Belle Meade Plantation

Thoroughbred Horses

The Belle Meade Plantation's primary industry was breeding Thoroughbred horses.

This Nashville plantation played an important role in the history of Nashville, and in Tennessee history.

If you like seeing old plantations or restored historical homes you will enjoy visiting this one.



Many horses from this plantation went to the Kentucky Derby and were in the winners’ circle numerous times.

The Harding family started with 250 acres and a small log cabin.

They managed to accumulate about 5400 acres at one time. They also had the 4th largest number of slaves in Nashville.

During the Civil War part of the Battle of Nashville took place in the front yard of the mansion. You can see damage left by the bullets when you visit.

Today the Belle Meade Plantation only has 30 acres and is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The mansion has been restored to look as it did in the late 19th century.

When you visit, a tour guide will lead you through the mansion and tell you the interesting history of the plantation.

Pictures are not allowed inside the mansion, but you can take all the photos you want to outside the home.

The plantation is located at 5025 Harding Pike Nashville, TN 37205. If you turn into the property from Harding Pike you will have to cross a over a wooden bridge.

I prefer to enter from Leake Street just because the road is not as narrow and you don’t have to cross that wooded bridge. Leake Street is just one street west of the Harding Pike entrance.

The hours are:
Monday –Saturday 9:00 - 5:00
Sunday 11:00 – 5:00
The last tour starts at 4:00 p.m.

The plantation is closed on Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s day and the 3rd week of January. Visit www.bellemeadeplantation.com for more information.

I am sure you will enjoy your visit to Belle Meade Plantation.

Danny and I visited the mansion and we enjoyed the tour very much. It was also nice to just look around the property own our own.

e saw lots of different styles of carriages, slave quarters, the dairy, and smoke house with hams hanging in there.

The carriage house is almost as large as the mansion and the grounds were beautiful. The tour guide said that Belle Meade means beautiful meadow.

The original cabin was interesting too. It was one room until John Harding had to build onto to it to take care of the growing family.

While I was taking photos, the batteries in the camera went dead. I went back to the car and put in two other sets of rechargeable batteries only to find them dead. So I went to the gift shop for batteries.

Guess what? They don’t sell batteries. We had to leave the property to get batteries and come back. Fortunately it wasn’t far to the store.

And the moral is; make sure you have batteries before visiting this place.

Danny and I still enjoyed our visit even though we had to leave and return.

You may also enjoy visiting Cheekwood Botanical Gardens which is not too far from from this plantation. The mansion there is about 38000 square feet. It is huge and the gardens are beautiful.

The Hermitage is another historical mansion that is very interesting.

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