Adelicia Hayes Franklin Acklen Cheatham (1817-1887) was quite a formidable woman of the 19th century South. Born in Nashville, she married Isaac Franklin in 1839. He was 28 years older, and his family had capitalized on the fact that the importation of enslaved people was banned in 1808 by becoming major players in the domestic slave market, buying slaves in the upper South to sell to planters in the lower South, chiefly along the Mississippi River and in Mississippi and Louisiana. Franklin was quite wealthy and had acquired several large plantations in Louisiana. These lands later became the core of Louisiana's infamous state prison, named Angola. They had four children, all of whom died very young. Franklin died in 1846, leaving Adelicia their summer plantation Fairvue in Gallatin, Tennessee, the Louisiana plantations, some 50,000 acres of undeveloped land in Texas, stocks and bonds, and over 750 slaves, making her the wealthiest woman in Tennessee and one of the wealthiest women in America. Although both legal custom of the time and Franklin's will demanded that a widow's property transfer to her new husband upon remarriage, Adelicia successfully avoided that fate. She maintained control of her fortune, with one exception, throughout her life, and her future husbands each signed marriage contracts recognizing her control. When she married Joseph Acklen in 1849, she was forced to give up Fairvue, but she retained the rest of her fortune. They began building a new summer home (They spent most of the year in Louisiana.) in Nashville in 1850 and named it Belmont. When completed in 1860, the "summer home" and 36 rooms, comprised 19,000 square feet, and included a zoo on the grounds. They had six children, four of whom survived to adulthood. Acklen died in 1863, and Adelicia later married Dr. William Archer Cheatham, the director of the Tennessee State Insane Asylum. However, she grew dissatisfied with the marriage and moved to Washington DC, where she resided on Massachusetts Avenue. She sold the Louisiana properties in 1880, and, in 1887, she sold Belmont Mansion to be used as a girls academy. That school later became Ward-Belmont College for women, and then in became Belmont University. While on a shopping trip in New York City in 1887, Adelicia died on March 4.
The mansion's grounds included many outbuildings, lavish gardens, conservatories, an aviary, a lake, and a zoo. The conservatories housed tropical fruit and flowers, along with camellia japonica, jasmine, lilies, and cacti. The zoo featured bears, monkeys, peacocks, singing birds, a white owl, alligators from Louisiana, and a deer park. In December 1864, before and during the Battle of Nashville, 13,000 Union troops camped on the grounds, and officers used the house as headquarters. Below is an 1860 rendering of the estate.
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The Grand Salon is considered by many architectural historians as the finest interior in antebellum Tennessee. Here, guests would be received and parties held. Visitors to the mansion included President James K. Polk, William Walker, the American mercenary who tried unsuccessfully to make himself the ruler of Nicaragua, Agustin de Iturbide, the first Emperor of Mexico (1822-1823), and Thomas Huxley, the English biologist. Guests would see beautiful artworks collected by Adelicia on various European trips, and they would also see fantastic examples of the art of trompe l'oeil, the art of illusion using faux finishings to make painted wood floors and walls look like marble and painted doorframes look like fine wood. Great care has been taken to restore and to preserve the mansion as it was, and many furnishings have been contributed by the family over the years. Other pieces are chosen to reflect the period.
painted doorframe
The detail in the Grand Salon is incredible, and that detail carries through the rest of the house. I was particularly taken by the plaster ceiling medallions surrounding the light fixture in each room, painted ceilings, and molding details.
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The formal dining room is as grand as one would expect, complete with monogrammed dinnerware.
The more informal dining room is across the hall.
More informal parlors and a billiards room also lie on the ground floor. The billiards room features a painted oilcloth floor covering.
The main bedroom:
The children's room and another bedroom. Note the pallet at the foot of the children's bed, the bed for the enslaved nurse or nanny tasked with caring for the children.
The Belmont Mansion is truly a great house museum and a must-visit in Nashville. Yet, it is simultaneously a stark and somber monument to the thousands of people whose lives were devastated in order to make it possible, and Belmont University should expend more effort to tell their part of the story more prominently. (Website https://www.belmontmansion.com/ )
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