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Just Bee

Intentional living, motherhood, + home

Belle Meade Plantation in Tennessee

August 24, 2015 |

One of my very favorite things about this season of life we’re in is the freedom Bjorn and I have to adventure together! Bjorn and I had a blast road tripping through the south back in July! Even though I did write a post on Andrew Jackson’s home, we visited a lot more than that! Today I’m sharing about our tour of Belle Meade Plantation in Tennessee. This place was definitely a favorite for us! We are fascinated with architecture and history, so touring a huge historical home is always rather incredible.

Belle Meade Plantation

Pulling up the drive. You can just barely see the mansion ahead! (The guest center is off to the right, but there’s something so striking about this sense of “driveway anticipation”!)

Since it was so fun to have my husband pop in for a brief history lesson in our post on The Hermitage, he’s here again on the blog today for a little blurb on Belle Meade’s history!

So before we proceed to more pictures, a note from the (literal 🙂 ) resident historian, Bjorn:

Belle Meade was a plantation in Tennessee. Just like many other plantations, this one had slaves. But unlike most plantations this one did not focus its efforts on cotton like the Hermitage, tobacco, or other cash crops of that nature. This plantation focused its efforts on breeding race horses. Belle Meade was created in the early 1820s along a well travelled Indian path known as the Natchez Trace trail. This put it in an excellent location for the plantation to grow early on. By the start of the Civil War the plantation had grown tremendously, and with the fall of the Confederacy came the freedom of all the slaves held in the south. Like many of the plantations, close to half of the former slave population decided to stay on as hired hands at Belle Meade. Belle Meade’s claim to fame, though, is their prized stud named Bonny Scotland. This stallion is directly related to every single horse that has run in the Kentucky Derby in the last 12 years! Yup, even American Pharaoh can trace his bloodlines back to that one horse who used to live on the plantation Belle Meade.

Pretty neat, isn’t it? I thought it was so different and interesting that Belle Meade focused on race horses! And that their prized stud is actually related to so many horses that have raced recently! Also, I should mention that Bjorn didn’t need to look up anything in order to write up this info on Belle Meade which kind of blew me away – honestly, there’s something special about a history teacher’s memory! 🙂

Belle Meade Plantation

Whenever we tour a historical house (like on our trip to Monticello), I take the photos (if indoor photography is allowed) and Bjorn takes notes! He also draws really nice, accurate little sketches of the floor plan as we walk room by room. I absolutely love this curiosity we share together when we vacation or go on outings together! It truly is important to be a lifelong learner!

Belle Meade Plantation

Walking through the silent, dimly lit carriage house. It was amazing to imagine grooms and horses filling this space with daily hustle!

Belle Meade Plantation

Around the back of the plantation house

Belle Meade Plantation

Belle Meade Plantation

Belle Meade Plantation

Heading back into the lush gardens. So much symmetry, friends! Loved it! 🙂

Belle Meade Plantation

Belle Meade Plantation

The partially-underground gardener’s shed – so so cool!

Belle Meade Plantation

Belle Meade Plantation

Belle Meade Plantation

Belle Meade Plantation

Belle Meade Plantation

the on-site dairy building

Belle Meade Plantation

the family’s original house on the property

Belle Meade Plantation

checking out the sun dial in the front

Belle Meade Plantation

the front of the plantation!

Belle Meade Plantation

Belle Meade Plantation

Belle Meade Plantation

morning mist over the fence (there are multiple horses that still live and graze at Belle Meade, which totally added to the atmosphere!)

Belle Meade Plantation

Oh, how I wish photos were permitted inside this gorgeous house! Just imagine a grand, main hall/foyer as you step in, and since symmetry was so prevalent back then, there are a couple rooms on the left and a couple rooms on the right. The lovely grand staircase curves around to the upper level at the far back of the main hallway. Even the electric lamps in the house were recalibrated to mimic the soft glow of gas lighting back then. You could just feel the history everywhere at Belle Meade: the good stories and the bad, the glory days and the difficult times. It all mingled together into a fairly magical tour.

Our guided tour actually concluded in the gift shop where they had a mini wine tasting and we ended up leaving with a couple bottles of (really good!) Belle Meade wine. (Bjorn and I mostly just like to collect bottles from trips significant to us, and these bottles have beautiful little portraits of different Belle Meade race horses on them so we decided to splurge!) People like to visit Belle Meade’s winery as well as have weddings on the property! How lovely does that sound?

Have you ever visited Belle Meade? What are your favorite historical homes to tour? We would LOVE to hear your suggestions and stories!

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Filed Under: Travel, United States | Tagged With: Belle Meade, history, horse racing, horses, mansion, plantation, road trip, summer, tennessee, the south, tour, travel

Comments

  1. Lindsay Otis says

    August 24, 2015 at 5:34 am

    Wow those pictures are beautiful and I need to ad this to places I wanna visit now!

    Linds @ Not A Mom

    • Hannah Olson says

      August 24, 2015 at 10:34 am

      Thank you, Lindsay!! Yes, it sure is a beautiful place to visit! We spent the entire morning at Belle Meade, which was wonderful!

  2. Daisy @ Simplicity Relished says

    August 24, 2015 at 11:13 am

    So cool! It’s amazing how dynamic and diverse the history of the US is.. I’d love to visit a place like this someday.

    • Hannah Olson says

      August 24, 2015 at 11:27 am

      I agree! I feel like every time we visit a historical site, we see both the bigger picture AND the little diverse details! It’s so eye-opening! 🙂

  3. Emily Rose says

    August 24, 2015 at 10:47 pm

    Beautiful photos Hannah!

    • Hannah Olson says

      August 26, 2015 at 9:52 am

      Thank you, Emily!!

  4. Chelsea says

    August 25, 2015 at 9:46 am

    SO gorgeous!

    • Hannah Olson says

      August 26, 2015 at 9:52 am

      Thanks, Chelsea! It sure was fun to visit! 🙂

  5. Brianna Palos says

    January 12, 2016 at 7:15 am

    My husband and I are taking a trip to Nashville this weekend and are hoping to see Belle Meade and The Hermitage! Are there any other sights that you would recommend?

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Welcome to Just Bee! I’m Hannah – wife to Bjorn and mama to Sophie and Soren, soaking up our life in rural Minnesota. Just Bee is my happy place – it’s where I write about intentional living, motherhood, and creating a peaceful home. I hope you feel instantly at home here and that you’re blessed by these posts.

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