How it began:
Last year, my friend Cele recommended a book she thought I would enjoy. Dick promptly ordered it for me, and once I began reading, I couldn’t put it down. As a result, I ordered the other two books in the series—only to discover that I had started with the final book. No problem!
The series, A Belmont Mansion Fiction, was written by Christian author Tamera Alexander and consists of three novels. While the stories are primarily fiction, Alexander skillfully weaves in real historical events and people. Belmont Mansion does exist, and its owner, Adelicia Acklen—a character in the books—was a real person. Many of the other characters were also inspired by individuals who lived during the post–Civil War era.
While reading these books, the characters came alive for me, and in my vivid imagination, I relived this period, especially the Belmont Mansion. I knew that at our first opportunity, we must visit this place. That door opened on our return trip from Indiana, January '26. And that is the story I want to share with you. I must make a disclaimer that any incorrect information is my fault and not that of the guide or informational sources.
The mansion was built on the highest point in Nashville, overlooking the thriving city. Belmont, which is French for "beautiful mountain," was built in an Italian Villa style with classical overtones. It is now among other buildings on the Belmont University Campus.
Our guide was excellent and truly brought the antebellum period at Belmont to life. As I walked through the house, I could easily envision Adelicia moving from room to room—hosting guests and interacting with the fictional characters I had come to know.
To keep this from becoming a novel in itself, I’ll try to limit both the details and the number of photos. I do hope, however, that I share enough to spark your curiosity and inspire you to do a little research—or even visit the mansion yourself.
Adelicia was born in Nashville on March 15, 1817, one of seven children. She grew up in Nashville. Educating girls in the early 1800s was not common; however, Adelicia’s father believed in educating his three daughters, so she was enrolled at the Nashville Female Academy. Having a great intellect, she graduated at the age of 16, fluent in three languages and with all the social graces wealth could afford.
After finishing school in 1834, she became engaged to Alfonso Gibbs, a Harvard Law graduate, who planned to become a lawyer. Sadly, shortly before the wedding, Alfonso died. The picture above was to be her wedding portrait. After Alfonso's death, she returned it to the artist and had him paint her dress black.
When she was twenty-two, she married Isaac Franklin, who was 28 years older than she. He was a wealthy planter and slave trader. They lived on a 2000-acre plantation in Gallatin, TN. On the plantation, there were enslaved men, women, and children, and it was through their forced labor that the Franklins made a lot of their money.
The Franklins had six children, all of whom died in childhood.
In 1846, Isaac died of a virus while visiting one of his plantations in Louisiana. After his death, Adelicia inherited all of his property, valued at $1 million. That included all of the plantations, 750 enslaved people, and more than 50,000 acres of land in Texas. She became one of the wealthiest women in the South at the age of 29.
Three years after Franklin’s death, Adelicia married Colonel Joseph A. S. Acklen, a lawyer from Huntsville, Alabama, who signed a prenuptial contract giving his wife complete control of all her businesses, property, and assets. The couple began immediate construction of Belmont, a twenty-thousand-square-foot summer villa.
The Acklens lived a sumptuous lifestyle, traveling between Belmont in the summer and their Louisiana plantations in the winter. The couple had six children, two of whom died young. Acklen, a superb businessman and plantation manager, had tripled his wife’s fortune by 1860.
During the Civil War, the Acklens aligned with the Union in hopes of saving their mansion, and indeed that did happen, even though it was taken over by Union officers, and hundreds of soldiers dominated and destroyed the immaculate grounds. The home was left untouched.
At the end of the Civil War, the Acklens' cotton fortune in Louisiana was being threatened with financial ruin when the Confederate army threatened to burn 2,800 bales of their cotton to keep it from falling into Union possession. Colonel Acklen rushed to Louisiana to try to save the crops and died before a deal could be made. Adelicia, upon learning of her husband's death, boldly went to Louisiana and secretly negotiated with both sides to save her fortune.
She secured Confederate promises not to burn her cotton, while the Union army agreed to help her move the cotton to New Orleans. Acklen ran the Union blockade and sold her cotton to the Rothschilds of London for a reported $960,000 in gold. Three weeks after Robert E. Lee’s surrender in 1865, Acklen and her children left for a year-long European tour to retrieve the money made from this cotton sale. This became known as her "European Grand Trip," where she is said to have befriended Queen Victoria. As evidence of that, Adelicia had a huge portrait of the Queen hung at the head of the spiral staircase.
It was during this trip that she purchased many of the sculptures and art pieces that decorated the mansion, some of which now reside in the museum.
In 1867, the 50-year-old Adelicia married Dr. William Cheatham, a respected Nashville physician, who also owned and ran the Insane Asylum. He was also a landscape enthusiast. which could have contributed to the attraction. Cheatham also signed a prenuptial agreement. They were married for 20 years, spending most of their time at Belmont.
In 1886 Adelicia sold Belmont, left Nashville and Cheatham, and moved to Washington, D.C. with her three adult children. Her oldest son already resided there. Adelicia Acklen died on May 4, 1887, while on a shopping trip to New York City, of pneumonia. She is buried in Nashville.
Following her death, her children took all of the possessions they wanted from the mansion, then had a 3-day estate sale. Fortunately, these records were kept, which made it possible to retrieve many of the original items from the home when it was purchased by The Belmont Mansion Association in the 1970s. Over 190 items were donated by the widow of a descendent of Pauline, and great, great-grandson of Adelicia.
Now that we’ve covered the history, let’s head inside the beautifully restored mansion.
Upon entering the large double doors, you are greeted by one of the European statues that caught Adelicia's attention, "Ruth". This entry and statue are mentioned numerous times in Alexander's fictional writings, so I felt I had walked into a familiar space.
From here, guests would have been taken to one of the parlors, which were Adelicia's central entertaining spaces.
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| Central Parlor |
Later, after she and husband Joseph Acklen enlarged the home, which included the Grand Salon, in 1861, this large area with its open doors overlooking the estate, became the main entertaining space.
Grand Parlor
The formal dining room was exquisitely set with pieces of the original china and cut glass goblets. The 12 dining room chairs are original. To complete just twelve place settings for such a formal occasion, the Acklens needed over 300 pieces of china in a single set (they owned seven).
A large set of flatware could have consisted of over 1,000 pieces, and this is not to mention the number of glasses needed.
On the second level are the bedrooms.
The boy's section consisted of two spacious rooms, as the Acklens had three sons. Above is one of the original beds still remaining.
Adjoining the boy's rooms was Pauline's bedroom. She was their only surviving daughter. It was said that Pauline loved her dolls and wanted them on her bed. I don't know that anything in this room is original to the home or donated furniture from the period.
The Principle Bedroom would have been Adelicia and Joseph's. It is a lovely room containing several original pieces that would have been used by them.
From all accounts, Adelicia was a good friend of President Andrew Jackson, whose home, the Hermitage, is outside of Nashville. It is said that she so admired a wallpaper in his home, that she had it duplicated for her bedroom. The current wallpaper is a restoration of that paper.
Behind a decorative screen would have been their private bathroom. Although the house did have running water, it was not accessible upstairs.
The following picture is the dresser that would have been in this bedroom.
Just off this bedroom was the "Trunk Room." Adelicia would have required many trunks to accommodate her extensive wardroom. Our guide told us that it was her custom to change her attire at least once during the day - probably to dress in a more formal style for dinner.
As there were no closets in that era, trunks were required for storing as well as for traveling. We were not told where poor Joseph kept his suits.
Look closely at the floor. This was original to the house. The wooden floors were painted patterns chosen by the owners. Adelicia especially favored the marbled checkerboard design, as can be seen in the Grand Parlor.
This concludes my more extensive tour than I had planned. If you made it this far, thank you.
Adelicia was truly a woman ahead of her time—highly intelligent, driven, an independent businesswoman, and an inspiration to those around her. She endured the heartbreaking loss of seven children and two husbands, all while successfully maintaining a vast fortune and overseeing 177 acres of land.
At Belmont, she was able to retain a loyal group of servants. Because the estate was intended as a summer villa rather than a working farm, enslaved labor was limited primarily to maintaining the home.
Following the Civil War, Adelicia sold all of her plantations and land holdings in Louisiana and Texas for a substantial sum. One of those Louisiana plantations, known as Angola, was later purchased and converted into a farm-based penitentiary. The name remained, and it is now the Angola State Penitentiary.
Once again, I highly recommend Tamera Alexander’s Belmont Mansion series for your reading enjoyment.
After an overnight stay in Little Rock, AR, where we were fortunate to have lunch with our nephew, Lee, and his wife, Jacqueline.
We arrived home before dark with hearts overflowing with gratitude. Our trip was blessed by safety (3,000 miles), time spent with precious family and friends, and great experiences that we cherish. Thank you, Father, for your mercy and grace.]
Below are links to the previous "recalls" from our 2025-2026 winter trip.
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