By Karen Middleton
ATHENS — A great way to meet neighbors in Limestone County is to join the Historical Society or pay $10 and accompany the group on one of its tours.
We did that June 12 to Gallatin, Tenn., and had as our tour guide Nathan Harsh, author of
“The Art and Mystery of Tennessee Furniture and Its Makers Through 1850.” The book is out of print and goes for a premium. Two copies offered on Amazon are priced at $546 and another on-line auction has the starting bid at $150.
The book is considered the definitive work on early Tennessee furniture because no one else has compiled such an extensive history on that subject.
Harsh, a third generation Gallatin attorney and world traveler, owns four homes in the Gallatin area, each brimming with antiques, books and art objects from around the globe.
Harsh and his wife, Jean, have eclectic tastes in art. Their ca. 1845 home contains an extensive collection of Mexican folk art, 19th century portraits, pieces by local artists and fascinating petit point “paintings” by a friend from Romania. Only upon close inspection can one tell the works are not paintings. The Harshes send the artist photos and he creates petit point representations.
A life-sized cardboard cutout of Marilyn Monroe over a subway grate with filmy white dress billowing up to her hips greets visitors at the head of one of the home’s three staircases. The Marilyn cutout is a tribute to Harsh’s wife, Jean, whose real name is Norma Jean.
In one of the bedrooms is a teakwood two-horned rhinoceros that Jean Harsh admired in a gallery on a trip to the Southwest. Her husband had it shipped as a surprise. The rhino is about half size. In the parlor stands a chainsaw-sculpted giraffe.
To catalog the objects in this house would take more column inches than The News Courier could devote in two Sundays.
The next stop on the tour was the ca. 1798 Cragfont, home of Gen. James Winchester, a brigadier general in the War of 1812 and one of the founders of Memphis. The home, built of Tennessee limestone quarried on the place, contains poplar, walnut, cherry and ash, hand hewn and cut from surrounding forests.
In the attic, the king post truss system was used with beams put together with wooden pegs.
The Cragfont banjo garden is the frequent site of mid-Tennessee weddings. The house is filled with authentic American Federal antiques, some original Winchester pieces.
The next stop was a part of Tennessee history that one can only view from the road. Wynnewood is likely the largest 19th century log structure ever built in Tennessee. It was erected in 1828, it served as a stagecoach inn and later as a mineral springs resort. Wynnewood suffered severe damage from the tornado that struck Sumner County in February 2008 and is currently closed.
A mile from Wynnewood the group stopped to watch the work of Middle Tennessee State University archeology professor Kevin Smith’s archeological dig of Castalian Springs, a 168-acre site that was a Native American village from 1100-1300 A.D. The dig has been going on since 1994, and is the third major dig since 1820. Smith said even after three digs, the site continues to give up fascinating artifacts of early Native American life.
The group also explored the site of the former Fort Bledsoe, built in 1780 by Anthony Bledsoe, who was later shot in the back by Indians. Irishman Hugh Rogan also built a log home on the site.
One more stop was Pleasant View, a stone home built in 1947 and which Harsh purchased in 1992. His grandson lives in the home on weekends, and it is filled with antiques from the Arts & Crafts period.
The group also visited Greenfield, which was built by Anthony Bledsoe for one of Harsh’s ancestors. The estate had been out of the family’s ownership since 1912, until Harsh purchased it 17 years ago. Harsh’s older son lives part time in the home.
Harsh’s younger son lives in the ca. 1848 Oakland, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The tours ended with a visit to Rose Mont in Gallatin, built by Josephus Conn Guild. The home hosted such notable guess as James K. Polk and Andrew Johnson. It was acquired by the City of Gallatin in 1993 and serves as a cultural center.
