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 For over fifty years, Travellers Rest
has been an integral part in the Nashville and middle Tennessee museum
community. Saved from demolition in 1954 by the Tennessee Society of
the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, the historic
house, built originally in 1799, was restored to interpret the early
19th century life of Judge John Overton, one of the state’s
first Supreme Court Justices, the founder of Memphis, and a close
personal friend of Andrew Jackson. Over the past half-century, the
site’s interpretive and educational mission has evolved and expanded
to include almost 1000 years of cultural development of the
mid-Cumberland Basin, from the area’s prehistoric origins as a Native
American settlement, to Nashville as an outpost on America’s first
frontier, to the Civil War and the city’s emergence as a leading
capitol of the New South. Today, Travellers Rest, a National Register
property, is recognized as a model of preservation excellence.
Since the mid-19th
century Americans have learned about the nation’s past by visiting
historic house museums. “Old houses,” like Travellers Rest, are a
staple of many family vacations, school field trips, and special
events. When The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America
in Tennessee acquired Travellers Rest in 1954, roughly 800 historic
house museum existed in the United States. Today, more than 6000 dot
the landscape.
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