Tennessee - Hermitage and a Bonus

Our last "stop" in this part of Tennessee was Hermitage, home of our 7th president, Andrew Jackson.

We'd been here before but wanted to refresh our memories.  One memory that we had forgotten was that it gets busy and you should have a reservation in advance in order to tour the mansion.  Oops.  We arrived at the ticket counter at 11:30 and was told the earliest time available was 1:30.  We didn't want to wait 2 hours so we just purchased tickets to view the visitor's center and the grounds.

Some interesting displays in the visitor's center.

Rachel and Andrew Jackson

After Rachel died in 1828, President Johnson put a black band around his top hat where it stayed for the remaining 17 years of his life.  

There was the carriage that the President used.

And a picture of what it looked like in the President's day.

We then headed outdoors and saw the gravesite of Rachel and Andrew Jackson.

Besides members of the Jackson family, Uncle Alfred is buried there.  Alfred was the son of Betty, Andrew Jackson's enslaved cook for 50 years.  Betty inherited the job from her mother, Old Hannah.  

Alfred was born at the Hermitage and lived on the plantation longer than anyone on record.  He was responsible for maintaining the wagons and farm equipment as well as tending the horses; he may have also been a jockey racing some of Jackson's thoroughbreds.  Alfred stayed on at the Hermitage after emancipation and was a tour guide when the plantation was opened to the public.  He died in 1901 at about 98 years old.

We took a walk out to the original farmhouse where Andrew and Rachel lived.  In 1804, Andrew Jackson purchased a 425 acre tract of land that he named the Hermitage.  For the next 15 years he and his wife, Rachel, lived in a cluster of log buildings on the property before construction of the mansion was completed.   After they moved into the mansion, this was turned into slave quarters.

Alfred's cabin is the only original slave cabin existing today.

The interior of the cabin has been recreated.

Imagine our surprise when we'd finished that part of the tour and it was 2:00!  I guess we'd discounted how much there was to see.  So I checked online and saw they had available spots for 3:00.  I went back to the ticket counter to ask if we could upgrade to the tour mansion and she was happy to take care of that for us.  So we went into the cafe, had lunch, and listened to music.

The mansion is beautiful but hard to get a good photo of.  

 

A little easier to get the back and the side.

Back of the mansion from the original farmhouse area

Side of the mansion

It was time for our tour so we went up to the front.  The greeter takes her job very seriously and makes sure that only visitors with tickets were allowed proceed.  I think she was flattered to have her picture taken.

They move people in stages and when it's finally your turn, you are invited to sit at the front of the mansion for the first part of the tour.  Once you enter the mansion, no photos are allowed.  But it was lovely.

The next day we had a bonus.  A friend of mine from high school lives in the area so we pre-arranged to meet for lunch on our last day in town.

This is a local favorite and was packed!  We had a good time catching up while we waited to order our food.  What's funny is that we didn't know each other in high school but have become friends thanks to our class Facebook page.  Thanks for meeting us Victoria and John!