The Hermitage
When Andrew Jackson died in this house in 1845,
he left it to his adopted son with instructions that if
he should need to sell it to offer it first to the state
of Tennessee. In 1856 the state bought the home
and 500 acres for $48,000. In 1889, the Ladies Hermitage Association was formed to preserve it
as a memorial to Jackson, 7th president of the
United States, and hero of the Battle of New
Orleans.

In his public life, Jackson is best known for his fight to defeat the Second Bank of the United States and for the controversial removal of the Indians from the southeastern United States to Oklahoma. The site includes the mansion and formal gardens, tombs of Jackson and his wife Rachel, original log cabins, a smokehouse, spring house, old Hermitage Church, Tulip Grove Mansion, and a visitors center. The Greek Revival mansion, built in 1819, enlarged in 1831, and rebuilt after an 1834 fire, is furnished largely with pieces owned by Jackson.

 
Tennessee State Capitol
A masterpiece of Greek Revival architecture, the Tennessee Capitol was completed in 1859 and is
one of the oldest working capitols in the United States. The architect, William Strickland of Philadelphia, died before the work was completed
and was, at his request, buried within the Capitol walls. His son Francis supervised the completion of the structure. The building is constructed of Tennessee marble and the labor of erecting it was performed by convicts and slaves. The building,

although unfinished at the time, was first occupied by the General Assembly on October 3, 1853. In 1953 the General Assembly appropriated funds for exterior renovation, and in 1957, for interior restoration. On the grounds are the tombs of President James K. Polk and his wife, Sarah Childress Polk, and statues of Alvin C. York, Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, Sam Davis, and Edward Ward Carmack.
Ryman Auditorium
Known as the “Mother Church of Country Music,” Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, designed by
architect H.C. Thompson, was originally built as a religious meeting hall and was called the Union Gospel Tabernacle. It was the realized dream of steamboat Captain Thomas Green Ryman, after his conversion at an 1885 revival preached by Sam Jones. Rev. Jones preached several revivals which raised money for the Tabernacle, one in 1890 which drew 10,000 people a day.

For that revival, the first meeting in the new but incomplete Tabernacle, a canvas was stretched across its six foot high walls to protect those gathered from inclement weather. The Ryman became the home of the Grand Ole Opry, famous country and western music show, in 1943 and served as such until March of 1974. After being closed for many years and undergoing an extensive renovation, the building was reopened in June, 1994

 
Mansker's Station &
Bowen-Campbell House
These adjoining sites illustrate the early phase of Middle Tennessee exploration and settlement. Mansker’s Station is the reconstructed 1779 frontier fort established by long hunter and explorer Kaspar Mansker. The forted station is a living history museum presenting scenes of pioneer life in the early Cumberland River settlements. William Bowen, Revolutionary War veteran and Indian fighter, brought his family here in 1785. Shortly afterwards, he built the brick house that still stands today, a two-story structure in the Federal style and one of the earliest examples of brick hall-and-parlor construction in Tennessee. The house is furnished in the

fashion of the 1790s, and interpreters dressed in period-style clothing guide visitors. The plantation grew around Bowen’s original 640-acre grant to encompass eventually 4,000 acres.
William Bowen Campbell, Mexican War leader, congressman, and governor of
Tennessee from 1851 to 1853, was born here in 1807. The house was restored and
placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977

 
Jack Daniel's Distillery
Founded in 1866, Jack Daniel’s is the oldest registered distillery in the nation, famous for its sour mash whiskey. The charcoal mellowing process has been in use here for over 100 years. Jack Daniel was born five miles from what is
now Jack Daniel Hollow in 1848. At the age of twelve he began working for Dan Call, who ran
a distillery at Louse Creek. Three years later
he became Call’s full partner, soon buying him
out and making his own whiskey.

Jack Daniel wanted the bottles square because he was known as a “square shooter.”
The charcoal mellowing process takes the “corn” taste out of the liquor and makes it
true “Tennessee Whiskey,” never called bourbon. Guided tours of the distillery begin
every 15 minutes.