Belle Meade Meander

Recently, I had an opportunity to visit Belle Meade Plantation in Nashville. For whatever reason, I had never been there before, although I have visited the city perhaps dozens of times. I have visited mansions of that era in cities such as in Natchez, Montgomery, Atlanta and Charleston but for some reason this one escaped my inspection, until last week. The home itself is not one of the stately Georgian columned mansions you might see in other Southern towns. Built in 1853, it began as a fairly modest looking dwelling which was added to and modified through the years. The original occupant was William Giles Harding who inherited the property from his father, and built his sizable fortune by breeding thoroughbred horses until horse racing was finally outlawed in Tennessee in the 20th Century.

Although I did tour the house, photos were not permitted inside, so I was unable to record the three story spiral central staircase or the amazingly high-tech master bath complete with a 270 degree shower spray. Overall, however, I was not that impressed with the interior either. If I had been permitted to take photos, I might have become more inquisitive and discovered some things that were sufficiently noteworthy.

At one time, the plantation encompassed 5400 acres. It is considerably less than that today, but the grounds, where Union and Confederate forces skirmished in the Battle of Nashville, are still quite extensive. In addition to the original cabin, the grounds accommodate a dairy, slave cabin, smokehouse, carriage house and stables. The smokehouse (below left) was built in 1826. Large qualities of pork and beef were were salt cured and smoked as a means of preserving the meat. In one year, 20,000 lbs of meat would be preserved in this manner.

Formal gardens, a winery, a dollhouse, mausoleum and gift shop fill up
most of the remaining property currently open to the public.

Stately old magnolias grace the property.

The picket fence provides the perfect background for

this cluster of daylilies bordering the formal gardens.

A bullet hole is still visible on the front column of the mansion, a reminder of the Battle of Nashville, which took place partly on the grounds of Belle Meade Plantation.

Door to the wine cellar.

The roots of one of the dozens of magnolia trees.

The enormous carriage house (1892) sheltered the family conveyances, while the second floor provided living quarters for some of the farm's groomsmen and drivers. The attached stables housed the carriage horses and a hayloft. The loft area (above) seems to be looking out protectively over the grounds of Belle Meade.