2930 Lebanon Rd. Nashville, TN
Circa 1858. 2.5 story Italianate mansion
Clover Bottom was built near the Stones River. John Donelson bought the property in 1780, but his family was run off the property by Indian attacks. Shortly after, Edward Bradley claimed the land. In 1797, he sold it to John Hoggatt who developed Clover Bottom Plantation into a 1,500 acres where his family lived for many years. John had built a home that was destroyed by fire in 1853. Five years later, in 1858, his son, Dr. James (Jacob) Hoggatt (1798-1863), and Mary Ann Saunders Hoggatt (1813-1887) built Clover Bottom an Italianate mansion with portions of the older structure. They wed in 1831. (Hoggatt’s first wife was Mary Jane Walker Hoggatt, 1810-1829.) Mary Ann was the granddaughter of Daniel Smith and the half-sister of Andrew Jackson Donelson and Daniel S. Donelson. Dr. Hoggatt died in 1863.
Andrew Price bought Clover Bottom in 1886 and primarily used it as a summer home. His family had sizable plantations in Louisiana. He was married to Anna Gay Price and was a 4 term Congressman from Louisiana. He developed a great horse trotting operation on 1,500 acres and had many prominent people come to breed horses. On part of the property, Nashville’s first horse racing track, Clover Bottom Course, was established where Andrew Jackson and other famous persons came to race and watch racing - it became the hub of Tennessee horse racing.
In 1919, A.F. and R.D. Stanford purchased the Clover Bottom property. (R.D. Stanford owned and resided at Belair.) A.F.’s second wife, Merle Hutcheson Stanford Davis (1907-2011) moved to Clover Bottom in 1927. In the early 1920s, Lebanon Rd. was built and split the plantation. A. F. Stanford took the east portion with the mansion and operated a dairy farm. By 1929, the Stanford brothers had begun developing the land for residential neighborhoods. In 1946 or 1948, Merle sold the property to the State of Tennessee. It was mainly utilized as the TN School for the Blind. Between about 1980 to the early 1990s, the home was abandoned. After great efforts by Edward Nave and other members of the local APTA chapter, the State of Tennessee restored it, and it has been the home of the TN Historic Commission since 1994. Patrick McIntyre is the current Exec. Dir. The name is derived from the description of the area - bottom land beside the Stones River was covered with white clover. NR 1975 See Belair
Photo by www78
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