Rattle and Snap

Rattle and Snap

Rattle and Snap in 1971
Nearest city Columbia, Tennessee
Built 1845
Architectural style Greek Revival
NRHP Reference # 71000825
Significant dates
Added to NRHP November 11, 1971[1]
Designated NHL November 11, 1971[2]

Rattle and Snap is a Greek Revival mansion in Maury County, Tennessee.

It was built in 1845 by George Washington Polk (1817-1892),[3] one of the sons of Colonel William Polk and a relative of President James K. Polk. His father was a North Carolina native and Revolutionary War officer who was appointed surveyor-general of the Middle District of Tennessee in 1784. The plantation originally stood on 5,648 acres.[4]

Rattle and Snap was built with slave labor and is the largest, most extravagant mansion in Maury County.[5] The mansion is made of limestone and brick, surrounded by ten columns on the exterior, and standing two and a half stories tall.[6] George Polk and his family lived in this mansion for fifteen years.

During the American Civil War, many plantations and mansions in the South were either looted or burned by Union soldiers. Rattle and Snap survived. After the war, the Polk family went bankrupt and could not afford the land or the mansion; Rattle and Snap was sold to Joseph John Granbery in 1867. The Granberys lived in the mansion for over fifty years.[7][8]

It is said to have been given its name from the fact that the land on which it was built was won from the Governor of North Carolina in a game of chance called 'Rattle and Snap'.[9]

It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1971.[2][10]

It is located on Andrew Jackson Highway, Tennessee State Route 243, near Columbia.[9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ National Park Service (2007-01-23). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 "Rattle and Snap". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
  3. ↑ George Washington Polk on Find a Grave
  4. ↑ "Rattle & Snap Plantation | Nashville Historic Homes". Nashville Historic Homes. The Perry Property Group. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
  5. ↑ "Rattle and Snap Papers." Albert Gore Research Center.
  6. ↑ Evans, Blanche. "THE STORY OF RATTLE AND SNAP: HOW TOO MUCH MONEY SAVED THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLANTATION HOME IN THE SOUTH." The Story of Rattle and Snap. Realty Times, 2007. Web.
  7. ↑ William R Polk, Polk's Folly: An American Family History, First Anchors Book Edition (New York: Anchor Books, 2001), xxiv; digital image, William R Polk, Family Search (familysearch.org )
  8. ↑ "Rattle and Snap | Entries | Tennessee Encyclopedia". tennesseeencyclopedia.net. Retrieved 2015-10-02.
  9. 1 2 Rattle and Snap Plantation website
  10. ↑ W. Brown Morton III (August 19, 1971). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Rattle and Snap" (pdf). National Park Service. and Accompanying seven photos, exterior and interior, from 1971 (32 KB)
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rattle and Snap.


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/17/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.