While we have yet to raise all of the funds, a significant donation allowed us to begin treatment on the original Billiard Room floorcloth remnant. This rare treasure provides amazing evidence of the 1860s floor covering. The conservation work includes carefully removing the original cloth, cleaning, and paint analysis. Ultimately, this remnant will provide data for recreating the Billiard Room floorcloth.   Kelly Ciociola, a professional conservator, moved to Nashville and opened her own firm last September. Prior to that, Kelly was the conservator at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami ..read more

The Billiard Room continues to be the focus of Belmont’s restoration work. Our 1850s ceiling design is now complete. Grace Abernethy is beginning replication of the straight grain oak patterning (circa 1860), on wooden elements of the room. After major restructuring of the north end of the room occurred in 1860, a total redecoration of the room was required. Along with a new graining pattern on all wooden trim, French gilded wallpaper was installed. A reproduction of that historic wallpaper is now in hand. We’ve located a local conservator to begin preservation of our floor cloth remnant, also ..read more

When thinking of floors in old houses, most envision heavily sanded, brightly varnished boards covered with Oriental rugs. Keep dreaming, Adelicia and Joseph Acklen would have been appalled at such a thought. Bare wood floors were rarely seen in houses such as Belmont. Carpeting of elaborate patterns stretched wall to wall in most rooms. Decorative painted floors such as the marble pattern found in Belmont’s Grand Salon could also be seen. An alternative for heavy traffic areas was a floor cloth. An easily cleanable, impervious surface functioned well in certain rooms. Floor cloths were most o ..read more

Belmont Mansion is fortunate to have a talented researcher on staff. Recently, Andy Blair’s work to gain greater insight into the African American experience at Belmont has brought new information about George Acklen, an enslaved member of the Acklen household. He first caught our attention in one of the few surviving letters Adelicia wrote. This one to her brother Oliver B. Hayes states, “George left this morning, gone no one knows where unless to the camp…” This off-hand remark gave the first clue to learning more about George. We now know he worked on Union fortifications in and around Nash ..read more

Though Belmont Mansion is closed to guests, it’s ongoing care requires routine visits to ensure the safety of the structure and collections within. On the few days I have been on site in the last month, it has been impossible for me not to continue my architectural investigations. In preparation for graining all door and window frames in the first floor gallery, I have been poking and scraping uneven paint surfaces. Remember this old house still has many secrets we are waiting to uncover. In recent days my prep work revealed several locations where it was possible to reveal sections of the 185 ..read more

Veterans’ Day is an opportunity to pause and thank those who’ve served our country, both in the recent and distant past. Military service can take many forms, and for African Americans during the Civil War it’s a complicated story without simple descriptions. One such person whose service the staff at Belmont Mansion have worked to better understand was Randolph Acklen, or as he was listed on the Impressment Rolls – Randolph Acklin. Randolph was an enslaved man of Col. Joseph and Adelicia Acklen who was impressed by the Federal Army to help build fortifications around Nashville including Fort ..read more

The first formal school for girls and young women in the city was the Nashville Female Academy. Founded on July 4, 1816, a year before Adelicia Hayes' birth, her father, O.B. Hayes, did not buy shares in the Academy on that day but was one of the owners by the end of the month. In 1819, he added the role of board member to his capacity as a shareholder in the Academy that would eventually serve his children. By 819 he was father to the first of what would be four daughters. He evidently valued the education of girls as he served on the board till the end of 1826. The Nashville Female Academy ..read more

Belmont Mansion’s spaces hidden below stairs functioned as the “control center” of Adelicia’s estate. A large kitchen, food storage areas, wine cellar, as well as a probable summer dining room were all located below the principle floor. Though it was far from a dark dank basement, the lower level had full daylight as the hill falls away quickly from the rear of the residence. This staircase saw the delivery of all meals to both dining rooms on the main level. Fresh and dirty linen, along with other laundry, was also carried up and down these stairs. Any servant, whether enslaved or free, woul ..read more

Belmont Mansion has begun its next major restoration – the return of a painted floor to the Grand Salon. Joseph and Adelicia Acklen added the Grand Salon to their summer home, Belle Monte, as a statement of their place in Tennessee society, their aspirations, and, in particular, Joseph's political aspirations. They decorated it keeping with those aspirations. This year, a major element of that room is returning. When this room was completed in 1860 it enclosed an open space that existed between the u-shaped gallery which ran along the back of the house. A pattern representing black and white ..read more

Each element of the Central Parlor of Belmont Mansion contributes to the overall effect. That includes the woodwork in the room which was also in need of restoration when staff began the long process of bringing this room back to its 19th century appearance. Ron Ames from Nashville, now retired, was able to reproduce the faux rosewood graining on the baseboards for the room. A section of the original graining was exposed from which he was able to copy the graining. The addition of the dark graining adds a richness to the room. During the exploration of the room for clues we were only able to ..read more