Best Historic Home Near Brentwood: Travellers Rest

Travellers Rest, built in 1799, is one of the only colonial-style homes you can tour in Nashville.

The Belle Meade

Plantation 

displays life from the Civil War to Victorian period. (Likewise, the Belmont Mansion.)

Andrew Jackson's Hermitage, built by Overton's contemporary and friend, focuses more on its famous owner than its simple frontier roots.

(All 3 together make for one great historical house tour!)

 

Not all the furniture is original to the home, but most of it is Tennessee-made and from the same period.

If you like Traditional Home and Country Living magazines, you will enjoy studying Travellers Rest's style.  It's one of the few historic homes I could actually live in without redecorating!

There are simple country rooms and the grand dining room, with its stunning yellow wallpaper to brighten the room at night.

During special events, tour guides wear period clothing, like this Civil War re-enactor.

Young girls in long dresses demonstrate colonial crafts outside.  A smokehouse, schoolroom, and kitchen show more about daily life.

Travellers Rest is rarely crowded, with easy parking at the end of a long gravel drive. 

Buy your tickets at the quaint little gift shop, and plan to spend at least an hour at the home and grounds.

Better yet, visit during a special event:

During Christmas, it is decorated in period fashion with natural fruits and greenery (think Williamsburg). 

Haunted candlelight tours are downright spooky at Halloween. 

And the Civil War encampments bring life to an important stop along the Franklin Pike.

Here is a complete list of Travellers Rest events, including Civil War encampments with artillery.