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Letter From the Cheekwood Estate
Just a short bus ride from Nashville stands the Georgian-style mansion of the Cheekwood Estate in the rolling green hills of the Tennessee countryside, with spectacular views of the surrounding valleys and distant church steeples tucked into the beech and oak tree lines.
This sprawling 55-acre 1930s estate is surrounded by winding country roads, and bordered by low limestone walls that twist and weave between massive ranch-style properties and equestrian estates.
Designed by New York architect and landscape designer Bryant Fleming in the Georgian Revival style, and inspired by 18th-century English country manors, it is built from roughly hewn Tennessee limestone. The estate was built for the heirs of the Maxwell House Coffee Company, founded by Cousin Joel Cheek in 1892.
This unique coffee was first produced in Nashville and named and marketed at the city’s famous Maxwell House Hotel. It was there that President Theodore Roosevelt famously praised the blend as “good to the last drop,” which became a historic marketing slogan.
In 1928, the Postum Company (later renamed General Foods) bought the Maxwell House Coffee Company for $45 million. As for the hotel, sadly it was destroyed by a massive fire on Christmas night in 1961.
However, this fortune enabled the building of Cheekwood, the 30,000-square-foot mansion, which originally featured 36 rooms, including 11 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms. At the time it was technologically state-of-the-art, with indoor plumbing, central heating, telephone service, and two elevators.
The name Cheekwood combines the last names of its manor’s founders, Leslie Cheek and Mabel Wood. They traveled to England to source the furnishings for the house, filling four railroad boxcars with English antiquities, including 18th-century tapestried furniture, gilded mirrors, and an entire lapis lazuli fireplace surround for the dining room.
On May 31, 1960, Cheekwood Estate and Gardens officially opened the mansion’s historic period rooms, art museum, botanical gardens, arboretum, and a 1.5-mile sculpture trail to the public, plus a café with walls covered in information about the Cheek family’s connection to Maxwell House Coffee. A small, well-stocked gift shop is also in the restored stables and tack room in the First Learning Center, where daughter Huldah and husband Walter kept their prized horses, Platinum and Rosewood.
When the Wisteria is in bloom on the Arbor, it creates unforgettable views of the Reflecting Pool and the surrounding Warner Park.
In late October and November, there are large, unique pumpkin patches, very popular family places to explore. No expense has been spared to make it the perfect place to bring young children, walk to the pumpkin village along the new Marigold River pathway of more than 2,500 orange, red, and yellow blooms from the Bradford Robertson Color Garden to Arboretum Lawn, where three pumpkin houses, 100,000 colorful pumpkins, and the brilliant fall foliage create a true feeling of autumn and a picture-perfect backdrop.
Stroll along the Scarecrow Trail to discover 15 storybook-inspired creations by local artists and organizations, then pick out a pumpkin and take a piece of magic home.
On weekends, local bands play live music, so bring a blanket or chair and enjoy an ice-cold adult beverage or two.
Cheers! — The Captain