The Hermitage

Information about The Hermitage

This article is about the American plantation and museum. For other uses, see Hermitage.


Enlarge picture
The Hermitage
Enlarge picture
The Tomb of Andrew and Rachel Jackson is located in the Hermitage garden.


The Hermitage is a historical plantation and museum located in Davidson County, Tennessee, USA, 12 miles east of downtown Nashville. The plantation was owned by Andrew Jackson, the seventh President of the United States, from 1804 until his death at The Hermitage in 1845. Jackson only lived at the property occasionally until he retired from public life in 1837.

History

The Hermitage is not only the name of Jackson's home but of the surrounding farm. The land, which was ideally located two miles from the Cumberland and Stone’s rivers, was originally settled by a Nathaniel Hays in 1780. Hays sold the 640-acre farm to Jackson in 1804. Jackson and his wife Rachel moved into a two-story log cabin on the farm (the two-story building was eventually split into two one-story buildings used as slave quarters after Jackson built the main house). Initially Jackson operated the cotton farm with nine African slaves, but this number gradually grew to 44 slaves by 1820 as the farm expanded to 1,000 acres.

The original Hermitage mansion was a two-story 8-room Federal style brick building built between 1819 and 1821. 1828 was the height and depth of Jackson's life. In November, he was elected 7th President of the United States, however, his wife Rachel died the following month. In 1831, while Jackson was away in the White House, he had the mansion remodeled with flanking one-story wings (one with a library and the other with a large dining room and pantry), a two-story entrance portico with Doric columns and a small rear portico. Jackson also had a Grecian “temple & monument” for Rachel Jackson's grave contructed in the garden. Craftsmen completed the domed limestone tomb with a copper roof in 1832. In 1834 a chimney fire seriously damaged much of the building. This promted Jackson to have the current Greek Revival structure built which was completed two years later. The entry hall is decorated with wall paper depicting scenes from Telemachus' visit to the island of Calypso.

On May 5, 1863, units of the Union Army, specifically those from Indiana, approached the grounds of The Hemitage. A Pvt. Joseph C. Taylor wrote of the account in his diary.
At 2 this morning Co.'s according to previous agreement, saddled up and started for a big scout. About daylight we arrived at Stone River. Colonel McCook was with us. We used great caution while crossing the river. We formed a line of battle and crossed a Company at a time, forming a line on the opposite side. We all crossed in safety, and proceeded to the Hermitage of General A. Jackson, where we halted for a while. Then by orders of the Colonel went to see the hermitage also the tomb of General A. Jackson. I will describe the place as well as I can. There is a nise gravel road from the Main road to the house. On each side of this mall there is a nise row of large cedar trees, which almost darken the passage as the branches meet overhead. When in 20 steps of the front door, this road for and directly in front is a space in the shape of a heart. Around this the road runs, which enables the carriage to come up to the door. This heart is enclosed by a similar row of cedars. The inside of this heart, and also on each side of the carriage way is thickly set with pines, cedars and other shrubbery of long standing, which almost excludes the sun shining on the ground. There is nise gravel walks leading to every place that a person want to go. From appearances those walks are but little used, as the grass is growing in the walks to some extent. We then went in the garden which is situated on the East of the house. Which is between the house and the Lebanon Pike, and is full of shrubbery and flowers of all kinds. Also walks running in all directions which beautifies the place and also give it a cold look to me, as I never saw a garden arrainged in this fashion. In the South East corner of this garden stands the monument of General Andrew Jackson. General Jackson lays on the South side of the tomb. His head in the direction of West, his feet to the East. His wife lays on the North and 2 infant children lay on the South of the tomb. It is all together a dark and secluded spot and looks to me as though it was verry old fassion."

– Pvt. Joseph C. Taylor, Co. I, 2nd Indiana Cavalry [1]

Enlarge picture
Andrew Jackson's home The Hermitage, shown on a USPS 2 cent stamp
In 1889, the Hermitage was opened to the public as a museum, both of Jackson's life and the antebellum South in general. Each year, the home receives more than a quarter million visitors, making it the 4th most visited presidential residence in the country (after the White House, Mount Vernon, and Monticello).

The tomb of Andrew and Rachel Jackson is located in the Hermitage garden.

The Hermitage escaped a near-disaster during the Nashville tornado outbreak of 1998. An F-3 tornado crossed the property at approximately 4:00pm CDT on April 16, 1998, missing the house and gravesite, but toppling many trees that had reportedly been planted by Jackson himself nearly 200 years earlier. Whereas the trees had once hidden the house from view of passers-by on U.S. Highway 70, it is now in plain sight.

The area of Davidson County, Tennessee surrounding the Hermitage is known as Hermitage, Tennessee. A posh hotel named The Hermitage Hotel, located in downtown Nashville, Tennessee opened in 1910 and is still open today. Many celebrities and U.S. Presidents have spent time there.[1]

External links

References



 •  • [ e]
Nashville landmarks
ExistingBellSouth Building • Bicentennial Mall State Park • Centennial Park • Cheekwood • Country Music Hall of Fame • Fort Nashborough • Fort Negley • Frist Center for the Visual Arts • Gaylord Opryland Resort • Greer Stadium • The Hermitage • LP Field • Memorial Gymnasium • Nashville City Cemetary • Nashville International Airport • Nashville Zoo at Grassmere • Parthenon • Ryman Auditorium • Schermerhorn Symphony Center • Shelby Street Brdige • Sommet Center • Tennessee Performing Arts Center • Tennessee State Capitol • Tennessee State Museum • Union Station • Vanderbilt Stadium
FormerOpryland USA • Starwood Amphitheatre • Sulphur Dell
Hermitage may refer to
  • Hermitage, a Hermit's dwelling place, a place of religious retreat
In places in Great Britain:
  • Hermitage, Berkshire, a village in England near Newbury
  • Hermitage, Dorset, a hamlet in England, near Sherborne

..... Click the link for more information.
plantation is usually a large farm or estate, especially in a tropical or semitropical country, on which cotton, tobacco, coffee, sugar cane, or trees and the like are cultivated, usually by resident laborers.
..... Click the link for more information.
museum is a "permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits, for purposes of study, education, enjoyment, the tangible and intangible
..... Click the link for more information.
Davidson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2000, the population was 569,891. The 2005 Census Estimate placed the population at 607,413.[1] Its county seat is Nashville6.
..... Click the link for more information.
State of Tennessee

Flag Seal
Nickname(s): Volunteer State
Motto(s): Agriculture and commerce

Official language(s) English

Capital Nashville
Largest city Memphis

..... Click the link for more information.
Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
..... Click the link for more information.
Nashville, Tennessee

Flag
Seal
Nickname: Music City
Location in Davidson County and the state of Tennessee
Coordinates:
Country United States
..... Click the link for more information.
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the 7th President of the United States (1829–1837). He was also military governor of Florida (1821), commander of the American forces at the Battle of New Orleans (1815), a founder of the modern Democratic Party, and
..... Click the link for more information.

..... Click the link for more information.
8th century - 9th century - 10th century
850s  860s  870s  - 880s -  890s  900s  910s
885 886 887 - 888 - 889 890 891

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
..... Click the link for more information.
18th century - 19th century - 20th century
1810s  1820s  1830s  - 1840s -  1850s  1860s  1870s
1842 1843 1844 - 1845 - 1846 1847 1848

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
..... Click the link for more information.
18th century - 19th century - 20th century
1800s  1810s  1820s  - 1830s -  1840s  1850s  1860s
1834 1835 1836 - 1837 - 1838 1839 1840

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
..... Click the link for more information.
Origin Oven Fork, Letcher County,Kentucky
Mouth Ohio River
Basin countries United States
Length 687 mi (1,106 km)
Source elevation 1,575 ft (480 m)

Avg.
..... Click the link for more information.
Federal style architecture occurred in the United States between 1780 and 1830, particularly from 1785 to 1815. The period is associated with the early Republic, and the establishment of the national institutions of the United States.
..... Click the link for more information.

..... Click the link for more information.
North façade of the White House, seen from Pennsylvania Avenue. Before construction of the north portico in 1824, the north façade looked similar to Leinster House shown in the picture below.
..... Click the link for more information.
pronaos highlighted]]

A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of Ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian.
..... Click the link for more information.
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite (calcium carbonate: CaCO3). Limestone often contains variable amounts of silica in the form of chert or flint, as well as varying amounts of clay, silt and sand as disseminations, nodules, or layers
..... Click the link for more information.
2, 1
(mildly basic oxide)
Electronegativity 1.90 (Pauling scale)
Ionization energies
(more) 1st: 745.5 kJmol−1
2nd: 1957.9 kJmol−1
3rd: 3666 kJmol−1

Atomic radius 135 pm
Atomic radius (calc.
..... Click the link for more information.
Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture.
..... Click the link for more information.
Telemachus and Mentor]]

This article is about the figure in Greek mythology. For the Christian saint, see Saint Telemachus, and for the South African cricketer, see Roger Telemachus.

..... Click the link for more information.
Calypso may refer to:
  • Calypso (mythology), the name of one of the Nereids (sea nymphs) in Greek mythology
  • Calypso (RFID), an RFID open technology for contactless ticketing applications

..... Click the link for more information.
18th century - 19th century - 20th century
1830s  1840s  1850s  - 1860s -  1870s  1880s  1890s
1860 1861 1862 - 1863 - 1864 1865 1866

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
..... Click the link for more information.
The Union Army was the army that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the Northern Army, or the National Army.[1]
..... Click the link for more information.
The State of Indiana

Flag of Indiana Seal
Nickname(s): The Hoosier State

Motto(s): The Crossroads of America

Official language(s) English

Capital Indianapolis (785,597)

..... Click the link for more information.
19th century - 20th century
1850s  1860s  1870s  - 1880s -  1890s  1900s  1910s
1886 1887 1888 - 1889 - 1890 1891 1892

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
..... Click the link for more information.
museum is a "permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits, for purposes of study, education, enjoyment, the tangible and intangible
..... Click the link for more information.
Antebellum is a Latin word meaning "before war" (ante means before and bellum means war). In United States history and historiography, the term antebellum
..... Click the link for more information.
North façade of the White House, seen from Pennsylvania Avenue. Before construction of the north portico in 1824, the north façade looked similar to Leinster House shown in the picture below.
..... Click the link for more information.

This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.