The Hermitage Mansion (photo courtesy of thehermitage.com)
Saturday morning saw us packing up to leave Ashland and head south to Tennessee. We would spend a couple of days in Tennessee. Today we would be in Nashville and then tomorrow in Memphis.
We pulled into the eastern outskirts of Nashville to visit "The Hermitage", President Andrew Jackson's home before and after he was President, at just shy of 2 PM.
Andrew Jackson's Grave (photo courtesy of the hermitage.com)
I had no idea, until I started planning this trip, that Andrew Jackson's home was in Nashville. I supposed if I had given it any real thought, I could have guessed. I knew that Andy was a Tennesseean, and Nashville is the capital. It's not such a leap to put the two together. The mansion that sits on the 1000 acres of land, that was Andrew Jackson's estate is not the orginal home. The orginal home was a log cabin. Jackson later built the mansion that sits there today. But even that started smaller. I was added to in 1831, and then again, after a fire in 1834. The President wasn't around much for either one of these improvements, as he was busy in DC from 1829 to 1837. Tragically his wife, Rachel, died in 1928 right after he was elected President. But she played a major part in what the Hermitage was to become.
I was a little disappointed at The Hermitage. The guides weren't as inspiring as the other historical places we had visited, and every single room was protected by a glass door, so you couldn't get in. We kind of went through it kind of quick. We did enjoy the grounds. Rachel had built a very beautiful garden, with at least 100 different kinds of plants and flowers. In the back of the garden was the President's Grave. He and Rachel rest under a Doric Greek monument that looks like a gazebo. The Jacksons had only a single adopted son, (actually Rachel’s nephew) Andrew Jackson Jr. He, along with his wife and children lay nearby.
We spent less than an hour here, and then made our way north to Goodlettsville, a northern suburb of Nashville, where our hotel was located. On the way we grabbed a quick dinner from Krystals. Our hotel was our fourth Motel 6 of this trip. So far they had all been OK. Nothing special, but no unpleasant surprises either. This one was no exception. We checked in, dumped our luggage, freshened up a bit and headed south to the heart of Nashville.
