Coffee and Cheeks in Nashville

Cheekwood Estate

I’m not a coffee drinker, but I have certainly heard of Maxwell House Coffee. What I didn’t know is that it got its name from a hotel in Nashville. The Maxwell House Hotel opened in 1869 in downtown Nashville (right across the street from the Downtown Presbyterian Church) and was the largest hotel in the city. In its heyday it hosted all sorts of celebrities and politicians including seven U.S. Presidents, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, “Buffalo Bill,” Sarah Bernhardt, and Cornelius Vanderbilt. 

 The Maxwell House Hotel in 1925. (Destroyed by fire in 1961.)

In 1907 Theodore Roosevelt was at the hotel enjoying the house blend of coffee. The story goes that when he was asked if he would like another cup he responded, “Delighted. It’s good to the last drop!” The coffee was created by local entrepreneur Joel Cheek who had had his own coffee business since 1882. He named the coffee after the hotel and adopted Roosevelt’s description as his advertising slogan. It became the best selling coffee brand in the U.S. until the 1980’s. Cheek sold the business to General Foods in 1928 for $45 million.

Leslie Cheek (President of the family’s wholesale grocery firm) had invested in his cousin’s coffee company and used some of his windfall to buy 100 acres of land and build a country estate for himself and his wife Mabel. They hired New York residential and landscape architect, Bryant Fleming, to build it. He and the Cheeks traveled to England to decide on what sort of house, garden, and antiques they would use. They came back with four railroad freight cars full of furniture, doors, door frames, handrails, iron work, mantels, wall panels, molding, chandeliers, tapestries, and statuary. The result was Cheekwood (the name is a combination of Cheek and Mabel’s maiden name, Wood), a limestone mansion with extensive formal gardens inspired by the grand English houses of the 18th century. It was completed in 1932.

In the 1950’s the Cheeks’ daughter gave the estate to the city for use as a botanical garden and art museum. It opened to the public in 1960.  I love this place and continue to visit year after year. Cheekwood is a historic home, art museum, botanical garden, arboretum, and sculpture garden all in one! You can easily spend an entire, very enjoyable, day here.

You can take a self-guided tour of the mansion (guided tours are also available most weekends). 

Tromp l’oeil paintings in the main floor hallway

Dining room

Marble table in the loggia

Loggia

Modern chandelier in the stairway rotunda

Part of the staircase is from Queen Charlotte's Kew Palace.

Drawing room and Worcester gallery

Fireplace mantel in the drawing room

The upper floor of the mansion contains galleries for changing art exhibits (including rotating exhibits from the permanent collection). When I visited last month, the galleries contained the indoor portion of Steve Tobin's "Southern Roots." Along with the outdoor portion (ends Sept. 4, 2016), the exhibition is spectacular! 

In addition to the permanent sculpture trail, the grounds of Cheekwood often host changing exhibits such as the outdoor portion of Southern Roots and the upcoming International Playhouses. There are regularly scheduled guided tours of the gardens and art exhibits on weekends. 

The original formal gardens around the mansion include the reflecting pool and wisteria arbor. I have some beautiful photos of my kids beside the reflecting pool (and many other spots in these gardens) when they were younger. It's a great place to take kids of all ages, and you can bring your own picnic.

The 55-acre grounds incorporate several gardens: Japanese, boxwood, wildflower, water, perennial, and herb.  

The Carell Woodland Sculpture Trail starts at the mansion and winds over a mile through the forest (it's all in the shade on hot summer days). It features contemporary sculpture by internationally recognized artists. I have many favorites on this trail (and Cheekwood has continued to add to it over the years), but a stand out is the Blue Pesher by contemporary light artist James Turrell; it is so different from most “sculpture.” It is one of his Skyspace works, which is a “specifically proportioned chamber with an aperture in the ceiling open to the sky.” “‘Pesher’ is an ancient Hebrew word meaning, ‘to comment upon.’ In this room, discover a commentary on the heavens.” It's a cool place to sit and rest, and there is a nice echo in the concrete structure! (I would love to see Turrell's monumental Roden Crater project in Arizona.)

Another of my favorites is Glass Bridge by Siah Armajani. “More than 500 years ago the great glassblowers of Murano, Italy, tried to build a glass bridge over the Grand Canal in Venice. Sadly, the sparkling gem collapsed into the lagoon, not to be recreated - until now.”

Girdled Figure by Tom Czarnopys. You can easily miss this one if you’re not paying attention; it looks like a real tree.

Steeple Dance, Frank Morbillo 

Untitled by Ulrich Rückreim

Turtle by Frank Fleming

Crawling Lady Hare by Sophie Ryder

Tree Poem by John Scott

Also on the grounds are the Frist Learning Center, the Pineapple Room Restaurant and gift shop, and the Botanic Hall/Visitor Services. It's been many years since I've eaten in the restaurant, but my kids always had to stop in the gift shop.

The Frist Learning Center
It incorporates the estate's original stables and carriage house.

Botanic Hall/Visitor Services

Bonus - The Cheek family's pet cemetery is right beside the mansion. The burials date back to 1937 and the pets have great names such as Aristotle, Daniel the Spaniel, and Hulda's Hero.

Cheekwood participates in both the American Horticultural Society reciprocal program and the Southeastern Museum Reciprocal Membership Program. So, if you have memberships with either of those you get in free! (This includes Huntsville Botanical Garden and Huntsville Art Museum memberships.)