President of the United States...
. A hotel named the Hermitage Hotel, located in downtown Nashville, Tennessee opened in 1910, and is still operating. Many celebrities and U.S. Presidents have spent time there.
In popular culture
The Hermitage was one of the filming locations and settings for the 1955 Disney film Davy Crockett, King of the Wild FrontierDavy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier
Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier is a 1955 live-action Walt Disney adventure film starring Fess Parker as Davy Crockett. This film is an edited compilation of the first three stories from the Disney television series Davy Crockett :...
.
The plantation is prominently featured in one of the opening scenes of F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
's unfinished novel, The Love of the Last Tycoon
The Love of the Last Tycoon
The Love of The Last Tycoon: A Western is an unfinished novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, compiled and published posthumously.-Publication history:The novel was unfinished and in rough form at the time of Fitzgerald's death at age 44...
(1941), when the narrator, Celia, visits it with two other characters.
In Civilization IV
Civilization IV
Sid Meier's Civilization IV is a turn-based strategy, 4X computer game released in 2005 and developed by lead designer Soren Johnson under the direction of Sid Meier and Meier's studio Firaxis Games. It is the fourth installment of the Civilization series...
, the Hermitage is a national wonder that you can build to increase the Culture of the city it is built in.