Across Lebanon Pike from The Hermitage, stands Tulip Grove. Andrew Jackson Donelson, Rachel Jackson’s nephew and President Jackson’s private secretary, hired Nashville master builders William C. Hume and Joseph Reiff to construct this Greek Revival- style mansion as the seat of his 1000 acre cotton plantation. Built from 1834 to 1836 while Donelson and his wife Emily were living at the White House, the builders modeled the two-story brick dwelling on Asher Benjamin’s pattern-books published in Boston from 1830- 1833.

The pattern book inspiration for the Tulip Grove front parlor mantle.

Just before moving from Tulip Grove, A.J. Donelson unsuccessfully ran for Vice-President.

After Andrew Donelson left, Tulip Grove passed through a series of owners. In 1914, the Buntin family purchased Tulip Grove and built additions to house modern conveniences. In the 1960s, the Buntin’s sold the farmland surrounding Tulip Grove, but sold Tulip Grove mansion and the surrounding sixty acres to the Ladies’ Hermitage Association. In 1965, the Ladies’ Hermitage Association opened a restored Tulip Grove mansion to the public. According to architectural historians, this landmark building is one of the best surviving examples of a Greek Revival-style antebellum plantation house in Tennessee. Today, Tulip Grove is no longer open for daily tours, but is available for special tours and rental events.