Monday, September 26, 2011
Cheri Sept-26-11
6:40 PM | 
Posted by
Sharp's Travels
It was raining when we got up this morning. It had been raining most of the night.
Our plan is to visit the Belle Meade Plantation by Nashville.
It was only 23 miles from our campground and it was cool and possible chances of more showers, so we took the truck.
Belle Meade, meaning Beautiful Meadow, was founded in 1807 by John & Sarah Harding. It began with a log cabin and 250 acres. It grew into 5,400 acres.
Belle Meade is an 1853 Greek Revival Mansion named one of America’s grandest Mansions. The costumed interpreter guided us through the two story, beautifully furnished mansion. We heard the tales of 4 generations of Harding and Jackson families who resided at Belle Meade. All the furnishings were great to see. It brought the house alive. The grand circular staircase was spectacular. The pictures of horses were everywhere. This plantation made its money by breeding race horses. Seabiscuit, Secretoriat, Funny Cide, Smarty Jones were just a few of the great thoroughbreds that trace their bloodlines back to Belle Meade. Our tour of the house took 45 minutes; we asked lots of questions and looked in every crook and cranny. It was nice not to be limited on what we could check out. Once again we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the house.
We began our self guided tour of the outer buildings. The original 1790 Harding cabin was only one room, until they added a second one, as their family grew. They lived there until they moved into the Mansion.
Next the Dairy, which produced as much as 24o lbs of butter each week, the slave cabin, the mausoleum, this vault housed the remains of members of the Harding & Jackson families, the Gardner’s House, the smokehouse, where as many as 20,000 lbs of pork were smoked in a single year, the 1890’s carriage house & stables and the dollhouse, which served as a playhouse for the children.
The plantation had a total of 136 slaves. John Harding supervised his slaves personally. He knew them all by name. After the Civil War the slaves were free and some choose to stay right there at Belle Meade.
It was fascinating to listen to the history of this place and picture all those beautiful thoroughbreds.
There was no damage to this property during the Civil War. The soldiers stayed for the most part in Nashville.
Winemaking was a part of the tradition of the Plantation for over 150 years. The grapes still grow wild throughout the property today. We were invited to the Winery to taste a few of the flavors they make today. Our favorite we the Blackberry wine.
We ended our visit with lunch at the Belle Café. We had a pulled pork sandwich on cornbread with beans and coleslaw. It was excellent.
We were back at the 5th wheel by 2pm. We started thinking of what needed to be done to get ready for our move tomorrow. I gave Gay a haircut and we will be getting up early tomorrow morning to head out to Pigeon Forge.
Gay has uploaded pictures of the day click on this link https://picasaweb.google.com/sharpstravels then click on album: Belle Meade
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