[2][3][4] Clover Bottom Mansion occupies land on the Stones River first claimed in 1780 by John Donelson, who abandoned his homestead following an Indian attack.

[7] The mansion was built near Nashville's first horseracing track for Dr James and Mary Ann Saunders Hoggatt, who owned sixty enslaved residents in 1860.

A strong similarity to nearby Two Rivers Mansion that was being erected around the same time suggests that the same unknown contractor and/or architect was used, although no supporting records have been found.

Clover Bottom Plantation was where John McCline was held captive as a slave, in his childhood, and who escaped from the property in 1862 and became a drover for the Union Army.

McCline's autobiography "Slavery in the Clover Bottoms" provides a very rare and detailed account of the life of a Davidson County slave prior to and during the early days of the Civil War.

In an early expression of historic preservation, Price restored the home and added several substantial outbuildings, raising thoroughbred horses on the property.

An effort led by Edward Nave and fellow members of the local Association for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities helped convince the State to restore it.