The Belmont Mansion

Our first stop tells the origin story of the entire area: without the Belmont Mansion, there would be no Belmont-Hillsboro neighborhood. Almost everything you’ll see on this tour was built on the grounds of the former Acklen Estate, which was a sprawling 177-acres. Constructed between 1849 and 1853, the Belmont Mansion served as a summer home for Adelicia Hayes Acklen and her husband, Joseph. With 36 rooms and over 20,000 square feet of space, the Belmont Mansion remains the largest house museum in Tennessee and has been meticulously restored.

The driving force behind the mansion, Adelicia was actively engaged in the Nashville community. A graduate of the Nashville Female Academy at the age of sixteen, she built her fortune as a savvy businesswoman and was one of the wealthiest women in the South by the mid-1800s. She was married three times and widowed twice. She even had her second husband (Joseph Acklen) and third husband (William Cheatham) sign pre-nuptial agreements! According to Belmont Mansion Director Mark Brown, Adelicia hosted lavish parties attended by governors, members of the southern aristocracy, and she welcomed the public to the estate’s gardens.

The Acklens were inspired by the architecture they saw in Italy on their honeymoon, and set out to recreate their very own Italian villa. The gardens and grounds mirrored that of European royalty, and the ornate exterior and interior of the home reflected the Acklens’ immense wealth. During their time at Belmont, they constructed an elaborate greenhouse, curated one of Nashville’s first major art collections, and entertained visitors from far and wide. In 1859, the Acklens commissioned architect Adolphus Heiman to enlarge the mansion, including a Grand Salon that featured a twenty-two-foot-tall barrel-vaulted ceiling.

Madame Le Vert, another well-known southern woman, remarked in 1867 that the mansion was “properly called Belmont, as it crowns the summit of a beautiful hill, commanding an extensive view of the city and encircling country.”Some of the Acklens’ most interesting guests? Exotic animals! For a while, the grounds were open to the public as an art gallery and zoo, since there were no public parks in Nashville at the time.

So where did the Adelicia’s fortune come from? The majority of her income came from Adelicia’s inherited slave plantations in Louisiana. While Belmont was not a plantation, there were also a number of enslaved persons who worked on the grounds. In 1889, the basement of the mansion, which was a major work area for enslaved persons, was renovated. The following year, all slave quarters on the estate were destroyed. The Belmont Mansion staff continues its work to uncover the legacies of these families.

The Civil War also impacted Belmont, as the mansion was seized by the U.S. Army in preparations for the Battle of Nashville in December 1864. Adelicia and her family purportedly fled to the downtown home of the widowed Mrs. James K. Polk. Despite the disruption of war, Adelicia served on the board of the Refugee Clothing Association that supported displaced families and aided Union women traveling to Nashville to find their loved ones. In 1886, she sold the property and moved to Washington, D.C., with three of her adult children.

Part of the estate was sold to two female educators, Susan Heron and Ida Hood, who opened Belmont College for Young Women in 1890. You’ll hear more about the school at our next stop. The Belmont Mansion stands as a testament to the past while presiding over the present and future of Belmont University. If you’d like, you can ring the mansion doorbell and step inside. The house has been completely restored to its antebellum grandeur from the 1850s—tours last about an hour. 

Now it’s time to tour some of the estate grounds. First, take note of the historical marker just past the mansion for the Ward-Belmont School. Now, with your back to the mansion, begin walking along the sidewalk on the right side that goes through the university’s historic quad. Go ahead and begin the next stop as you walk. Once you reach the Kitty Bugg West Amphitheater, press pause on the narration.