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Crieve Hall History by Paul Martin Crieve Hall is a place as unique as its name. No other place on Earth shares its name. The Crieve Hall community lies nestled in the rolling hills of Middle Tennessee, about 9 miles south of downtown Nashville, about 2 miles north of Brentwood, east of the Franklin Pike. This suburban neighborhood, as we know it, was created in the mid-1950’s, subdivided from large farms and grand estates. With lovely views of the Overton Hills to the West, it is a scenic place, rich in history.
The Crieve Hall subdivision takes its name from a grand mansion that once stood atop the high ground of what is now Barrywood Drive at Brevity Lane. The owner, Mr. Herbert Farrell was a multi-millionaire steel magnate from Sandusky Ohio who came to Nashville to marry Helen Ritchie Cheek, wealthy daughter of Mr. Joel Owlsey Cheek (1852-1935). Mr.Cheek and his cousin were in the coffee business. In 1928, Mr. Cheek had sold his company and its famous brand "Maxwell House" for the staggering sum of $25 million in cash and stock to the Postum Company, later to be known as General Foods.
In 1925, the Farrells purchased Overton Hall, the estate home (and 433 acre farm ) of Jesse Maxwell Overton (1863-1922) businessman, stock breeder and civic leader and his wife, Sadie Williams Overton (1872-1963), civic and cultural leader of Nashville. Mr. Overton had built his large brick home and breeding farm in the year 1900 on a portion of his grandfather’s 3,600 acre Traveller’s Rest Plantation.
The Farrells expanded and brought extensive changes to the exterior of Overton Hall. When complete, Mr. Herbert Farrell re-named his palatial Tudor styled estate home after Crieve County, in Northern Ireland, as the green countryside reminded him of his ancestral home. To help complete the interior, Mrs. Farrell employed a full time decorator from London. Together they imported the finest furniture, paintings, tapestries, statuary, chandeliers, mantles, and entire paneled rooms from London, Paris, New York & Holland. One paneled room is said to have come from Whitehall Palace in England and cost over $50,000.
The park like acreage surrounding the mansion was transformed with formal English gardens, a long reflecting pool, glass greenhouse, and a tremendous wrought iron gate, with gold accents, imported from Ireland. The pastures had Tennessee Walking Horses for riding. A fine herd of imported Devon cattle grazed the fields. A complete dairy stood near the creek behind the house. The Crieve Hall mansion even had a nine-car garage complete with Rolls Royce automobiles.
Like the super-rich of today, the Farrell’s divided their time between two other residences: one in West Palm Beach Florida, another back in Ohio. Even so, the Farrells maintained a year round complete staff of full time: gardeners, cooks, housekeepers, farm managers, groomsmen, etc…
By the late 1940’s, Mr. Farrell had passed away and the Crieve Hall estate was put up for sale. Years passed with no buyers. Few to none could afford such opulence. By the early 1950’s, a weary Mrs. Farrell ordered: the contents of the house to be sold at auction, the land sold to developers, and the mansion completely demolished (“no stone to be left upon another”). The massive wrought iron gates were passed along to Mrs. Farrell’s cousin who had them re-erected at their home, Cheekwood, where they can be seen today.
Soon after, roads were cut, lots were sold, and a housing boom began. The Crieve Hall Elementary School was built on a 17 acre campus in 1954 on a hill across from the old mansion. By 1955, the brand new school was opened for grades 1-7 with 16 teachers. Mr. Richard F. Hill was recruited from nearby Robertson Academy to be the first principal. He served in that position until he retired in 1977.
This is just the short version of how our community got it’s name – just a part of the overall history of our area. There are several other homes ( Brentwood Hall, Abby Hall, Maxwell Hall, the Hogan house, the McAllister house, the Dillard farm, the Cochran place), institutions ( Robertson Academy, Overton High School, St. James Chapel), families ( Caldwell, Ewing, Hogan, Hill, Maxwell, Overton ), and events ( the Battle of Nashville) that all weave together into interesting stories about the place we now call home.
Do you have any personal recollections or photographs of the old Crieve Hall mansion ? If so, please share them with the author via our Forum.
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