233 Sixth Ave. North (former High St.) Nashville, TN
Circa 1858. Renaissance Revival style with 2 stories.
Image from Nashville Public Library Digital Collection
Cunningham Home/ Old Hermitage Club was located on the old High St in downtown Nashville. Major George W. Cunningham (1826-1895) and Ann Mary Hough Cunningham (1831-1900) built the home. He was a prosperous merchant with Fall & Cunningham - it was a wholesale general hardware firm based at 47 North College St. in downtown. The Cunninghams built their home where the Capitol Blvd Building now stands - just across from the new Nashville Public Library.
From Nashville Library Digital Collection
Just a couple years after completion, Cunningham joined the Confederate war effort and served as a Quartermaster responsible for the Atlanta region. At the outset of the Civil War, the Cunningham family abandoned the home and went south. Because of his service, the Federals confiscated his home during the war, and a series of Federal generals used it for their headquarters: William Rosencrans, Don Carlos Buell, U.S. Grant, William T. Sherman and George H. Thomas.
A couple decades after the Civil War, about 1881, Cunningham sold the property to the Hermitage Club, a social club chartered in 1881. The Club added a third floor. From the 1880s to 1934, the building hosted the Hermitage Club. The membership held debutante balls, Horse Show balls and many other social activities.
The Hermitage Club closed in 1934, and the University Club took over for a few years. By the late 1930s, the building was torn down. In 1940, the Capitol Boulevard Building was erected on the site.
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