Belmont Mansion

Tennessee · United States · School

Adelicia Acklen buried six of her children and two husbands before selling Belmont in 1887. The Italian villa she built is now the heart of a Nashvill

Belmont Mansion stands at the centre of Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, built in 1849 in the style of an Italian villa and set in elaborate gardens. The woman behind it was Adelicia Hayes, and her losses are the reason anyone tells ghost stories about the house.

Her first marriage, to a wealthy businessman, lasted seven years, and all four of their children were dead before the age of eleven. Her second marriage produced Belmont itself. She opened the grounds to the people of Nashville, who had no public park of their own at the time. Her second husband died during the Civil War. Their twin daughters died of scarlet fever. She married for a third time at Belmont, then sold the estate in 1887 and moved to Washington, where she died later that same year. Her body was brought back to Nashville for burial.

The mansion is preserved and open, which means the accounts come from staff, students and visitors moving through rooms that were built for a family which no longer existed by the time it was finished.

FAQ

Where is Belmont Mansion located?

Belmont Mansion is in Tennessee, United States.

Image: w_lemay / CC BY-SA 2.0 via flickr