Existing comment:
The Hermitage: A National Historic Landmark:
After Sarah's death, the State of Tennessee believed its obligation to the Jackson family was completed. Officials began making plans for The Hermitage and decided to use the mansion as a home for poor and disabled Confederate veterans and the farm to support the home. Amy Rich Jackson rallied several prominent Nashville women, including members of the Donelson family, to organize the Ladies' Hermitage Association. In 1889, the state gave the LHA the mansion and 25 surrounding acres to operate. The remaining property became the Tennessee Confederate Soldiers Home, houses in a new dormitory style building. Andrew Jackson III and his family moved out of The Hermitage in 1892.
The LHA opened the mansion and garden to the public, although in some ways, The Hermitage had been open to the public since before Andrew Jackson's death. Visitor accounts through out [sic] the nineteenth century testify that people from all walks of life felt free to visit Jackson's home. In The Hermitage's early days as a museum, visiting the site was difficult. Located twelve miles from downtown Nashville, visitors in pre-automobile days came by buggy, railroad, and even boat. The dwindling number of Confederate veterans led the state to close The Tennessee Confederate Soldiers Home in the early 1930s and the state turned over management of the remaining 500 acres to the LHA. In 1961, the National Park Service designated The Hermitage a National Historic Landmark. Today, the LHA manages all 1000 acres of Andrew Jackson's original plantation, along with the Hermitage Church and Tulip Grove mansion.
By the 1930s, most visitors came to The Hermitage by automobile. In response, the LHA built a new entrance road, parking lot, museum, and gift shop. The Works Progress Administration helped the LHA construct several of these buildings.... The museum stood just a few yards away from the mansion. |