Rutledge Hill

The area known as Rutledge Hill is named for the Rutledge family who moved from South Carolina in 1807 after receiving a 73,000-acre land grant for service in the American Revolution. Henry Rutledge and his wife, Septima Sexta Middleton Rutledge, were first cousins. Both of their fathers were signers of the Declaration of Independence. Her unusual name was a testament to the Declaration—Septima Sexta, or 76 when translated and feminized in Latin. In 1820, the Rutledges built a massive Palladian-style house here that overlooked downtown and the Cumberland River. The house you see here still has portions of the original structure. It was called Rose Hill because the rose garden stretched from the house to the river. According to historians Mary Wheeler and Genon Neblett, “Here the Rutledges entertained such notable friends as Rachel and Andrew Jackson, Sarah and James K. Polk, Sam Houston, and others. The French general and Revolutionary War hero, Marquis de LaFayette, was also guest there in 1825.”

The Rutledges had six children, including Mary Middleton Rutledge, who married Francis Fogg in 1823. For fifty years, the Rutledges and Foggs were local leaders in education and urban reform. Septima and Mary even established a girls’ orphanage called the Protestant House of Industry. This area was also the epicenter of education during the New South era with several colleges located near Rutledge Hill. In addition to the University of Nashville, there was Peabody Normal School for teachers, Vanderbilt Medical and Law Schools, and Central Tennessee College for African Americans, which later became Meharry Medical College. In all, nine colleges opened between 1865 and 1912, and the city embraced its reputation as an “Athens of the South.” Nearly all of the schools located downtown moved to West Nashville after 1915.

Septima Rutledge died in 1865 and a large portion of Rose Hill was destroyed in a fire later that year. In 1866, the Rutledge children subdivided and sold the estate. Captain Edmund Baxter purchased what was left of the home. Part of the house was salvaged and a new Victorian addition reoriented the front of the house to Lea Avenue. Other historic houses you see in this area were built on the divided lots in the late 1800s as Rutledge Hill became a fashionable suburb. Residents included Henrie Lipscomb, William Culbert, Frank Gray, Tom Ryman, and Mayor Houston Dudley. Admire the remaining historic houses as you walk up Rutledge to the corner of Middleton Avenue. Make note of the restored house on your right that is today one of the city’s finest restaurants—Husk. At the corner of Lea and Middleton Avenue, look in the distance to your left to see Lindsley Hall, once part of the University of Nashville. Today it is part of the Metro Complex known as Howard Office just behind Nashville Children’s Theater.

Continue south on Rutledge Street until you reach Middleton Street. Cross the street and turn RIGHT onto Middleton. Walk down the hill to Second Avenue. Just to your left, you will see a crosswalk. Cross over Second Ave. to reach the Geddes Engine Company and Litterer Laboratory.