Franklin Rd. at Tyne BL Nashville, TN
Circa 1887. 3-story French Chateau style home with steeple turrent
Oak Hill was built by Van Leer Kirkman (1849-1911) & Katherine “Kate” Thompson Kirkman (1864-1926). It was located on 300 acres on Franklin Rd. and Tyne BL. Van Leer and Kate married in 1886. Van Leer was the son of Hugh and Eleanora Chambers Van Leer Kirkman; Katherine was the daughter of Caswell Macon and Sarah Francis Thompson of Oxford, MS. (Van Leer’s first wife was Samuella “Sammie” Berry Kirkman (1851-1880.
The Kirkman’s daughter, Sammie, married Bruce Douglas and resided at Belle Vue on Franklin Rd.) Their wedding was the social event of the season and encompassed the society families of New York, Memphis, Nashville and Oxford.
Her father was Caswell Macon Thompson, a prosperous planter from Oxford, MS. Her grandfather was Congressman Jacob Thompson who served in the Confederate States Army and established the Confederate States intelligence agency which included planning attacks on Federal cities and officials. After the Civil War, he managed considerable holdings in Mississippi and in Oxford particularly.
The Kirkman family’s Cumberland Iron Works closed because of the Civil War. Van Leer and his sister Mary Florence shared a large estate of $500,000. Mary Florence married Union Capt. James Pierre Drouillard. They eventually bought out Van Leer’s share in the ironworks and moved to Cumberland Furnace, TN where the iron works were.
The couple was very involved with planning the Tennessee Centennial Exposition with Van Leer serving as First Vice President and Kate as President of the Women’s Board. Oak Hill operated as a crop and horse farm. Van Leer had numerous investments including being an officer of American National Bank and of Third National Bank; president of the Cumberland Park Racing Association, and president of the Hermitage Club.
After Van Leer’s death, his widow sold the home in 1923, and Kate purchased the Edwin Warner former Elmington mansion. The property was subdivided for a new neighborhood called Oak Hill Farms. In 1930, John Hancock Cheek (1890-1975) and his wife Susan Ewin Glenn Cheek (1896-1971) purchased and demolished it for their new home and kept the name Oak Hill. They rebuilt the later home in Georgian Colonial style and moved in about 1934. Dr. Tidwell in his Belle Meade Plantation book noted that the Cheek's Oak Hill construction cost nearly the same as their relative Leslie Cheek's Cheekwoode. John was the son of Joel Owsley and Minnie Ritchey Cheek. Susan was the daughter of James and Susan Glenn of Glenn-Merritt House (Clarksville). John had worked at his father’s Cheek-Neal Coffee Co. and the Farrell-Cheek Steel Co. in Ohio. He later was the owner and president of Cumberland Motor Co., the first dealership to sell Dodge vehicles.
In 1949, the Cheeks sold the house and 55 acre property to First Presbyterian Church, and they moved to a new home at 4429 Warner Place in Belle Meade. They ended up a few years later in the Renraw Apartments in 1953. The church used the property for a weekend school for children, Sunday evening youth worship and a summer day camp. Those efforts evolved into Oak Hill Country Day School (now Oak Hill School) which is a K-6 school. In 1956, a new sanctuary was built. The Cheek family is recognized through The Cheek Room.
Oak Hill was named after Kate Kirkland’s family home in Oxford, Mississippi. The large general area called Oak Hill is bounded in the north by Woodmont Blvd to the east by I-65, to the west by Granny White Pike and to the south by Old Hickory Blvd and includes a major portion of Radnor Lake State Park. Family names are remembered with Kirkman Lane, Van Leer Dr. and the Oak Hill community and Oak Hill Day School See also Belle Vue (Franklin Pike), Elmington
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