Photo by Skye Marthaler
1418 Chickering Rd. Nashville, TN
Circa 1935. 2-story French Chateau home
Belleforest (Mrs. Edward B.Craig House) was built by Mary Crockett Craig (1864-1953) - about a decade after E.B. Craig passed away. Mary was the widow of Edward Burr (E.B.) Craig (1859-1925). They had married in 1882. It is one of the few pre-1955 2 story French Chateau style houses in Nashville.
Craig had a distinguished career in finance. In 1881, E.B. was assistant cashier and then cashier with People’s National Bank of Pulaski. In 1893, he was appointed as the State Treasurer of Tennessee which he held for 8 years. Afterward, he served as treasurer for the Virginia Iron, Coke and Coal Company in Briston. In 1902, he joined Volunteer State Life Insurance Company and soon was vice president and general manager. In 1913, President Grover Cleveland appointed him internal revenue collector for Middle Tennessee, and E.B. served 8 years.
Then Craig joined National Life and Accident Insurance Company about 1921 as vice president while his brother, Cornelius A. (C.A.) Craig, served as president. The company grew to be the largest insurance company in Nashville and one of the nation’s largest. Mary lived in Belleforest with her daughter, Corrine Craig Parrish (1895-1987) and husband Bert Parrish (1890-1959). After Mary died, in 1954, it was purchased by William Howard Ewing (1893-1955) and Emily Robinson Ewing. William was an assistant federal district attorney in the Woodrow Wilson administration, kept a law office in Nashville and was invested in Hoover-Mason, a phosphate company. William died the next year in 1955. Emily continued to reside at the mansion until 1991. In 1991, Ben and Katie Gambill purchased the property from the Ewing estate. Ben is one of the owners of Nashville institution Braid Electric. NRHP 2003
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