Per a F.O. Beasley map listed on Nashville History Blogspot, the mansion fronted on Gallatin Rd. and sat on about 8 acres. It was a huge mansion built in Italian Renaissance style and held 18 rooms.
Lynnlawn, built between 1845 and1852 for Thomas Edward Stratton (1820-1881) and 3rd wife Sarah Mourning Morris Stratton (1828-1908) was located at 617 Gallatin Rd. between Stratton Ave. and Vaughn Ave. (now Eastland Ave.) They wed in 1844. The home was also known for its extensive greenery - magnolia, maple and pecan trees spread across the lawn and a carriageway full of althea, crepe myrtle, hydrangea, Japanese magnolia, calycanthus, japonica and syringa. Lynnlawn had an indoor bathroom with running water - perhaps the first indoor plumbing in Davidson County in the 1840s. In 1860, Thomas was a partner with Kindred Morris in Morris & Stratton Wholesale Grocers and Commission Merchants with a store on South Market Street in downtown Nashville. Stratton’s brother, Madison lived with his wife, Mary A. Snow Stratton, beside him, and his sister Jane who wed Kindred lived just south near the present East Nashville School. During the Civil War, the Federal Army commandeered the mansion for a hospital.
Stratton’s brother Madison became a well-known Nashville businessman and helped found the community of Madison north of Nashville. Madison owned Glen Echo at Spring Hill. The family resided at Lynnlawn for five generations. After the death of his mother, son Mosley Thomas Stratton (1845-1910) with wife Laura Sumner Stratton (1852-1892) moved back to the house.
The Stratton siblings sold their interest to sister Nina Stratton Foster (1875-1965) and her husband Edgar M. Foster (1870-1926) by the late 19430s. In 1940, the home was open to the public for a special Garden Pilgrimage event. One of the relatives, Edward M. Stratton, founded Merry Sounds Advertising Agency in 1976 and became the famous voice of Emma's Flowers - "The Superlative Florist."
Photo by Charles Wesley Warterfield - 1957 prior to razing
With commercial development changing the neighborhood, Lynnlawn with its 4 acres was sold to H.G. Hill Realty in 1957. Nina donated a famous 1824 Ralph E.W. Earl painting of U.S. Senator Ephraim H. Foster to the Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood. Three years later, fire damaged the vacant house in 1960, and it was torn down. The property was developed as the city grew. H.G. Hill built and ran a Hill Food Store there in the 1970s. The latest use is a Goodwill Store. The name is believed to have come from the lynn trees that originally lined the driveway. The family is remembered by Stratton Ave. See Glen Echo
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