2118 West End Ave. Nashville, TN
Circa 1910. 2-story squared buff-colored mansion
Christopher T. "C.T." Cheek (1842-1915) and Ann Valeria Leslie Cheek (1850-1931) built home. Both the Cheeks were Kentucky natives. Ann was the daughter of Gov. P. H. Leslie of Kentucky. Cheek was a successful wholesale grocer and owned C. T. Cheek & Sons. The Cheek family developed and marketed a premium coffee which was named Maxwell House coffee. The home was built facing West End Ave. between Louise Ave. and 21st Ave. North. C. T. was able to enjoy his home for a few years.
After C.T. died, at some point Ann moved to the Richland Apartments. Their son Leslie Cheek had lived nearby at 2304 West End Ave. Later, Leslie constructed Cheekwood much further west and on the periphery of the old Belle Meade Plantation and the new development of Belle Meade and the new Percy Warner Park.
Eleven years after construction, in 1921, the Cheek family sold the home to the State of Tennessee, and the State used it for the second Tennessee Governor's Mansion. The next seven governors resided at the home: Alf Taylor, Austin Peay, Henry Horton, Hill McAllister, Gordon Browning, Prentice Cooper, and Jim McCord. The residence was discontinued in 1948 in part because the building needed substantial repairs and because the area had become commercialized.
By the 1970s, the structure was used for business offices.
In 1979, James E.Rice purchased the building and torn it down. A Popeye's Chicken restaurant franchise was constructed.
By the 1990s, the area was cleared out, and Caterpillar Financial Service Corp. built a large office building with its headquarters on the site - where it remains in 2024.
C. T. and Ann were part of the extensive Cheek family in Nashville: Cheekwood, Oak Hill, Overton Hall/ Crieve Hall, Sherwood Forest, Braeburn, Westwood, Dr. Frank J. Runyon Home
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