Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art
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Cheekwood
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Cheekwood Mansion
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| Location | 1200 Forest Park Dr., Nashville, Tennessee |
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| Coordinates | 36°5′12″N 86°52′26″W / 36.08667°N 86.87389°WCoordinates: 36°5′12″N 86°52′26″W / 36.08667°N 86.87389°W |
| Area | 7 acres (2.8 ha) |
| Built | 1929 |
| Architect | Bryant Fleming; et al. |
| Architectural style | Colonial Revival |
| NRHP Reference # | 00000993 |
| Added to NRHP | August 23, 2000 |
Cheekwood is a 55-acre botanical garden and art museum located on the historic Cheek estate in Nashville, Tennessee. Originally built as the home of Leslie and Mabel Cheek in 1929, Cheekwood is one of the finest examples of an American Country Place Era estate. Since being converted into a museum of art and botanical garden in 1960, Cheekwood now presents world-class art exhibitions, spectacular gardens and an historic estate with authentic furnishings.
Each year, Cheekwood welcomes over 250,000 annual visitors, making it one of the city’s top cultural attractions, with approximately 13,000 member households. Visitors enjoy family activities, programming for all ages and year-round festivals celebrating the four seasons.
Christopher Cheek founded a wholesale grocery business in Nashville in the 1880s. His son, Leslie Cheek, joined him as a partner, and by 1915 was president of the family-owned company. Leslie's wife, Mabel Wood, was a member of a prominent Clarksville, Tennessee, family. Meanwhile, Joel Cheek, Leslie's cousin, had developed an acclaimed blend of coffee that was marketed through Nashville's finest hotel, the Maxwell House Hotel. Cheek's extended family, including Leslie and Mabel Cheek, were investors. In 1928, the Postum Cereals Company (now General Foods) purchased Maxwell House's parent company, Cheek-Neal Coffee, for more than $40 million.
After the sale of the family business, Leslie Cheek bought 100 acres (40 ha) of woodland in West Nashville for a country estate. He hired New York residential and landscape architect Bryant Fleming to design the house and gardens, and gave him full control over every detail of the project, including interior furnishings. The resulting limestone mansion and extensive formal gardens were completed in 1932. The estate design was inspired by the grand English manors of the 18th century.
Leslie Cheek died just two years after moving into the mansion. Mabel Cheek and their daughter, Huldah Cheek Sharp, lived at Cheekwood until the 1950s, when Huldah Sharp and her husband offered the property as a site for a botanical garden and art museum. The Exchange Club of Nashville, the Horticultural Society of Middle Tennessee and other civic groups led the redevelopment of the property aided by funds raised from the sale of the former building of the Nashville Museum of Art. The new Cheekwood museum opened in 1960.
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