Glen Leven Farm

Glen Leven is located approximately four miles south of Downtown Nashville and remains a working farm owned by the Land Trust for Tennessee. The land that comprises the home and farm was part of a 640 acre land grant awarded to Thomas Thompson. Thompson was one of Nashville's earliest settlers and was a signer of the Cumberland Compact. His first dwelling was a block house, and then a log cabin. Following his father's death Thompson's son John purchased an additional 950 acres of land, and in 1857 he constructed the present home. The home was constructed in the popular Greek Revival architectural style. The brick used in the home's construction was manufactured by Thompson family slaves. During the Battle of Nashville Glen Leven served as a field hospital for Union soldiers. The home and farm also served as the dividing line between Union and Confederate lines, with Thompson providing supplies to both sides. Glen Leven is considered by historians to be the best preserved Battle of Nashville site. According to Thompson family lore, John Thompson's wife Mary was standing in the gardens behind the house when a Union soldier came riding in. The soldier began to yell orders at her, but she ignored him. He then pulled his pistol and fired it at her. She refused to move and luckily the bullet missed. Following the war Mary Thompson devoted much attention to restoring Glen Leven's gardens. She had unique species of flowers and trees shipped in from all over the world, with Holland being where most of these plants came from. It took many years to reconstruct the gardens from what they had been before due to soldiers on both sides walking through them. The farm continued on as one of the state's major producers of wheat cotton, tobacco, cattle hogs, chickens, and various types of fruits and vegetables. When John Thompson's son John Thompson Jr, inherited Glen Leven he raised shorthorn cattle and horses. John Jr would go on to become a state senator and Tennessee's commissioner of Agriculture. When John Thompson Jr passed in 1919 the farm was divided between his five children. Three of those five children lived at Glen Leven until 1968. In 1968 the farm and home were sold out of the family to record producer Shelby Singleton. In 1971 Susan West, the great-great-great granddaughter of original settler Thomas Thompson, bought the home and farm back. West and her husband lived at Glen Leven until her death in 2006. From 2006 to 2012 the home and farm sat in a dilapidated state. Since West had put a stipulation in her will that the home and farm were to be left to the Land Trust for Tennessee, Glen Leven now has a Permanent Conservation Easement. In 2008 Glen Leven was nominated and subsequently accepted into the National Register of Historic Places. Today the home has been restored and is used for a variety of historical and agri-tourism purposes. Glen Leven and its surrounding sixty-five acres remains how it began, as a working farm. Glen Leven is a wonderful example of historic preservation at its finest. At Moore Historical Consulting my #1 priority is historic preservation. Do you own a historic home, commercial building, or farm? If so contact me today to learn more about the historic preservation strategies I offer. These include nominations to the National Register of Historic Places, nominations for a Permanent Conservation Easement, and nominations to the Century Farms program. At Moore Historical Consulting I make exploring and preserving your past fun and easy.

Be sure to come back next week for another Throwback Thursday courtesy of Moore Historical Consulting.