Description: To understand Cheekwood you need to understand the Cheek family. Christopher Cheek moved to Nashville in the 1880s. He ran a wholesale grocery business. His son Leslie joined the family firm. Leslie married Mabel Wood and they had two children. It was however Leslie’s cousin Joel who made the discovery that sealed the future of the family. He developed a blend of coffee that was better than anything available at the time. It was served at the Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville and President Theodore Roosevelt is credited with saying about this coffee that "It was good to the last drop". I guess you can figure out that the Cheek family developed Maxwell House Coffee into a household word and a family fortune..
After the sale of the business to Postum the Cheeks (Leslie and Mable) purchased 100 acres in west Nashville to build their dream home. They brought in architect Bryant Fleming from New York to both design the house and the grounds. What they got was a limestone English Country home and formal gardens. The house passed to their daughter and she deeded it to Nashville. The Nashville Museum of Art gave it’s collection to the House and also the proceeds from the sale of it’s building. So what we have here now is a unique combination of Art Museum and Botanical Garden.
The House you visit on a self guided tour. Only one room has any furniture the rest is a gallery with their permanent collection and a constantly changing temporary exhibits. It really is a beautiful museum and for me it was the decorative arts that were of particular interest. They have a wonderful variety of silver and some amazing porcelain. Being Christmas time they were in the process of decorating the house and there was a large nutcracker that was just about life-size and several beautiful Christmas trees.
We had wanted to take one of the walking tours (they are headphone tours) but the woman at the desk totally discouraged us saying that we didn’t have enough time. This wasn’t really true but we didn’t want to argue with her. So we had to walk around with only our map and actually we managed quite well.
We began by watching a bride get her picture taken on the patio, it is a lovely location for photos. There are plenty of pretty gardens to wander though, you just follow the paths. We loved the wild flowers and the gazebo. There is a water garden and a boxwood garden. The trails are well marked.
There are several parking lots on the property. Getting to the house is uphill and may be difficult if you have any mobility problems.
Don’t forget to stop by the store on the way out. It is one of the nicest ones I have ever visited on an estate.
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