The farm, named "Belle Meade" (beautiful meadow), grew to encompass 5,400 acres (22 km2) at its zenith and used a labor force of 136 enslaved workers.

Belle Meade Farm gained a national reputation in the latter half of the 19th century for breeding thoroughbred horse racing stock, notably a celebrated stallion, Iroquois.

In the Civil War, when the Union Army took control of Nashville, the mansion was pillaged and looted by soldiers who spent weeks quartered there; the owner was imprisoned.

The historic site is now operated as an attraction, museum, winery (non-profit), and onsite restaurant together with various outbuildings on 30 remaining acres of property.

John Harding bought a cabin and 250 acres (100 ha) near the Natchez Trace; enslaved people began to clear and develop the land.

The entrance façade featured a two-story, five-bay block constructed on a limestone foundation and flanked with symmetrical one-story wings.

Stucco was applied to cover the red bricks, and a two-story veranda was created on the central block, featuring six solid limestone pillars quarried at Belle Meade and styled in the Doric order.

The 14 feet (4.3 m) high central Entrance Hall runs the full length of the house from west to east, following the prevailing wind direction for natural cooling.

[3] On the north end of the hall, double parlors feature wood of the tulip poplar, Tennessee's state tree.

In 1907, just after being sold, the home was outfitted with an additional bathroom complete with a surrounding needlepoint shower which was believed to help circulation and those suffering from arthritis.

Today, Belle Meade's grounds cover 30 acres (120,000 m2) and have 10 outbuildings scattered throughout the estate, including the original 1790s log cabin purchased by John Harding in 1807 with the property.

In 2009, Belle Meade opened Nashville's first Winery; it features Tennessee red and white wines made from the native southern grape, the muscadine, and blackberry fruit.

[7][8] In 1807, Virginian John Harding bought Dunham's Station log cabin and 250 acres (100 ha) on the Natchez Trace, an ancient Native American path connecting their settlements in present-day Tennessee and Mississippi.

[10] William Giles Harding would marry Elizabeth McGavock of Carnton; they had two daughters who survived to adulthood named Selene and Mary.

He was sent North and imprisoned in Fort Mackinac in Michigan for six months before paying a $20,000 bond and signing the oath of allegiance to the United States before being released under house arrest at Belle Meade.

Early on December 15, 1864, Union and Confederate forces fought at the family's racetrack about a mile northeast of the Mansion [11] After the Civil War, Harding resumed his successful horse farming operations with a reduced workforce.

Harding held annual yearling sales, sometimes at Belle Meade, and on some occasions taking the horses by train to Long Island, New York.

Belle Meade had many successful thoroughbred studs, including Bonnie Scotland and Enquirer, whose bloodlines long dominated racing in America.

Jackson attracted international fame in 1886 by buying the stallion Iroquois to stand at stud; the horse was ranked in 1892 as the leading sire in the United States.

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