Belle Meade Mansion Field Trip - We finally got to go to Belle Meade Mansion for our Victorian Day Craft Trip. It had been scheduled twice already, but both times it was cancelled for snow. The tour was really interesting, the house is soooo big!!! We got to make several different Victorian era craft items. When we were done, we all went to the gift shop and got a couple souvenirs. Belle Meade Plantation is a 19th Century House and Museum devoted to preserving a century of heritage from frontier cabin to a working farm and world-famous nursery and stud farm. Click here to check out the official Belle Meade Plantation website. We didn't get any pics of us at the Mansion and making our crafts because our photographer didn't show up until later, when we were in the gift shop and almost ready to leave. If we can get our hands on some pics from the tour we will upload them to our site. Click on the thumbnail for the larger picture. Belle Meade Plantation In 1807 John Harding bought a 250 acre tract on Richland Creek a few miles southest of Nashville, and during the next thirty five years he built it it into a 3500 acre plantation known as Belle Meade, French for "Beautiful Meadow". On it he producted corn, barley, wheat, oats, hay and fine thoroughbred race horses. Structural evidence indicates that he began Belle Meade mansion, sometime prior to 1840. This cabin was originally built beside the Natchez Trace in the 1780s by Daniel Dunham. It was burned by the indians in 1792 and was rebuilt. It was the first structure on what later became Belle Meade Plantation, and it still stands there now. The Belle Meade Mansion The Belle Meade Stables The Belle Meade Plantation Dairy Scouts in the Gift Shop