November 2010

The moving spirit of Belmont Mansion was Adelicia Hayes Franklin Acklen Cheatham. Born on March 15, 1817, to an affluent Nashville family, Adelicia's teenage fiance' died before their marriage. At the age of twenty-two, Adelicia married Issac Franklin, a wealthy bachelor twenty-eight years older than she. The marriage produced four children, but unfortunately all died before the age of twelve. Seven years after they married, Franklin died, leaving Adelicia one of the wealthiest women in America.

In 1849 Adelicia married Joseph Acklen, a young attorney from Alabama, and they immediately began construction on Belle Monte (Belmont.) An Italianate-style villa, it was a summer home escape from the heat at her 8,400 acre Louisiana cotton plantation. The Acklens built, furnished, and landscaped one of the most elaborate antebellum homes in the South, with 36 rooms and 19,000 sq. ft. The estate contained an art gallery, conservatories, lavish gardens, aviary, lake and zoo.

In her history of St. Cecilia Congregation, The Nashville Dominicans, Sister Rose Marie Masserano writes: “How is it that a small and remote Congregation survived periods of crisis, near dissolution, and the changes brought about by the renewal of the Second Vatican Council? The answer in part at least is life within. The Sisters of the St. Cecilia Congregation have valued a simple and straightforward manner of life. Historically, they have practiced poverty. In their educational endeavors they have preferred the solid and the unpretentious. Behind such attitudes has been a Dominican prayer life and discipline. The larger answer is not within our reach. It is related to the mystery of grace and God’s goodness.” As one looks back over the one hundred and fifty year history of St. Cecilia Congregation, it is evident that God’s guiding hand has been with the community since its foundation. “He gave this community from the beginning and maintained in it,” writes Sister Rose Marie, “the deep loving desire to answer faithfully to His call.”

Today the hill sits in residential suburban Nashville, marked with a state historical marker. Steps lead up the steep incline to the crest of the heavily wooded hill. The Confederate defensive fortifications, still visible, were placed too far up the hill, allowing the Federals to climb the hill out of harm’s way. The hill, known as Compton Hill at the time of the battle, is named after Col. William Shy (CSA), who was killed there.

At the Visitors Center, the film, "The Fall of Nashville" reenacts how the Union Army captured Nashville in 1862. The river, turnpikes, and railroads had spurred the growth of the city from its beginnings. The Union Army occupied the city to control these transportation routes. Almost overnight, Nashville was transformed into the Union Army’s major supply depot for the Western Theater of the war.

Learn the story of the 2,768 people who built Negley. It was the largest of a group of forts built by the Union, and the largest inland masonry fort built during the Civil War. It was 600 feet long, 300 feet wide, and covered four acres of land. The workers lived in a contraband camp on the northeast side of the worksite, and were both free blacks and slaves who had been conscripted by the Union to serve as laborers. Between 600 and 800 died during the construction, and only 310 ever received pay.

Carnton was built in 1826 by former Nashville mayor Randal McGavock (1768-1843). Throughout the nineteenth century it was frequently visited by those shaping Tennessee and American history, including President Andrew Jackson.

With more than 30,000 books and 17,000 reels of microfilm containing 13 million pages of Baptist historical materials, the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives serves as the denominations central research facility.

Appointed by the Southern Baptist Convention, the library also has more than 71,000 annuals of Baptist associations and conventions and an environmentally controlled rare book room featuring a collection of rare Bibles dating from the early 1600s.

Since its opening in 1977, The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens has been a center for Japanese arts and culture in South Florida, with rotating exhibits in its galleries,tea ceremonies performed monthly in its Seishin-an tea house, an educational outreach program with local schools and organizations, and Japanese traditional festivals celebrated for the public several times a year.

The original building, named the Yamato-kan, is modeled to suggest a Japanese villa. It features a ring of exhibition rooms embracing an open-air courtyard with a dry garden of gravel, pebbles and small boulders. The Yamato-kan offers a permanent exhibit chronicling the history of the Yamato Colony, a Japanese farming community in South Florida 100 years ago.

The Boone County Historical Society was formally organized in 1963 and opened its first museum facility on July 3, 1976, when it formally dedicated the Maplewood house. This Italianate house was built in 1877 as part of the farmstead of the Lenoir and Nifong families, which is now known as Nifong Park. In cooperation with the City of Columbia, which owns the house and park, and other historically-minded organizations, the Boone County Historical Society restored Maplewood for the nation's bicentennial. Since that time, the Society has maintained a cooperative agreement with the City of Columbia to operate Maplewood as an historic house museum.

A variety of living history sites including a log cabin and a blacksmith shop recreate the colonial life of Iredell County.

Visitors to Heritage Farmstead events can experience life as it was lived in the early days of Iredell County. The site includes a two-story log house, one-room cabin, smoke house, corn crib, blacksmith shop, privy, hearth and kitchen garden along with an adjacent one-room schoolhouse.

The Heritage Learning Center is housed in the Old Pumphouse Station across from the Farmstead. Directly across from the Heritage Farmstead, visitors can hike the Nature Trail year round. The Nature Trail encompasses a native ridge trail, wooden boardwalk around a natural bog and what may be the last remaining wildflower site in the city. Visitors are asked to leave flowers and plants undisturbed for others to enjoy.

The N.C. Transportation Museum is located on the site of what was once Southern Railway Company's largest steam locomotive servicing facility. J.P. Morgan, Southern's owner, chose the site because of its location midway between the railroad's major terminal points of Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, GA. Construction of the Shops began in 1896, and they were named in honor of the first president of Southern Railway, Samuel Spencer.

During its peak, Spencer Shops employed nearly 3,000 people, which directly and indirectly provided most of the jobs for the towns of Spencer, East Spencer and other surrounding Rowan County communities.