Beech Grove (Nashville, Tennessee)

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Beech Grove
Beech Grove.jpg
Beech Grove
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Location8423 Old Harding Pike, Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Coordinates 36°01′24″N87°01′22″W / 36.0233°N 87.0229°W / 36.0233; -87.0229 Coordinates: 36°01′24″N87°01′22″W / 36.0233°N 87.0229°W / 36.0233; -87.0229
Area12 acres (4.9 ha)
Builtc. 1850
Built byThomas Jones and Caleb Lucas
Architectural styleColonial Revival
MPS Historic Family Farms in Middle Tennessee MPS
NRHP reference No. 07001163 [1]
Added to NRHPNovember 8, 2007

Beech Grove is a historic mansion in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Built as a log house circa 1850, it was a Southern plantation with African slaves in the Antebellum era. In the 1910s, it became a livestock farm.

Contents

Location

The property is located at 8423 Old Harding Pike in Nashville, the county seat of Davidson County, Tennessee. [2] [3]

History

The land belonged to Elisha Sherrill until 1801, when Hugh Allison acquired 200 acres. [3] Allison, who served on the Davidson County Court, owned ten African slaves. [3] He lived on the farm with his wife, Lydia Harrison Allison, and their five children. [3] When he died in 1835, one of his sons, Thomas Jefferson Allison, inherited the farm. [3] He acquired more land, expanding to 1,150 acres. [3] Additionally, he owned 22 African slaves by 1840 and 53 slaves by 1860. [3] As a result, the farm became a Southern plantation. [3] Allison lived on the plantation with his wife Tabitha and their six children. [3]

The two-storey log house was built for the Allison family by Thomas Jones and Caleb Lucas, [2] two carpenters, circa 1850. [3] It was designed in the Greek Revival architecture. [3]

During the Civil War, half the slaves ran away via the railroad. [3] After the war, the remaining 20 former slaves, now freedmen, worked on the property as tenant farmers. [3] Meanwhile, Allison and his wife continued to live in the house until he died in 1897 and she died in 1910. [3]

Subsequently, the property was inherited by Allison's granddaughter, Allie Morton and her husband, Sam. [3] They turned it into a livestock farm. [3] In the 1920s, they redesigned the house in the Colonial Revival architectural style. [3] The Mortons sold the house in 1975. [3] It was later purchased by the Kacki family in 1993. [3]

Architectural significance

It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since November 8, 2007. [2]

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References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 "Beech Grove". National Park Service. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Beech Grove". National Park Service. Retrieved September 24, 2015.