Belle Meade Mansion
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Belle Meade
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Belle Meade Plantation
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| Location | 5025 Harding Pike Belle Meade, Tennessee |
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| Coordinates | 36°6′20″N 86°51′54″W / 36.10556°N 86.86500°WCoordinates: 36°6′20″N 86°51′54″W / 36.10556°N 86.86500°W |
| Built | 1807 |
| Architectural style | Greek Revival |
| NRHP reference # | 69000177 |
| Added to NRHP | December 30, 1969 |
Belle Meade Plantation, located in Belle Meade, Tennessee, is a historic mansion whose grounds now function as a museum. Belle Meade Plantation consists of 30 remaining acres and includes a winery, visitor's center, original outbuildings including the Harding cabin, dairy, carriage house, stable, mausoleum and a reconstructed slave quarters.
Built on a small hill near Richland Creek, the original red brick Federal-style house was built in the 1820s by John Harding. The entrance façade featured a two-story five-bay block, constructed on a limestone foundation, flanked with symmetrical one-story wings. Chimneys flanked the central block as well as the two wings.
In 1853, the house was altered and enlarged into a Greek-Revival style mansion by General William Giles Harding to reflect the success of the plantation. Stucco was applied to cover the red bricks and a two-story verandah was created on the central block with six solid limestone pillars of the Doric order, that were quarried on the plantation. A solid limestone pedimented entablature is set above the columns. The left wing was removed and the right wing was raised to two stories. A two-story kitchen extension was also attached to the house via a two level breezeway that was enclosed at the turn of the 20th century.
The 14-foot high central entrance hall runs the full length of the house from east to west, following the seasonal wind directions for natural cooling. The walls display Thoroughbred paintings by 19th-century painters Edward Troye, Harry Hall, and Henry Stull, depicting the plantation's most famous horses. On the north end of the hall, double parlors feature poplar wood, Tennessee's state tree. The library and dining rooms are found to the south. These rooms feature portraits of the Harding family and chandeliers that once were lit with methane gas made with manure.
The central hall configuration is found on the second and third floors as well, and are accessed by the winding cantilevered, Second Empire-style staircase carved from cherry. The second floor contains two connected bedrooms to the north and a guest bedroom and master bedroom to the south. William Hicks Jackson, son-in-law of William Giles Harding, modernized the interior of the house in 1883, adding three full bathrooms, including one on the second floor, that included a deep soaking tub and a shower, complete with hot and cold running water, believed to help circulation and those suffering from arthritis. The third level has single rooms flanking the central hall with 8-foot high ceilings.
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