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Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey
 2 drawings |  24 b&w photos |  43 data pages |  3 photo caption pages |  2 color transparencies |
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TITLE:
The Hermitage, West Cabin, 4580 Rachel's Lane, Hermitage, Davidson County, TN
CALL NUMBER:
HABS TENN,19-NASH.V,1A-
REPRODUCTION NUMBER:
[See Call Number]
MEDIUM:
Measured Drawing(s): 2 (24 x 36 in.)
Photo(s): 24 (5 x 7 in.)
Data Page(s): 42 plus cover page
Photo Caption Page(s): 3
Color Transparencies: 2
DATE:
Documentation compiled after 1933.
CREATOR:
Historic American Buildings Survey, creator
NOTE:
Survey number HABS TN-52-A
Unprocessed field note material exists for this structure (N377).
Building/structure dates: 1798 initial construction
National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 66000722
Significance: Andrew and Rachel Jackson's first home on The Hermitage property was a two-story structure made of horizontal log construction, later lowered to the one-story building seen today. This one-story structure is known as the West Cabin. Some time after The Hermitage Mansion was completed (1819-21), the cabin became quarters for several of the enslaved Africans working on the Jackson plantation. The West Cabin survived because of its connection to Andrew Jackson, and this association with Jackson assured its protection at The Hermitage. The cabin is also of interest as a representative of a prevalent - and disappearing - vernacular house type in East and Middle Tennessee. Moreover through its vernacular qualities, the log cabin served as the image of later-day, popular perceptions of Jackson as a frontiersman with rustic bravado and humble origins. Shortly after Jackson's Presidency, log cabins became a symbol of the republic's ideal, courageous citizen who staked a claim in the newly opened western lands across the Appalachians. In so doing, successful men such as Jackson could become yeomen, and political players, in the democratic system. As the agrarian paradigm of the founding fathers continued to feed an insatiable quest for land, effecting the phenomenon of westward migration, the mythic frontiersman and his log cabin superseded the Virginia planter in nineteenth-century politics. As a farmer and a soldier, Jackson embodied these notions of the brave frontiersmen but his dwelling was no crude shelter isolated in the woods. It was nicely finished architecturally and filled with fashionable good recognizable in New Orleans and Philadelphia. Jackson, in fact, built his log house around the same time as he launched the construction projects at Clover Bottom, including a race track, stables, stands, store, and a tavern or lodging facility. The West Cabin signifies Jackson's (and his wife's) awareness of the traditional as well as his commercial ventures.Recent dendrochronology (2001) studies date the structure to 1798-1800. As was the East Cabin, this building was made primarily of tulip poplar.
SUBJECTS:
TENNESSEE--Davidson County--Hermitage
OTHER TITLE:
The First Hermitage
COLLECTION:
Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)
REPOSITORY:
Library of Congress, Prints and Photograph Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
DIGID:
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.tn0304
CONTENTS:
Photograph caption(s):
1. East (front) elevation, with scale
2. Detail view of east elevation to show peg holes, with scale
3. North elevation, with scale
4. Perspective view of the north elevation to show window
5. Perspective view of the north elevation to show window, with scale
6. Close view of window, looking at lower left (east) corner at sill & surround, note the wood peg in SITU
7. Perspective view of the cabin, looking from the northwest; sight-line includes a portion of the east cabin
8. Detail view of the west elevation, showing north corner & its corner notching, with scale (Note: a part of the east cabin is evident in the background)
9. West elevation
10. West elevation, with scale
11. Detail view of the north end of the west elevation to illustrate window
12. Perspective view of the west elevation, looking from the southwest
13. South elevation, with scale
14. Detail view of the south elevation, highlighting the base of the chimney stack, looking frm the southwest at the foundation (note: east cabin is visible in the background)
15. Detail view of south elevation, showing the southeast corner to illustrate the corner notching
16. Interior view of the west cabin looking from the southeast corner to the northwest corner and showing the partition of the space into three rooms
17. Interior view looking from east to west showing the west wall of the south room, with scale (Note: also see a part of the west wall of the northwest room with its window of eight-over-eight double hung sash that was shown from the exterior in HABS no. TN-52-A-11)
18. Interior view of south room, looking to southwest corner, with scale to left (east) of fireplace; view includes the window in the west wall, white washed ceiling joists and log walls, and the brick fireplace & hearth
19. Detail view of fireplace and south log wall, looking in a southwesternly direction, with scale
20. Detail view of fireplace, looking north to south, with scale
21. Interior of northeast room, looking from south to north showing the north wall & its window, with scale
22. Interior of loft or attic space, looking to northwest corner
23. Interior of loft, looking toward the north gable (Note: most of flooring is gone & gate formerly placed across the entrance now lying across ceiling joists; ceilings joists are white washed but loft currently is not)
24. Interior of loft, duplicate view looking toward the north gable
25. Perspective view of the west elevation, looking from the southwest (duplicate of HABS no. TN-52-A-12)
26. Detail view of south elevation, showing the southeast corner to illustrate the corner notching (duplicate of HABS no. TN-52-A-15)
CONTROL #:
TN0304
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