Polk Place was the home of 11th President of the United States James K. Polk and his wife Sarah Childress Polk, originally on Vine Street in Nashville, Tennessee before it was demolished in 1901. [1]
Polk Place was the home of 11th President of the United States James K. Polk and his wife Sarah Childress Polk, originally on Vine Street in Nashville, Tennessee before it was demolished in 1901. [1]
The home originally called "Grundy Place" was constructed for Attorney General Felix Grundy between 1815 and 1820 in the Palladian style of architecture, Grundy lived in the home until his death in 1840. [2] President Polk purchased the home while living in the White House in 1847, renaming it "Polk Place". Polk contracted Nashville architect J.M. Hughes to renovate the home for the time when he and Sarah would return to Tennessee after the end of his presidency. [3]
In the processes of modifying and renovating the home the back portion was destroyed by an accidental gunpowder explosion in 1847. With repairs underway the President wanted a more modern style, and requested Hughes to redesign the home in the Greek Revival style of architecture. Sarah Polk went to inspect the construction and repairs of the home in early 1848 for their return. [4] [5]
Upon returning to Tennessee in 1849, James and Sarah Polk went to his mother's home in Columbia before returning to Nashville two weeks later, when Polk Place was finished. It was the President's final residence, where he died of cholera at age 53, only three months after leaving office. He had lived in the home for between thirty to fifty days. After his death his wife continued to reside there for 42 years until her death in 1891. The home was demolished in 1901, a decade after her death.
After the president's death first lady Sarah Polk lived in the home. She became a recluse for some time, barely leaving the mansion. She did not find solace until fostering a great niece, Sarah Polk Jetton in the early 1850s. Soon she opened her home back up for invitations and hosting guests along with the occasional event. She hosted distinguished and popular guests throughout her widowhood, including her close friend Adelicia Acklen, Abram Hewitt, Edward Cooper, John C. Calhoun II, John Catron, George Bancroft, Cyrus Field, William Vanderbilt, Sam Houston, and presidents Andrew Johnson, Rutherford B. Hayes and Grover Cleveland. [6] [7]
During the Civil War, Polk Place was considered neutral ground by both the Confederate and Union armies, despite the fact that Sarah Polk had nephews fighting on the Confederate side. Union generals Ulysses S. Grant and Don Carlos Buell frequently paid their respects to the former first lady, as had Confederate generals briefly before the Union occupation.
At the end of the war, Sarah Polk Jetton was married in the main parlor of Polk Place to a wealthy Nashville merchant, George Fall. [8]
After a short illness, Sarah Polk died at Polk Place in 1891, just short of her 88th birthday. Originally her will was followed, giving sole ownership of the home and its estate to her great niece Sarah Polk (Jetton) Fall, allowing her to live in the mansion for a few years after Sarah Polk's death. What followed, however, was a long legal dispute brought by other Polk relatives, who claimed Sarah Polk's will was invalid and the perpetuity in President Polk's will had gone into effect; that he could not foresee that far into the future. The president's nephew Tasker Polk, son of his brother William Hawkins Polk, was the one who led the legal battle against Sarah Polk Fall.
A judge ruled in favor of Tasker Polk and the Polk family, giving control of the home to them. President Polk's tomb was originally located on the front lawn until 1893, when it was moved to the Tennessee State Capitol. The Polk family could not agree on what to do with the home and did not want to follow the president's will, in which he expressed desire that a worthy and noble Polk relative run the home like the Hermitage. The state of Tennessee nearly acquired Polk Place and made it the governor's mansion. (At the time, the governor of Tennessee stayed in a hotel room.)
Finally, the state Supreme Court ordered the Polk family to sell the home and evenly split the money from the sale in 1900. Tasker would sell the home to Jacob M. Dickinson who then sold it to a developer and the mansion was demolished in 1901 to build a small apartment building. [9]
The site has changed hands many times over the years. The YWCA bought the property in 1909 and built a new state-of-the-art facility. They sold the building in 1978 and moved to Woodmont Avenue. The Capitol Hotel (formerly Best Western) now occupies the former site of Polk Place in downtown Nashville. [10] [11]
An iron fountain, garden urns, and gate were preserved from the property and are now located at the President James K. Polk Home & Museum in Columbia. [12]
James Knox Polk was the 11th president of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. He previously was the 13th speaker of the House of Representatives (1835–1839) and ninth governor of Tennessee (1839–1841). A protégé of Andrew Jackson, he was a member of the Democratic Party and an advocate of Jacksonian democracy. Polk is chiefly known for extending the territory of the United States through the Mexican–American War; during his presidency, the United States expanded significantly with the annexation of the Republic of Texas, the Oregon Territory, and the Mexican Cession following American victory in the Mexican–American War.
Sarah Childress Polk was the first lady of the United States from 1845 to 1849. She was the wife of the 11th president of the United States, James K. Polk.
Felix Grundy was an American politician who served as a congressman and senator from Tennessee as well as the 13th attorney General of the United States.
Lieutenant-General Leonidas Polk was a bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana and founder of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America, which separated from the Episcopal Church of the United States of America. He was a slaveholding planter in Maury County, Tennessee, and a second cousin of President James K. Polk. He resigned his ecclesiastical position to become a major-general in the Confederate States Army, when he was called "Sewanee's Fighting Bishop". His official portrait at the University of the South depicts him dressed as a bishop with his army uniform hanging nearby. He is often erroneously referred to as "Leonidas K. Polk," but he had no middle name and never signed any documents as such.
John Calvin Brown was a Confederate Army officer and an American politician and businessman. Although he originally opposed secession, Brown fought for the Confederacy during the American Civil War, eventually rising to the rank of major general. He later served as the 19th Governor of Tennessee from 1871 to 1875, and was president of the state's 1870 constitutional convention, which wrote the current Tennessee State Constitution.
William Brimage Bate was a planter and slaveholder, Confederate officer, and politician in Tennessee. After the Reconstruction era, he served as the 23rd governor of Tennessee from 1883 to 1887. He was elected to the United States Senate from Tennessee, serving from 1887 until his death.
Mount Olivet Cemetery is a 206-acre (83 ha) cemetery located in Nashville, Tennessee. It is located approximately two miles East of downtown Nashville, and adjacent to the Catholic Calvary Cemetery. It is open to the public during daylight hours.
The Tennessee State Capitol, located in Nashville, Tennessee, is the seat of government for the U.S. state of Tennessee. It serves as the home of both houses of the Tennessee General Assembly–the Tennessee House of Representatives and the Tennessee Senate–and also contains the governor's office. Designed by architect William Strickland (1788–1854) of Philadelphia and Nashville, it was built between 1845 and 1859 and is one of Nashville's most prominent examples of Greek Revival architecture. The building, one of 12 state capitols that does not have a dome, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and named a National Historic Landmark in 1971. The tomb of James K. Polk, the 11th president of the United States, is on the capitol grounds.
William Hawkins Polk was an American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives for Tennessee's 6th congressional district from 1851 to 1853. He was the younger brother of President James K. Polk. Prior to his election to Congress, he had been a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives (1841–1845), served as U.S. Minister to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (1845–1847), and fought as a major in the Mexican–American War.
OaklandsMansion is an historic house museum located in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, United States. Oaklands is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a local landmark known for its unique Italianate design.
The President James K. Polk Home & Museum is the presidential museum for the eleventh president of the United States, James K. Polk, and is located at 301 West 7th Street in Columbia, Tennessee. Built in 1816, it is the only surviving private residence of United States President James K. Polk. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. As President Polk's primary historic site it is open daily for guided tours.
Belmont Mansion, also known as Acklen Hall, and originally known as Belle Monte, Belle Mont or Belmont, is a historic mansion located in Nashville, Tennessee. It was built by Joseph and Adelicia Acklen to serve as the center of their 180-acre summer estate in what was then country outside the city, and featured elaborate gardens and a zoo. They lived much of the rest of the year on her plantations in Louisiana.
Randal William McGavock (1826–1863) was an American lawyer, Democratic politician, Southern planter, and colonel in the Confederate States Army. He served as the Mayor of Nashville, Tennessee from 1858 to 1859.
A cholera epidemic began in Nashville, Tennessee, in January 1849 and caused many deaths in the city in 1849 and 1850.
Church Street is a major thoroughfare in Nashville, Tennessee. It is home to several skyscrapers and buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Friedrich Julius Georg Dury (1817–1894) was a well-regarded Bavarian-American portrait artist who worked in both oil and pastel. He was born and educated in Würzburg, Bavaria, and Munich, where he began his career as an artist.
Sarah "Sallie" Polk Jetton Fall was a wealthy Nashville socialite and philanthropist. She was the great-niece and unofficially adopted daughter of former First Lady Sarah Childress Polk. Sallie's mother died when she was only a few months old. Sallie lived with her great-grandmother, who gave Sallie to her daughter Sarah after the death of Sarah's husband President James K. Polk.
The Childress-Ray House is a historic house in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, U.S. It was built in 1847. In 1874, it was purchased by John Childress, the brother of U.S. First Lady Sarah Childress Polk, brother-in-law of U.S. President James K. Polk, and the father-in-law of Tennessee Governor John C. Brown. Former First Lady Sarah Polk was a frequent visitor.
Elias Polk was a former enslaved African American, most known for being enslaved by President James K. Polk and his family from the time of his birth until emancipation in 1865. After the American Civil War, he became a conservative Democratic political activist, when most freedmen joined the Republican Party. As a person enslaved, Polk had lived and worked at the Polk farm in Maury County, Tennessee, in the Columbia, Tennessee home of James and Sarah Polk, in the White House in 1845, and the Polks' Nashville residence, "Polk Place" from 1849 to 1865. After the president died, Elias Polk continued to live at Polk Place in Nashville, where he continued to be enslaved by the widowed First Lady Sarah Childress Polk. Once Elias gained freedom, he embarked on a public speaking career which saw him take up the cause of the Democratic Party, and spoke on behalf of former Confederates and enslavers. This was done out of survival and economic stability. Elias is remembered today for his controversial stances and willingness to "play the part" of the faithful slave in order to subvert and mock the southern racial hierarchy to his advantage.
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