The Hermitage, Home of General Andrew Jackson

by Mary C. Dorris

The log cabin located at the northeast corner of the Hermitage grounds is part of the group of log houses which comprised the original Hermitage, where General and Mrs. Jackson resided from 1804 until 1819.

The first home in which Andrew Jackson and Rachel, his wife, lived was at Poplar Grove. This tract of land was bought by Andrew Jackson from Captain John Donelson, brother of Mrs. Jackson, on April 30, 1793, for the sum of one hundred pounds. In the deed its location is described as being “on the south side of Cumberland River in Jones’ Bend ... being the lower end of a survey of 630 acres granted the said John Donelson by patent....”

When the Jacksons returned to Nashville from Natchez in the early autumn of 1791 they made their home with Mrs. Jackson’s mother, Mrs. John Donelson, who lived on the opposite side of the river from Jackson’s property in Jones’ Bend, near the present pike which leads from Nashville to Gallatin. Indian hostilities and the long absences necessitated by Andrew Jackson’s legal business in the courts of both the Cumberland and the Holston settlements, made it impossible for him to leave his bride in the home located outside of the heavily fortified portions of the settlement. Sometime between April 30, 1793, and the spring of 1794, however, a home was built at Poplar Grove and occupied. A letter of Andrew Jackson’s dated May 16, 1794, was headed “Poplar Grove.” Even then Poplar Grove was not safe, for as late as September, 1794, reports to the War Department state that five men were fired upon by the Indians.

On March 7, 1796, Andrew Jackson bought the Hunter’s Hill tract of 640 acres from John Shannon for the sum of $700. The Hunter’s Hill house was located about two miles from the present Hermitage mansion.

A little more than a month and a half after the sale of the Hunter’s Hill property, Andrew Jackson purchased the Hermitage estate. On the twenty-third of August, 1804, he paid Nathaniel Hays $3,400 for the 425-acre tract, “with its appurtenances,” which was to become “The Hermitage.” This reference to appurtenances supports the statement made in later years by Mrs. James K. Polk, wife of the eleventh President of the United States, that the Hermitage of the log cabin period “was not the commodious country house so familiar to devout Democrats in pilgrimages of later years. It was a group of log houses in close proximity to each other. The principal one had been built for a block-house in the days of Indian alarms, afterwards used as a store and, about 1804, converted into a dwelling. It, like all block-houses, was two stories high. Near it were three smaller houses, one story high, with low attics. These were used as lodgings for members of the family or guests.”

Aaron Burr was entertained in these log buildings when he made his famous visits to the Hermitage in 1805 and 1806, and it was to this humble home that General Jackson returned after the Battle of New Orleans (January 8, 1815), which had made him the Conquering Hero and idol of the nation.

Sometime during 1818 the site of the brick mansion was selected and the square house which forms the central portion of the present building was erected. Diligent research by the leading Jackson students of the nation has failed to reveal the exact date or details of the construction of this building. It is generally agreed, however, that it was completed in 1819 and was occupied when President Monroe was a guest at the Hermitage in June, 1819. The Marquis de Lafayette was entertained in this building in 1825, and many other celebrities knew its hospitality. The simple, but commodious home was the center of the 1828 campaign which resulted in electing Andrew Jackson to the presidency of the United States.

In 1831 wings and other improvements were added to the square brick building which had been erected in 1818-1819. At this time the present kitchen and smoke-house were built and the tomb in the garden was erected. Three years later—October 13, 1834—fire destroyed much of the interior and the roof of the building. The present dining-room wing, the kitchen, and out-houses were not burned, however. With the exception of a few large pieces on the second floor, all of the furniture, as well as General Jackson’s valuable papers, clothing, and gifts received after the victory at New Orleans, were saved.

With the rebuilding the gabled roofs on the wings and central portions of the building were changed to their present appearance and the ten rather unattractive columns of the 1831 building gave place to the present stately ones. The interior was also improved. The mansion, as it stands today, was repaired and ready for occupancy by May, 1835. The walls, being sturdily built in the beginning, withstood the fire, making it necessary for only the woodwork and the interiors to be rebuilt.