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Simmons-Herrin Home/ Brighwood/ Bright Acres: Pre-Forrest Hills

1510/20 Old Hickory BL Brentwood, TN

Circa 1846. Large 2-story Greek Revival home


Dr. Green Jones Simmons (1813-1897) purchased 190 acres of McCrory family land south of Nashville. He seems to have been married twice: Eliza A. Edminston Simmons (1822-1901(m.1854) and )Frances Taylor Simmons (1808-1852). The Simmons emigrated from Virginia. Dr. Simmons was a farmer and physician. The Simmons family owned the property about a decade. The property is on the edge of Nashville/ Brentwood line and overlooks the former valley of the Brentwood area (current Maryland Farms) between Hillsboro Rd. and Granny White Pike.


Thomas Herrin (1817-1883) and (Ruth) Elizabeth Vaughan Herrin (1823-1910) purchased the property from Dr. Simmons in 1857. They wed in 1848. He had worked on his father-in-law's land until he could purchase another farm. Elizabeth was the daughter of Johnson and Elizabeth Vaughan , a large landowner west of Hillsboro Pike with farms in Davidson and Williamson counties. The road Vaughn's Gap is named after the family and near the area of their homestead. The Herrin farm encompassed 80 acres of tillable land. Herrin was a director of the Harding Turnpike and later president of the Granny White Turnpike Co. The Herrin family owned the farm which grew to about 600 acres about a century. The Herrins had no children of their own; they took in and raised orphans from the Civil War.



Brightwood

In 1946, William Irby Bright, Jr. (1908-1962) and Grace Estelle Carr Bright (1908-1987) became owners. They wed in 1930 and had lived on 22nd Ave. South. Bright was a life insurance agent with Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Co. They named the property Brightwood. One of their sons built a home on the property.





Sources:

Historic Homes in Forest Hills-An Architectural Survey, Thomason Assoc., p. 158

Nashville: A Short History & Select Buildings, p. 261

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