The Drouillard House is a historic house at

Cumberland Furnace, Tennessee Cumberland Furnace is an unincorporated community in Dickson County, Tennessee, United States. Cumberland Furnace is served by a U.S. Post Office, ZIP Code 37051. History General James Robertson purchased the land now known as Cumberland Furnac ...

. Built in 1868–1870 in the vicinity of Cumberland Furnace, the three-story house was a summer residence for

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

socialite Mary Florence Kirkman and her husband Captain James Pierre Drouillard. It has been listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

since December 27, 1977. It is also part of the Cumberland Furnace Historic District.

History

When established in 1795 by Gen. James Robertson, Cumberland Iron Works was the first furnace in Middle Tennessee. After a lacklustre decade, the iron works and the surrounding 640 acres were bought by Montgomery Bell for $16,000 in 1804. Bell "quickly turned Cumberland Furnace into a money-maker" and was able to sell it in 1825, together with the surrounding acres, for thrice the amount of money he had paid for it to

Anthony Wayne Van Leer Anthony Wayne Van Leer (March 3, 1783 – July 9, 1863) was an American ironmaster and owner of the Cumberland Furnace in Dickson County, Tennessee. He was a member of the influential Van Leer family, the son of Samuel Van Leer, captain in the Co ...

. Van Leer was a member of a well-known family in Chester County, Pennsylvania, where he was noted in the anti-slavery cause. One of their cabins in Pennsylvania were used as a station for the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. T ...

Most Tennessee businesses had enslaved labor, despite this, all Anthony's workforce were paid fair salaries for the time. Van Leer and partners operated the iron works for the next four decades, up until the beginning of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. He shut down the iron works and moved to

. Most of his relatives stayed in Pennsylvania. He offered his home as a Union headquarters. For a few years, the Cumberland Furnace was managed by Van Leer's son-in-low, Hugh Kirkman, husband of his daughter, Eleanora C. VanLeer. After the death of Anthony Van Leer on July 9, 1863, the furnace and the surrounding area, and 85 enslaved African Americans, were inherited by his grandchildren, Mary Florence Kirkman and her brother VanLeer Kirkman. After the war, all former slaves were kept on payroll. Florence Kirkman married Union Army Captain James Pierre Drouillard in 1864, which was considered scandalous in Nashville, as Tennessee had been occupied by Union troops since 1862. None of her friends or family attended the wedding. Captain Drouillard reopened the furnace after the war, and operated it until it was sold in 1889 to the Southern Iron Company. He and Florence lived in the town, building a large house for their use as a country retreat. Mary Florence Drouillard had their house designed after one she had seen in

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, ...

, a resort town for East Coast elite where she spent summers as a young woman while at school in New York. The Drouillard House was built in 1870. The Drouillard couple hosted lavish summer parties for guests from Nashville and New Orleans until 1886. At that time, they returned to Nashville. During the period when they lived at Cumberland Furnace, the Drouillards donated money to build a church for the community and a parish school to serve both white and black children. The St. James Episcopal Church is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Architecture

Completed in 1870, the

Italianate style The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

house is clapboard siding over frame, with a 10-foot deep veranda porch over 100 feet in length skirting the north facade. The house has two wings, and the kitchen is in the east wing. A three-story spiral staircase that goes up to an observation deck is a notable interior feature.

References

{{Reflist Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee Houses in Dickson County, Tennessee Houses completed in 1870 History of Tennessee National Register of Historic Places in Dickson County, Tennessee