The Hermitage is Andrew Jackson’s estate and worth seeing, but don’t go on a hot, busy summer day. Seriously. Don’t.
| President | Andrew Jackson |
| Location | Hermitage, TN (basically in Nashville) |
| Operated By | The Andrew Jackson Foundation |
| When Visited | August 20, 2017 |
| Who With | My father and my brother, Chris |
| Presidential Significance | Andrew Jackson’s estate, where he lived both before and after his presidency. He died in the mansion and is buried on the grounds. |
| Pre-Visit Reading | American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham |
| Website | https://thehermitage.com |
Picture it: August, 2017. The United States has eclipse fever. While a partial eclipse can be seen from almost the entire US on August 20, a total eclipse can only be seen within the “path of totality,” a 70-mile strip crossing the continental US diagonally from Oregon to South Carolina. Since it’s the largest US city in the path, a whole lot of people flock to Nashville. Since the eclipse is on a Monday, a whole lot of those people come early and made a long weekend of it. And a whole lot of those people decide to visit the Hermitage the day before the eclipse. One of them is me. This is a poor decision.
As 2017 stretched into the summer, I was a little wishy-washy about whether or not I was going to travel for the eclipse or just catch what I could from Florida. Then, one day a few weeks out, I just decided I was going. I stopped by my parents’ house and announced I was going to go to Nashville for the eclipse and wanted to know if anyone wanted to go with me. My father said he already made plans to take my brother to Georgia. “Why Nashville?” he asked. Duh…there are two dead Presidents there. My father, probably realizing the futility of convincing me to go with them to their dead president-less original destination, altered their plans. And so on Saturday, August 19, the three of us packed into my car and headed to Nashville.
Our plan for August 20, was, first and foremost, to visit dead presidents (Polk was the other one), and secondly, to scout possible locations for taking in the eclipse the next day. My father wanted to view the eclipse at a public place with other people to share the experience with. First we stopped at a civil war battle field by our hotel, and then a state park that was right in the middle of the path, allowing for the longest stretch of total eclipse. As we looked, one thing became apparent: total eclipses didn’t come to Nashville every day, and no one knew what to expect. Not how many people would show up, how early to get there to guarantee you’ll get in, what traffic was going to be like…nothing. We ended up deciding against the second two places.
Third stop was the Hermitage! This was Andrew Jackson’s estate both before and after his presidency. When we were directed to park in the already-pretty-full “overflow” parking area (a field), I should have known we were in trouble.
The Hermitage was one of the places we were considering for our eclipse viewing location. This lasted until about two minutes after we got there. Well, we maybe didn’t firmly decided until after, but it was pretty clear from the start which way it was leaning. We knew coming it that only people who purchased the sold-out VIP package were guaranteed entry and a parking spot for the viewing eclipse, and remaining space was first-come, first-serve. Talking to the folks working the parking lot there, we learned the big field was the eclipse viewing area. They suggested getting there crazy early, like while it was still dark. The eclipse wasn’t until the afternoon. So, getting up super early to drive 35 miles to the Hermitage to maybe get a change to sit in an exposed field for several hours on a hot (so very, very hot) day? That’s going to be a hard pass.
So, anyhow, finally getting to the presidential part of this post…
We walked up to the entrance of the Hermitage and stood in line for a while to get tickets. You could by tickets online ahead of time, which is something I would normally do, even if it cost a bit extra. But I couldn’t get my dad’s retired military discount online, and once you factor in the convenience fees, it would cost me $14.50 more to buy our three tickets online. I felt that avoiding the line wasn’t worth that much. On the day of though, sweating in the long line, I had second thoughts. Every now and then a staff member would encourage us by letting us know we were close to getting to the air conditioning!
When we (finally) got to the ticket booth, a very nice lady sold me the tickets (with the half-priced ticket for my dad). We chatted briefly and she asked if we had been there before (we hadn’t). She said to make sure we visited the home of Jackson’s “sl–, uh, servant” behind the main house. Oooh…nice save!
Next, we entered the gloriously air-conditioned visitor’s center. Here, we picked up our audio guides and watched an introductory video before exploring the museum exhibits. The museum portion was not extensive but was well done, even when you factor in that the exhibit about Jackson losing the popular vote in 1924 was not as up-to-date as it might have been…
One of my favorite parts of the museum was a small bit of wall where guests were encouraged to share things they had learned about Jackson during their visit. Apparently, the staff doesn’t make a habit of culling the more negative posts, or maybe was just too busy to do so that day. While many of the posts were positive or at least neutral, there were several that weren’t. Many of the negative posts (rightfully) threw shade at Jackson for his treatment of Native Americans. Still, my favorite fact shared about Jackson was that “He had TOTALLY RADICAL cool dude hair.”
The museum, and the visitor’s center in general was pretty crowded, so after a bit, we headed outside to get some air and sweat profusely (did I mention it was hot?). The grounds were pretty expansive, so it was less claustrophobic outside, but there were still people everywhere. Even if it hadn’t felt crowded (which it definitely did), it was easy to tell from the staff that this visitor volume wasn’t normal. Some were able to professionally acknowledge that it was an especially busy day, while some of them could not hide the look of panic in their eyes as they frantically shared that they had never seen this many visitors in one day.
We followed the path from the visitor’s center towards area where the mansion and graveyard were. Along the way, there were numbered posts which corresponded selections on the audio tour. At first I made an effort to listen to these, but as I moved along I cut them off earlier and earlier, and then eventually gave up. It was too freaking hot for that.
As we approached the mansion, we assessed the line. We had already been warned that the wait may be extensive due to the crowds, and I was already prepared to forego the mansion tour if necessary. While the line was long, it was mostly shaded (which was a treat on this mostly unshaded property), so we decided to give a try and leave if it wasn’t moving. Surprisingly, the line moved well enough and we only waited about 20-30 minutes. As we got towards the front of the line, we were met by a lady in period costume (which looked terribly uncomfortable in the heat), who bragged about how all the items inside were original to the home!
Whether or not the furnishings are original is a common topic that comes up during tours of any historic home, presidential or not. If you tour a historic home and the tour guide doesn’t offer up what percentage is original, then, more likely than not, someone on the tour will ask. Sometimes that person is me. While having more original furnishings is generally better, for me, I’m OK with a lower percentage as long as what’s there does a good job of helping you experience what it would be like to be in that spot during the time period depicted.
Once we got to the final part of the line, a group of us were separated from the rest of the line and allowed to sit on benches as a man in period costume gave us our final instructions and chatted us up. He saw my Boston t-shirt and asked if I was from Boston (Side note: This isn’t even the only time this has happened to me with this particular shirt. Who on earth walks around wearing a touristy t-shirt from the town they live in?). When I said I lived in Pensacola, FL, he perked up and shared some Jackson history from Pensacola. (Another side note: Out of all the presidents, Jackson’s exploits here during the war of 1812 make him the president with the most significant history in Pensacola, unless of course you want to count the time Donald Trump delighted late night comedians everywhere by introducing the world to the USA Freedom Kids at one of his Pensacola rallies.)
The big focus of our warm-up talk, however, was more bragging about how much of the furnishings were original. The man smugly derided Monticello and Mount Vernon, saying he had been to both and they were so proud, but they didn’t have nearly the level of original furnishings, so the Hermitage was clearly better. As it happened, I had actually been to both Monticello and Mount Vernon within the 10 months prior to this visit, so I was interested to see how the experience stacked up.
Eventually, our group was allowed to enter the mansion and begin the tour. And by “tour,” I mean forced single-file sprint through the mansion. It soon became clear why the long line moved at the pace it did.
The Hermitage web sites describes the mansion tour this way:
Costumed tour guides usher guests through the mansion regaling with the stories, history and lore of each of the rooms
Was that what went down? Eh…depends on how you define some of those terms. I’ll break it down.
“Costumed tour guides“ Check. There were tour guides and they were in costume. We’re good so far…
“usher guests through the mansion” Hmmm… “Usher” is probably a more positive term than I would choose myself to describe what they were doing, but OK, whatever. Close enough.
“regaling with the stories, history and lore of each of the rooms” I just don’t know about this one. As we made our way along the designated path, guides posted strategically throughout the mansion conducted their “regaling” mainly by shouting and urging us to go faster, some doing a better job of masking their frustration that others. One costumed lady regaled us with the following stories, histories, and lore: “On your right is Andrew Jackson’s bedroom, on your left is the the bedroom of Andrew Jackson Jr. and his wife. Keep Moving. (brief pause). ON YOUR RIGHT IS JACKSON’S BEDROOM, ON THE LEFT IS ANDREW JACKSON JR’S. KEEP MOVING!!!! (brief pause) JACKSONRIGHTJUNIORLEFTFORTHELOVEOFGODKEEPMOVING!!!!!!! Of course, I am exaggerating. But only slightly.
I happened to look at my watch as we entered, so as I was ejected from the back of the mansion, I looked again. Our grand tour of the two-story mansion had lasted four less than five minutes. No joke.
Furthermore, all those original furnishings? Sealed behind glass. With historic homes, you’re never supposed to touch anything but you’re usually allowed to walk through rooms, or at least step into a small roped-off area, or lean over a rope across a doorway to see the room. More rarely, a room or two may be sealed off with glass, so you basically have to view it through a door-sized window. This is the least ideal scenario because not only can you not enter the room, but it’s also very difficult to get a good view of the whole room. All of the rooms at the Hermitage were behind glass. Every. Single. One.
I can give the Hermitage the benefit of the doubt and believe that the rushed tour was the result sincere effort to allow as many visitors to see the mansion on possible on an unusually busy day. But every room being sealed off didn’t seem to be a one day thing. I get that it was protect the precious original artifacts, but you lose a lot on a tour of a home if you’re not allowed to leave the hallway. It’s like how classic Star Wars action figures in mint packaging are worth a lot more, but newer, unboxed ones are a lot more fun to play with. When protecting items significantly hinders the experience, I’d honestly rather they use reproductions or other period-specific items and seal the originals behind glass in the museum.
So, in the end, for me, the Hermitage mansion tour was actually one of my least favorite presidential home visits, ranking well below Mount Vernon and Monticello.
TO BE CONTINUED