Nashville's Belmont Mansion
Adelicia Hayes Franklin Acklen Cheatham's Nashville Home Survives
Situated on the sprawling campus of Belmont University in Nashville, the Belmont Mansion is Tennessee’s largest house museum and one of the few 19th century homes with a history centered on woman. And quite a woman, she was. Widowed twice and losing six of her 10 children, Adelecia developed a steely resolve and a business acumen that would rival any Scarlett O’Hara or Donald Trump. Her story remains an inspiration, and her storied home remains a top tourist draw for Nashville.
History of Adelecia and Belmont Mansion
Born to a prominent Nashville family in 1817, Adelecia dreamed of marrying her teenage sweetheart and was devastated when he died before their wedding date. At 22, she married Isaac Franklin, a wealthy planter 28 years her senior, and bore him four children, all of whom died before age 12. Franklin died seven years into their marriage, leaving Adelecia an enviable inheritance that included 8,800 acres of Louisiana cotton plantation land; 50,000 acres in Texas; a 2,000-acre Tennessee farm called Fairvue; stocks, bonds and 750 slaves.
Three years later, Adelecia married Alabama attorney Joseph Acklen. The couple soon began construction of Belmont, then spelled “Belle Monte,” French for “beautiful hill.” Completed in 1853, the estate was reminiscent of an Italian villa, surrounded by elaborate gardens and; a large greenhouse and conservatory; art gallery; gazebos; a bowling alley; and a zoo and bear house. Six years later, an architect hired to remodel the home enclosed the back porch to create the Grand Salon, which architectural historians consider the most elaborate domestic space in antebellum Tennessee. The 36-room home was resplendent with fine furnishings and an impressive art collection. Adelecia opened the estate to the public, as Nashville lacked a public park at the time.
The Acklens had six children. Two died of Scarlet Fever. During the Civil War, Adelecia would lose her second husband. Though Acklen’s death left Adelecia with the beautiful Belmont estate, it also left her with 2,800 bales of Acklen cotton threatened by Confederate troops. Soon, Adelecia would prove herself a force to be reckoned with. Determined to save her fortune, she traveled to Louisiana and in a legendary – and illegal – financial coup, negotiated with both the Union and the Confederacy to allow the cotton to be shipped to England and sold for $960,000 in gold, which she deposited into a British account and reclaimed after the war.
Belmont Estate Becomes a School
In 1867, Adelecia married Dr. William Cheatham, a prominent Nashville physician, in an extravagant Belmont wedding before 2,000 guests. Twenty years later, she sold Belmont to a developer and, months later, died of pneumonia in a Fifth Avenue hotel in New York City while on a shopping trip. Her body rests in the family mausoleum at Nashville’s Mount Olivet Cemetery.
In 1890, Belmont was purchased and opened as a women’s school, later merging with Nashville’s Ward Seminary. The estate changed hands again in 1951, when the Tennessee Baptist Convention redeveloped it into Belmont University. Today, the liberal arts school boasts a who’s who of graduates including recording artist Trisha Yearwood and many successful Music Row business executives.
Run by the Belmont Mansion Association, a historic preservation society, Adelecia’s mansion today welcomes more than 22,000 visitors annually. Belmont hosts dozens of weddings each year, as well as daily tea parties for children and a televised Christmas concert.
See also: Cheekwood Botanical Gardens & Art Museum and Nashville's Schermerhorn Symphony Center.
Belmont Mansion
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Adelicia Hayes Franklin Acklen Cheatham
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Grand Salon at Belmont Mansion
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Sleeping children statue at Belmont Mansion
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Adelicia Hayes Franklin Acklen Cheatham
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