Belle Meade Gun Club

The land, a small parcel of the farm's vast acreage, was donated by its owner, former Confederate General William Hicks Jackson, who enjoyed the sport of shotgun live-bird wing shooting.

The Belle Meade estate fell on hard times near the turn of the 19th century and became insolvent, leading to a dispersal sale of its assets in 1906.

In 1897, General Jackson was a man of wealth and influence in Nashville who had developed the Belle Meade Stud farm, achieving a national reputation for breeding thoroughbred horses.

[3] The land for the club was part of the 5,400 acres (8.4 sq mi) Belle Meade Plantation, which he controlled; he donated a small parcel of it in 1897 for shooting.

For a lodge, he found a structure that had been used in Nashville's Tennessee Centennial Exposition, one of nearly 100 buildings built for the six-month Expo that were never intended to be permanent.

The shooter, at a distance of 30 yards, gave a command and the box opened; a spring loaded device catapulted the birds upward where they took flight.

[10] Beginning on February 17, 1897, the gun club members started meeting on Saturday afternoons to shoot targets of both clay pigeons and live birds.

The Nashville American reported the following facts: The final day, a match with 100 live birds for each side produced the "Wing Shot Champion of the United States", with a cast-iron medal attesting the winner, Charles W. Budd, of Des Moines, Iowa.

[18] Celebrity exhibition marksman, Annie Oakley, age 39, visited the Belle Meade Gun Club on October 26, 1899, as a special guest in a shooting competition.

[19] The Harding estate (Belle Meade Plantation), despite its national recognition,[1]: 261  had increasing financial difficulties during the late 19th century.

The Nashville Golf and Country club was attracted to move out to Belle Meade, four miles west of its existing downtown location.