Constructed on Washington Rd. in Cedar Hill, Glenraven is a 3-story Victorian style house.
Built between 1897-1902, it was owned by Jane Washington Ewing (1867-1941) and Felix Grundy Ewing (1858-1935). The two married in 1891. [Ewing was a great grandson of Tennessee politician Felix Grundy.] In 1893, Jane inherited a large 865 acre portion of the property from her father George Augustine Washington who owned Wessington plantation. Her brothers inherited portions as well: Joseph E. Washington received Wessyngton itself with land and George A. Washington, Jr. got land and built Washington Hall.
Felix was a wealthy Nashville businessman who owned plantations in the Arkansas delta. He had interests in the Cincinnati-Southern Railroad and then the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis rail line. Glenraven grew dark-fired tobacco and was a founder of Dark Tobacco Distribution Planter’s Protective Association of Kentucky and Tennessee in 1904. The Ewings attempted to form a self-sustaining economic system but failed after several years. They did have the last large scale specifically designed tobacco plantation in Tennessee. The estate had its own church, school, post office, store, mill, and tenant houses. The post office operated between 1896-1910.
The Ewings went bankrupt about 1922, and Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. foreclosed the property about 1931.
The Ewings moved to downtown Nashville and resided in the former James Robertson hotel. By 1934, the school and church buildings were dismantled, and the church organ and bell had been moved to St. Michael’s Catholic Church.
In the same year as the bankruptcy, Robert D. Moore purchased the property. He owned G.S. Moore & Son. It remains a 2,500 acre farm in the Moore family in 2019. Moore & Son is a real estate firm both offering rental properties and managing residential and commercial properties in the mid-state area. NRHP 1973 See Washington Hall, Wessyngton
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