Travel and Adventure by Various Travel Authors

By Glenda Winders

Scarlett O'Hara didn't have anything on Adelicia Acklen, a real-life Civil War heroine whose summer home, the Belmont Mansion, in Nashville, Tenn., is now the centerpiece of Belmont University. One of the richest women in the world, Acklen married three times, outlived most of the 10 children to whom she gave birth, and traveled the world collecting the artwork and natural curiosities that would give her home cachet in the Victorian era. She kept a zoo, an aviary and a greenhouse, and gave 12-course dinner parties. Guests were required to quote literature or offer a bit of trivia at breakfast, so her library was crowded and busy.

During the Civil War, when it looked like her home would be destroyed, she moved in with her good friend Sarah Polk, widow of the former president. When the Confederate army threatened to burn nearly 3,000 bales of cotton to keep it out of Union hands, she negotiated with both sides to save it, then ran a Union blockade to sell it to the Rothschilds in London. She owned a tiara given to her by Napoleon III.

Her plantation, named for the home of Portia in "The Merchant of Venice," eventually became a library and dormitory for the university but now is open to visitors. Restored to its original state, every inch is embellished.

"Victorians had a horror of the vacuum," said Mark Brown, executive director of the museum. "No surface goes undecorated. Everything was painted, stenciled, gilded and flocked."

Rugs and painted canvas floor cloth cover the floors, window shades are hand-painted and Egyptian wallpaper recalls inspiration drawn from the opera "Aida" and the opening of the Suez Canal. A map of the United States from the period that hangs over a fireplace comprises 26 states.

A tete-a-tete room hosted informal morning visits, and a study and sitting room were maintained for evening gatherings. The family lived in the house full time during the Civil War and spent afternoons in the winter parlor, which best captured the sun. Later a grand parlor — the European equivalent of a state room — was added, along with a Venetian palazzo with the floor painted to look like marble.

Several other homes in Nashville offer tours that help piece together the city's colorful history with stories about the Civil War and the 16th state in a still-young country. The Belle Meade plantation came to prominence because the Harding and Jackson families who lived there raised thoroughbred horses — up to 250 at one time — including Bonnie Scotland, whose descendants still run in the Kentucky Derby today. This stylish Greek Revival house hosted from 800 to 1,000 people in the course of a year, most of them for business parties and dinners that resulted in the sale of horses. During the Civil War it served as a headquarters for the North. Its outbuildings — from the elaborate horse barn to the sawmill, creamery and grist mill — tell a captivating tale about plantation life in Belle Meade's heyday.

Travellers Rest was the home of John Overton, who co-founded Memphis and was the wealthiest man in the state as well as a close friend and political adviser to President Andrew Jackson. When construction on the house began in 1799, builders discovered skeletons of Mound Builders dating back to 1200, so its first name was Golgotha, later changed because Overton traveled widely and came there to rest.

In the weeks leading up to the decisive Battle of Nashville, the home was commandeered as a Confederate headquarters, and the signatures of some of the 100 officers who were quartered there remain on display in the autograph book of Mary Maxwell, John Overton Jr.'s sister-in-law who remained on the plantation when he fled after Nashville's capture by the Union Army. Today the large rooms are decked out as they would have been when the hospitable family entertained with crystal decanters in which the Overtons served the peach brandy made from their own orchard.

Jackson's home, the Hermitage, provides additional important clues to the past.

Jackson, who is called an "urbane savage, atrocious saint" in the film offered at the museum, returned here when his controversial presidency ended in 1837. Although his wife, Rachel, had died (and is entombed alongside him on the property), he maintained a household that included his son, Andrew Jr., and daughter-in-law, Sarah, who were eventually forced to sell the farm to the state but returned as tenants. Since grandson Andrew III lived there until the Ladies' Hermitage Association assumed responsibility for its care in 1893, the wallpaper and many of the artifacts in the 8,000-square-foot home are original.

Jackson's favorite room, the study that adjoined his downstairs bedroom, is maintained exactly as it was when he lived there with an upholstered reclining "invalid" chair, bookcases, bundles of newspapers and a spittoon. The decor of the bedrooms, including one where Sam Houston was an overnight guest, demonstrates how the heavy chintz of winter was replaced with mosquito netting and white dimity in the summertime. An elegant dining room table waits for the guests who were frequently welcomed here.

Before touring the homes, however, a good starting point for visitors looking to explore Nashville's history is the public library, where the Nashville Room is the repository for materials that document the city's life since its founding in 1779. One area, designated the Civil Rights Reading Room, is arranged to resemble a lunch counter since it was in Nashville that students planned and carried out sit-in demonstrations against segregation at local lunch counters in the early 1960s.

"I think of this as 'archive meets museum meets library,'" said historian Jim Havron. "We want to make the stuff of history available, to get people to think about it and ask questions."

And it works. The principles of the demonstrators are etched into the glass-topped counter: "Show yourself to be friendly and courteous," "Do not strike if abused," "Sit up straight and face the counter," among others. The walls are lined with photographs from that era and the shelves filled with books. This collection also houses videos and an ongoing oral history project.

Another must-stop for history lovers is the Tennessee State Museum, which is conveniently adjacent to the Tennessee State House. Admission is free to this eye-popping exhibition, and the 120,000-square-foot building has only enough space to display 4 percent to 6 percent of the total collection of more than 100,000 artifacts. Exhibits start in 15,000 B.C. and move forward in time to the state's centennial, including such intriguing items as furniture and papers belonging to Davy Crockett and a ticket to Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial. Interactive displays and a Living History Theater make this venue especially attractive for children — and people who thought before now that they weren't interested in history.

IF YOU GO

A good place for history-seekers to stay in Nashville is the Union Station Hotel, Nashville's Romanesque train station that first opened in 1900. In addition to being architecturally beautiful and historically significant, it is centrally located for reaching all of the places you'll want to go. www.unionstationhotelnashville.com

Check these websites for more information about the homes and museums mentioned here:

Belmont Mansion: www.belmontmansion.com

Belle Meade Plantation: www.bellemeadeplantation.com

Travellers Rest: www.travellersrestplantation.org

The Hermitage: www.thehermitage.com

Nashville Public Library: www.library.nashville.org

Tennessee State Museum: www.tnmuseum.org

Glenda Winders is a freelance travel writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS.COM.