Rippavilla Plantation

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Rippavilla
Rippavilla Franklin TN.jpg
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Location Spring Hill, Tennessee
Coordinates 35°43′54″N86°57′14″W / 35.73167°N 86.95389°W / 35.73167; -86.95389
Built1852
ArchitectF. Stratton
Architectural styleGreek Revival, Colonial Revival
NRHP reference No. 96000773 [1]
Added to NRHPJuly 19, 1996

Rippavilla Plantation, also known as Meadowbrook and Nathaniel Cheairs House, [2] is a former plantation, historic house and museum, located in Spring Hill, Tennessee. This plantation had been worked by enslaved Black people for many years. [2] It is open to visitors as a historic house museum. [3]

Contents

It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 19, 1996, for its architectural significance. [2]

History

The Cheairs family were part of a 1810 land grant awarded by President James Madison. [2] Initially the property included a 1500-acre farm. [2] Nathaniel Frances Cheairs IV (1818–1914) resided on the property along with his wife, Susan Peters Cheairs (née McKissack; 1821–1893) until her death. Around 1840, the Cheairs family owned 46 enslaved black people and up to 75 by 1860 (Rippa Villa, Battle of Franklin Trust). [2] Nathaniel Frances Cheairs IV served in the Confederate Army, however the Rippavilla Plantation sustained minimal damage during the American Civil War. [2]

The plantation house was built in several phases but was extensively remodeled between 1928 and 1932. [2] Its architectural style was antebellum Greek Revival, however modifications to the house were done in a 20th-century Colonial Revival style. [2]

His son, William McKissack Cheairs took ownership of the home until he sold it in 1920 to John G. Whitfield, a coal tycoon from Alabama. [2]

References

  1. ↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Tennessee Historical Commission (June 10, 1996). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Rippavilla". National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior . Retrieved June 21, 2021. (with 39 accompanying photos)
  3. ↑ Littman, Margaret (March 19, 2013). Moon Tennessee. Avalon Travel. p. 231. ISBN   978-1-61238-150-3.


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