Riverwood is a privately owned historic house located in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. At 9,200 square-feet it sits on 8 acres of its original 2,500 acres. It has been a wedding and event facility since 1997.Riverwood Mansion, History
Eleanor Graham, ''Nashville: a short history and selected buildings'', Historical Commission of Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County, 1974, pp. 18-1

/ref>Joseph Frazer Smith, ''Plantation Houses and Mansions of the Old South'', Courier Dover Publications, 1941, p. 24

/ref>

Location

The mansion is located at 1833 Welcome Lane in Nashville, Tennessee.

History

The rear wing was built in 1799 by Alexander Porter, an Ireland, Irish immigrant who came to Nashville in the mid-1790s. He originally named it Tammany Woods after his family home in Ireland. By the 1820s, he built a two-story Federal-style home a few feet away from the rear wing. In 1850, a third story was added, alongside a

Greek Revival Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

supported by six Corinthian columns. Guests included President

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before Presidency of Andrew Jackson, his presidency, he rose to fame as a general in the U.S. Army and served in both houses ...

(1767–1845) and his wife

Rachel Jackson Rachel Jackson ( ''née'' Donelson; June 15, 1767 – December 22, 1828) was the wife of Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States.

(1767-1828), who was an aunt to Alexander's son's wife. In 1859, Judge

William Frierson Cooper William Frierson Cooper (March 11, 1820 – May 7, 1909) was a lawyer, planter and politician. He was nominated to the Supreme Court of the Confederate States of America by President Jefferson Davis, but the court never sat because of the American ...

(1820–1909), a member of the

Tennessee Supreme Court The Tennessee Supreme Court is the highest court in the state of Tennessee. The Supreme Court's three buildings are seated in Nashville, Knoxville, and Jackson, Tennessee. The Court is composed of five members: a chief justice, and four justice ...

, purchased the property. He renamed it Riverwood as it was by the

Cumberland River The Cumberland River is a major waterway of the Southern United States. The U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 8, 2011 river drains almost of southern Kentucky and ...

. His brothers and their wives lived in the house with him. In the 1880s and 1890s, plumbing and electricity were added. The dining room was also extended, and the two houses were united. After his death in 1909, his brother Duncan Brown Cooper inherited the property. When Cooper died in 1922, his daughter Sarah and her husband Dr. Lucius E. Burch, a Dean of the

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM) is the graduate medical school of Vanderbilt University, a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee. The School of Medicine is primarily housed within the Eskind Biomedical Libra ...

, inherited the house. They had a son, Lucius E. Burch, Jr. Their annual Christmas Dinner was attended by the Nashville elite.

Robert Penn Warren Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 – September 15, 1989) was an American poet, novelist, literary critic and professor at Yale University. He was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern ...

spent a summer in one of their cottages during his stay at

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private university, private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provide ...

. Presidents Andrew Jackson,

James K. Polk James Knox Polk (; November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was the 11th president of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. A protégé of Andrew Jackson and a member of the Democratic Party, he was an advocate of Jacksonian democracy and ...

(1795–1849),

Franklin Pierce Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804October 8, 1869) was the 14th president of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857. A northern Democratic Party (United States), Democrat who believed that the Abolitionism in the United States, abolitio ...

(1804–1869),

Andrew Johnson Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. The 16th vice president, he assumed the presidency following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a South ...

(1808–1875),

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, serving from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms and the first Hist ...

(1837–1908),

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...

(1858–1919), and

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) served as the 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and the tenth chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930. He is the only person to have held both offices. ...

(1857–1930) and Vice President

Adlai Stevenson I Adlai Ewing Stevenson (October 23, 1835 – June 14, 1914) was an American politician and diplomat who served as the 23rd vice president of the United States from 1893 to 1897 under President Grover Cleveland. A member of the History of the Demo ...

(1835-1914) visited the house. The Burches lived in it until 1975. The property was purchased by Joe and Jackie Glynn in 1994. Over the next three years, the Glynns restored the property and opened the property to facilitate weddings and small events in 1997. In June 2015, the Glynn's sold the property to investors Debbie Sutton, Steven R Shelton, and Matt Wilson. Riverwood Mansion has been featured in multiple music videos, television shows, and magazines, most recently on the October 2015 cover of Southern Living Magazine, featuring Reese Witherspoon.

Architectural significance

It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on July 20, 1977.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Riverwood Houses in Nashville, Tennessee Greek Revival houses in Tennessee Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee National Register of Historic Places in Nashville, Tennessee