The Ellington Agricultural Center is an agricultural center in

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 ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, US. It is home to the

Tennessee Department of Agriculture The Tennessee Department of Agriculture is a Cabinet (government), Cabinet-level agency in the government of State of Tennessee, Tennessee. Founded in 1854, it is the oldest state agency in Tennessee. The present Commissioner, Dr. Charlie Hatcher, ...

, the

Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) is an independent state agency of the state of Tennessee with the mission of managing the state's fish and wildlife and their habitats, as well as responsibility for all wildlife-related law enforcem ...

, and the Tennessee Agricultural Museum.

History

The 207 acres of land belonged to the Ewing family since the 1800s. In the 1910s, Brentwood Hall was built for Rogers Caldwell, a prominent businessman across the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

. When he was convicted of fraud, his estate was seized by the state of Tennessee and turned into this center. It was named after

Buford Ellington Earl Buford Ellington (June 27, 1907 – April 3, 1972) was an American politician who served as the 42nd governor of Tennessee from 1959 to 1963, and again from 1967 to 1971. Along with his political ally, Frank G. Clement, he helped lead a p ...

, who served as

Governor of Tennessee The governor of Tennessee is the head of government of the U.S. state of Tennessee. The governor is the only official in Tennessee state government who is directly elected by the voters of the entire state. The current governor is Bill Lee, a ...

from 1959 to 1963 and again from 1967 to 1971. The center is home to the headquarters of the

, the

, and the Tennessee Agricultural Museum. It has a long frontage along Sevenmile Creek, an

arboretum An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, man ...

, an

iris Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants *Iris (color), an ambiguous color term Iris or IRIS may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional enti ...

garden, and a hiking trail known as The Rogers Trail. It hosts the Annual Rural Life Festival, organized by the Tennessee Agricultural Museum. It also serves as a wedding venue.

References

Williamson County, Tennessee {{Tennessee-stub