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The Hermitage, a presidential and haunted home

The Indian wars were ongoing at the time of Hays’ settling, and he was soon forced to flee to East Tennessee. He returned, however, in 1798, bringing his wife Elizabeth, their three children and two African-American slaves with him to settle his farm. A two-story log farmhouse was built over the next two years near the "Gravelly Spring" and not far from neighboring Hunter’s Hill plantation owned by Andrew Jackson.

 

In 1804 Hays decided to move to Bedford County, and he sold his farm to Jackson for $3,400 on July 5 of that year. Jackson was in debt at the time, so he sold his more valuable Hunter’s Hill plantation on the Cumberland River in order to purchase the property. He then immediately hired a Nashville craftsman to deck the farmhouse’s interior with French wallpaper and painted trim, as well as men to clear the fields and build fences. Jackson and his beloved wife Rachel then moved to their new property a month later. Jackson first called his new home "Rural Retreat" but soon changed it to "Hermitage," although it is not known how that name came to be chosen.

 

Jackson first began farming cotton with nine African-American slaves, but he had increased this number to 44 by 1820 and would eventually operate the plantation with 95. As Jackson’s property increased to over 1,000 acres, he would go on to supervise the construction of many outbuildings including a distillery, dairy, carriage shelter, cotton gin and press, and slave cabins. Typically, 200 acres of the land would be dedicated to growing cotton, a cash crop, with the remainder of the land being used to produce food for the plantation as well as raising racehorses, a passion for Jackson.

 

The Jacksons continued to live in the log farmhouse, but a new Federal-style, two-story brick home was started in 1819. The eight-room mansion was ready for occupation in the winter of 1820-21, and the Jacksons soon moved in.

 

On Dec. 22, 1828, Jackson’s beloved wife Rachel died, leaving a much-saddened man to become the seventh President of the United States on March 4, 1829. While in Washington, Jackson hired Nashville architect David Morrison to dramatically enlarge the mansion and to construct a Grecian "temple & monument" for Rachel. The domed limestone tomb with a copper roof was constructed from 1831-32.

 

A chimney fire seriously damaged the Hermitage on Oct. 13, 1834 and President Jackson hired Nashville architects and master builders Joseph Reiff and William C. Hume to rebuild the mansion into a stately Greek Revival-style monument.

 

Andrew Jackson retired from the U.S. presidency in 1837, and he returned to the Hermitage, where he resided until his death on June 8, 1845. He was laid to rest two days later next to his beloved Rachel. At the time of his death, the plantation had grown to 1,050 acres and was being worked by 161 African-American slaves.

 

The Hermitage was inherited by Jackson’s adopted son Andrew Jackson Jr., and while he did make some improvements to the property, he failed to maintain its agricultural efforts. Debts forced him to begin selling off parcels of land and mortgaging the remainder. In 1856, Andrew Jackson Jr. sold what remained of the Hermitage to the state of Tennessee for $48,000. The state first proposed using the property as a school, but lack of funds allowed the Jacksons to remain there as tenants until both Andrew Jackson Jr. and his wife Sarah passed away.

 

Lack of money also meant that the property was allowed to slowly fall into disrepair, although occasional funds could be found for small repairs, such as to the Jackson tomb. In attempt to utilize the property, Tennessee politicians proposed converting it into a hospital for invalid Confederate soldiers in 1888. A public outcry ensued, and the response was to create an organization of Tennessee women who would fight to save the Hermitage.

 

In April 1889, Tennessee chartered the Ladies’ Hermitage Association (LHA), a group modeled directly upon the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union – who had purchased George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate, ultimately preserving it and opening it as a museum in 1860. Members of the LHA lobbied Tennessee politicians to turn the Hermitage mansion over to them, while allowing a Confederate Soldier’s Home to be built elsewhere on the property. On the last day of the legislative session, the proposal was approved. The Tennessee Confederate Soldiers’ Home was completed in 1892 and stood approximately one-half mile from the Hermitage mansion.

 

When the historical society first purchased this property to restore it, some of the ladies of the group decided to spend the night in the house. They brought a mattress from one of the upstairs bedrooms down to the front parlor and settled in for the night. After midnight, they were awakened by the sounds of pots, pans and dishes being thrown around the kitchen. This was followed by what sounded like heavy chains being drug across the front porch, but nothing or no one was seen when they looked out the window. Not long after that they heard the sounds of someone riding a horse up and down the stairs. A thorough check of the mansion turned up nothing, and they spent a sleepless night. They stayed the next night as well and were again treated to the spectral show. After that, the Hermitage was entrusted to a guard.

 

Other haunting activities have been reported at the Hermitage as well, including the appearance of slaves and disembodied voices, and a photo of a full-bodied apparition captured in one of the bedrooms was once featured on a local news broadcast.

 

LHA members began restoring the Hermitage and its outbuildings immediately after they took control of the property, and their work has also included purchasing original mansion furnishings and Jackson belongings, as well as working to purchase property originally owned by Andrew Jackson. The Hermitage was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960, and today the LHA manages it and 1,120 acres, which includes the entire 1,050-acre tract that Andrew Jackson owned when he died in 1845.