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<div>The mission of the&nbsp;Tennessee Central Railway Museum "is to preserve, restore, interpret, and operate historic railroad equipment to educate our guests about America's railroads."&nbsp; The museum is headquartered in the former location of the Tennessee Central Railway Master Mechanic's office at 220 Willow Street near downtown Nashville.&nbsp; </div>

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The Tennessee Central Railway Museum is a 501(c)(3) located in Nashville that works to preserve Tennessee's railroad heritage. The museum has a growing collection of rolling stock and, since 1989, provides visitors with the opportunity to experience history first-hand. Passenger trains currently depart from the museum to Lebanon, Watertown, Cookeville, and Monterey, Tennessee. The museum has the largest collection of artifacts related to the Tennessee Central Railway Museum in the nation. Pieces within the collection include passenger cars, cabooses, freight cars, and locomotives. The collection is restored and maintained by volunteers. 

Tennessee Central Railway Museum 

Start at the Tennessee Central Railway Museum in southeastern Nashville & check out the exhibits. Then drive east toward Donelson. Stop by an historical cemetery, antebellum mansions, & the second-oldest log cabin in the area, just a stone's throw from the airport. 

&nbsp; &nbsp; Immediately after the Civil War, a group of women from Nashville formed an association to raise money for a cemetery. They wanted to have a piece of land that could be used as a burial site for the fallen Confederate soldiers who had died during the war. It would also double as a place to remember and honor them. The women's memorial association arranged an estimated 1500 soldiers here to be buried.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;As a result of the success this cemetery had, it became what is known as a "Confederate Circle." A Confederate Circle is a location that was used to bury large numbers of Confederate soldiers who died at a given location. This means that at almost every one of these burial grounds is in a major city that saw battles resulting in many deaths. Just like this circle in Nashville, women created associations all around the country to create Confederate Circles. Following the same format, all of these other circles are in major cities. On May 9, 1869, Decoration Day was declared to honor the fallen soldiers. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;In this cemetery lie several important people to the area; people like mayors, senators, generals, and other famous people over the years. Seven generals, in particular, are Confederate generals. Mount Olivet Cemetery is also the resting place for Mary Kate Patterson Davis Hill Kyle, who is also known as the "Heroine of the South." She got this title because she worked as a spy in the Nashville area. As a teen, she managed to sneak out vital information and supplies through Union lines. She was buried in the Confederate Circle and became the first women to be honored as such.

Having been established in 1856, Mount Olivet Cemetery is the last resting place for many past leaders of Tennessee. During the Civil War, Mount Olivet Cemetery became one of many "Confederate Circles", or spots were large amounts of Confederate soldiers were buried and memorialized. This cemetery, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was also founded by a women association out of Nashville, Tennessee. 

Mount Olivet Cemetery

Belair mansion was on a thousand-acre tract of land in the 1830s when it was gifted to Elizabeth Harding (1812-1836) and her new husband, Joseph W. Clay. She only lived there for a few years before dying in 1836.William Nichol (1800-1878) purchased the plantation in 1838. William was born in Virginia and moved to Tennessee as a child. He was married to Julia Margaret Lyttle (1808-1890). Besides owning a commercial steamboat and being a Nashville merchant, Nichol served as Mayor of Nashville from 1835 to 1837. Nichol and his business partners purchased Capitol Hill and offered the land to the State of Tennessee for a new Capitol building.By 1850, 73 enslaved persons toiled on the plantation. William Nichol was a 60-year-old farmer in 1860 and owned $180,000 in real estate plus $120,000 in personal property. He shared Belair with his wife, Julia M. (50) and seven children: Alexander (22), Margaret (23), Julia (17), Edgar (15), James F. (13), Harry D. (11), and Elizabeth (9). Another son, William L., became a physician in Nashville and may have no longer lived with his parents. The 1860 census listed 71 enslaved persons on William Nichol's plantation in 12 "slave houses." By 1870, William was a farmer and a banker; his real estate holdings were valued at $350,000 and he owned $60,000 in personal property. Julia M. and six of the children lived at Belair (Margaret, Julia, Edgar, James, Harry, and Elizabeth). It appears that some of the formerly enslaved workers remained on the plantation after the Civil War. Listed after William's house in the 1870 census were eight households in eight dwellings of Black or Mulatto residents with the surname Nichols. The adult males usually listed their occupation as farm hand and some of the women worked as dairy maids or milkwomen. In November 1878, the elderly "William Nichol, Esquire" fell down the steps of his residence and fractured his skull on the stone pavement below. His son, Dr. William L. Nichol did not expect him to regain consciousness; he soon passed away. Mrs. Nichol sold Belair after her husband's death to Major E.A. Burr of New York.The original portion of the brick house was L-shaped in plan but had a number of additions. The house is mainly Federal style with Greek Revival elements seen in the front columns. The first additions were end wings built for William Nichol after his 1838 purchase. Nichol is credited with adding the winding wooden staircase and rosewood doors. There was a "secret room" on the second floor of the ell that was reached by stepping down through a window.R.D. Stanford owned and resided at Belair in 1940 when the house was documented as part of the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS). The Briley Parkway was constructed less than 50 feet west of the mansion in 1999. Lewis and Connie James purchased Belair in 2016 for $1.5 million and carefully restored the house on its remaining five acres while transforming it into a multi-room bed and breakfast. They were especially careful to preserve the mansion's eight handcrafted fireplaces, the ceiling frescoes, and the wooden trim.

The mansion at 2250 Lebanon Pike (Rt. 70) in Donelson, just west of the Briley Parkway (Rt. 156), is an antebellum house named Belair. The mansion was built in 1832 as a wedding present from John Harding of Belle Meade Plantation, the bride's father. The next owner in 1838 was a Nashville merchant and mayor, William Nichol; the house stayed in the family for the rest of his life. Belair became a National Register-listed property in 1971 but was on the list of most endangered historic buildings in Nashville by 2014. New owners purchased Belair in 2016 on five acres and saved the property from being developed. The house was restored and turned into a 15-room bed and breakfast called Belle Air Mansion. It has been the scene of music videos and is popular for corporate retreats.

Belair

The first house to stand on the property was the 1802 House, a two-story Federal-style brick home built by David Buchanan. After William Harding purchased the 476-acre farm from Willie Barrow in 1819, he grew the property to a total of 1100 acres and the house came to be called the Buchanan-Harding House. In 1830, Harding married a local girl named Elizabeth Clopton, but sadly, William died in 1832, shortly before their only child was born. Elizabeth named their daughter William “Willie” Elizabeth Harding in honor of both of her parents. After Willie grew up and married her cousin David H. McGavock in 1850, Willie and David inherited the home and all the land.                                  Willie, David, and their son Frank lived in the two-story brick residence as they planned and built a new mansion in the backyard. Construction on the mansion began in 1859, just before the Civil War broke out, but it was not finished until the 1870s. A small group of enslaved people were brought from Belle Meade Plantation to build the mansion and manage the daily operations. On the mansion’s back porch, visitors can still see “David, Willie, and Frank” engraved on three bricks.In the 1880s, the estate was called “Two Rivers Stock Farm,” and it was known for being the center of Morgan horse breeding and a thriving dairy business. However, the Panic of 1893 hit the estate hard, causing Spence, Frank’s only son, to lease out the estate and work as a shoe salesman so the family could keep the farm. There is a document stating that, at one time, there were over 70 buildings on the property, though many of them were destroyed by a tornado in the early 1930s.Spence and his wife, Mary Louise Branford, whom he married in 1928, lived in Two Rivers Mansion for four years, remodeling the home and installing plumbing, electricity, and heat. When Mary’s mother died in 1933, Mary and Spence returned to the Melrose neighborhood, where she grew up. Spence, too, died at Melrose three years later. For the next 18 years, Mary remained at Melrose while caretakers tended to the farm at Two Rivers.In the early 1950s, Mary made the decision to return to Two Rivers Mansion, where she passed away in 1965. She named several family members, friends, and employees as beneficiaries and instructed that Two Rivers be sold with proceeds going to the Division of Hematology at Vanderbilt Hospital and Medical School. A research fund named after her father, William S. Bradford, is still offering assistance today.The Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County purchased the 447-acre property for nearly $1 million in 1966, and set aside 14 acres, including the historical homes, and developed the rest of the site for the community. Today, two schools, a golf course, park greenway, waterpark, skate park, and frisbee golf course occupy the original farmland. Two Rivers Mansion was restored to its architectural glory and is today protected and preserved by the nonprofit Friends of Two Rivers Mansion. The main mansion and the 1802 House are open for seasonal tours.

Two Rivers Mansion is among the last elaborate antebellum country homes in the Nashville area and is the earliest and best-preserved Italianate style home built in Middle Tennessee. Three generations of the McGavock family inhabited Two Rivers Mansion until the last heir died and the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County bought the property for nearly $1 million. Today, Two Rivers Mansion, once an 1100-acre plantation, is a fourteen-acre tract, and it includes its predecessor, a two-story brick house called the 1802 House, among Nashville’s oldest brick houses. The 1802 House and Two Rivers Mansion are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and are available to tour.

Two Rivers Mansion

Clover Bottom Mansion occupies land on the Stones River first claimed in 1780 by John Donelson, who abandoned his homestead following an attack by area Native peoples. James Hoggatt inherited the land from his father and Revolutionary War soldier, Captain John Hoggatt. Clover Bottom Mansion was built for James and Mary Ann Saunders Hoggatt in 1858. The Hoggatt family's wealth came largely from the labor of enslaved persons and an estimated sixty slaves operated the plantation. Mrs. Hoggatt was a granddaughter of Daniel Smith, and her half-brothers were Andrew Jackson Donelson and Daniel Smith Donelson for whom Fort Donelson was namedThe mansion incorporated portions of a previous house that had been built by the Hoggatts in 1853 and was destroyed by fire. The architecture is Italianate Manner or Italian Villa style. The historical significance is led by John Donelson, one of the founders of Nashville settled early in the area, followed by Andrew Jackson, who married John's daughter, Rachel.

The mansion and plantation were located near Nashville's first horse racing&nbsp;track. As early as 1804, influential Tennesseans such as Andrew Jackson were racing their horses at the Clover Bottom Jockey Club situated in the bottomland along the Stone's River. Jackson was involved in a store and tavern nearby and had a keelboat yard on the Stone's River.

Louisiana Congressman Andrew Price and his family lived in the mansion from the 1880s through 1918. The Stanford family acquired the home in 1918 and later sold the property to the state. In 1923, the mansion became the Tennessee Home and Training Center for Feeble-Minded Persons. Over the years this state-operated institution went through many name changes (Clover Bottom home in 1946, Clover Bottom Hospital in 1961 and Clover Bottom Developmental Center in 1973.)&nbsp;Many men, women, and children with Down Syndrome, autism and other disabilities were sent to Clover Bottom, some living out their lives at the facility. At its peak, some 1500 people lived in the facility.

Clover Bottom was originally scheduled to be closed in 2005. Over the years there were several patient abuse cases--many going unreported to the police. Since 2002, until Clover Bottom's closing in 2015, there was just under 300 reported cases of abuse, neglect, and exploitation. In 2010, Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen promised to close Clover Bottom by the end of the year. Due to family concerns&nbsp;the closing was delayed. In February 2014, a Tennessean investigation found the long delays in closing Clover Bottom had added up to huge costs for taxpayers--nearly half a million per resident per year, which was more than twice the national average for similar institutions. In November of 2015, the last six residents were moved from the Clover Bottom cottages.

Constructed in 1858, this antebellum mansion was the center of a vast plantation, a state home for the mentally disabled, and has been the home of the Tennessee Historical Commission and the State Historic Preservation Office since 1994. Clover Bottom Mansion was listed on the National Register of Historic places in 1975 for its architectural and historical significance. Today, the Clover Bottom Mansion and a portion of the original plantation are owned by the State of Tennessee with the Tennessee School for the Blind campus located less than a mile from the mansion. The property includes several restored slave cabins and markers that interpret the history of the enslaved persons, wealthy planters, and patients who have lived at Clover Bottom for the past two centuries. 

Clover Bottom Mansion

During the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, many people migrated from the eastern seaboard to what was, at the time, the Western Territory of North Carolina. These pioneers formed settlements in what would become the state of Tennessee. By the late-1770s and early-1780s, settlers had formed the Cumberland settlement in what is now Middle Tennessee. One of these settlers was James Buchanan. Born in Virginia on July 16, 1763, James Buchanan (no relation to the U.S. president of that name) moved to Nashville with his family in 1785 from Augusta County, Virginia. They settled on a 640-acre tract of land called Clover Bottom. With the death of his father in 1806, James inherited half his father's lands. In about 1800, James started construction of his two-story log house. He married Lucinda East around 1810. Their family eventually included 16 children -- 10 daughters and 6 sons -- and thus a one-and-a-half-story log pen was added to the original house. James Buchanan was involved in the War of 1812 as a member of Captain Thomas’s Davidson County Militia Company. Buchanan operated a successful wheat, corn and livestock farm. By 1850, this farm contained 260 acres and was valued at the high price of $5500. Buchanan died on February 14, 1841, and management of the farm passed to Buchanan's widow Lucinda and his son Addison. With Lucinda's death in 1865, just as the Civil War was ending, the farm was sold to Judge Thomas N. Frazier. Born in East Tennessee in 1810, Thomas Neil Frazier became Criminal Court Judge for Rutherford and Davidson counties. During the Reconstruction Era, he was involved in one of the bitterest local controversies of the period, involving the state ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, in which Frazier found himself embroiled in a fight between radical and conservative Republicans, resulting in his impeachment in February 1867. However, with the passage of a new state Constitution, Frazier was returned to office in 1870. Frazier's son, James Beriah Frazier, born in 1856, spent his teenage years in the log house and eventually followed his father into the legal profession. In 1902, he was elected governor with the largest majority of any candidate since the Civil War. Although he won re-election for governor, he did not serve his term, as the sitting U.S. Senator, William Bate, had died, and James Frazier was elected to take his place, serving until 1911. The house remained in the Frazier family until the death of James' wife Margaret in 1910, and shortly thereafter the property was divided and sold to various individuals. The history of the Buchanan and Frazier families are representative of the enormous social, cultural and political changes in Middle Tennessee from the time of frontier settlement through the Civil War and Reconstruction. There have been numerous architectural changes to the house throughout the years, but the historic residence retains a great deal of its original character and charm. Though settlers and their families often built small log buildings themselves, the size, complexity, and workmanship of the Buchanan House indicate the presence of a professional builder and his crew. The original house was constructed on a continuous foundation of lightly-worked limestone blocks, and utilized hewn hardwood logs from the surrounding forest for the walls, including the interior dividing wall. Half-dovetail notched at the corners and built to traditional dimensions, the building had multiple windows on both floors. On each exterior end of the house was a tall, well-constructed, double-shouldered fireplace composed of roughly-hewn limestone blocks. The roof sheathing consists of un-edged, sash-sawn yellow poplar planks nailed to the rafters. Originally, the roof was covered with wooden boards or shingles, but in the mid-twentieth century, one of the owners removed the earlier roofing material and installed galvanized sheet metal panels on the entire building. As in many early buildings, there were upstairs hearths as well. The surviving east fireplace on the second floor of the Buchanan House has inscribed geometric markings on the face of the keystone in the arched lintel above the opening. These markings were possibly related to Masonic symbolism. In 1973, Barry and Virginia Greer bought the Buchanan House and spent eight years restoring it. In 1984, after the Greers completed the restoration work, they placed the Buchanan Log House on the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural and historical significance. In 1989, the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority (MNAA) made an agreement to purchase the Buchanan House as part of its plan to expand Nashville’s commercial airport, but several years later, the MNAA turned the historic house and a surrounding 1.4-acre lot over to the Association for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities (APTA) to administer for the benefit of all the state's citizens. The house is open for guided tours during the summer months for a small fee. It is also available for rental for weddings, family reunions and business meetings.

The James Buchanan House in Nashville, Tennessee (not to be confused with Wheatland, the President James Buchanan House, which is located in Lancaster, PA) is a two-story log house built around 1800. The Buchanan House may be the oldest example of this house type in Davidson County, except for the Fredrick Stump House. The structure is situated on a small knoll about seven miles east of downtown Nashville and is surrounded by chestnut rail fencing and large magnolia trees. The house was nominated for the National Register of Historic Places under criteria B and C, and was added in March, 1984. It is significant under criterion B due to its historical association with James Buchanan, a pioneer settler in Davidson County, Judge Thomas N. Frazier, an important figure in Reconstruction politics, and his son James B. Frazier, Governor of Tennessee from 1903-1905. Under criterion C, the house is significant as one of the oldest two-story log structures in Middle Tennessee. The house is open to the public. 


Museum, Mansions, & a Log Cabin - Historical Driving Tour Southeast Nashville to Donelson

Tennessee Central Railway Museum

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