The Hermitage enslaved men, women, and children, numbering nine at the plantation's purchase in 1804[4] and 110 at Jackson's death.

[6] Jackson commissioned construction of a more refined home, and the original plantation house was a two-story, Federal-style mansion built with bricks manufactured onsite.

In 1831, while Jackson was residing in the White House, he had the building remodeled in Classical style under the direction of architect David Morrison.

This led to Jackson having a architects Joseph Reiff and William C. Hume design a 13-room, Greek Revival structure, which was built upon the foundation of the former home.

The south front is the location of the main entrance and includes a central block with a five-bay, two-story structure with a portico supported by six modified Corinthian style, wooden columns with a simple entablature resting on the capitals.

One-story wings with single windows flank the mansion and extend beyond it to the front of the portico, enclosing it on three sides.

The front façade was painted a light tan, and a sand coating was added to the columns and trim to simulate the appearance of stone.

A near replica of the front portico is found on the north end of the house, although it features Doric-style columns and is capped with a pediment.

The entry hall with plank flooring painted dark is decorated with block-printed wallpaper by Joseph Dufour et Cie of Paris, depicting scenes from Telemachus' visit to the island of Calypso.

To the left of the hall are the front and back parlors, featuring crystal chandeliers and Italian marble mantels.

Decorated with a high-gloss paint to reflect as much light as possible, the fireplace features a rustic mantelpiece called the "Eighth of January".

On the second level are four bedrooms used by family members and guests, including Sam Houston, and Presidents James K. Polk and Martin Van Buren.

Laid out in the English four-square kitchen garden style, it consists of four quadrants and a circular center bedroom contained by unusually long, beveled bricks and pebbled pathways.

The large brick smokehouse at the rear of the kitchen was built in 1831 and cured 20,000 pounds (9,100 kg) of pork per year.

[13] After the Civil War, he stayed as a tenant farmer and later worked as caretaker and guide following the purchase of the estate in 1889 by the Ladies' Hermitage Association.

The site that Jackson named Hermitage was located 2 miles (3.2 km) from the Cumberland and Stones Rivers after settlers of European descent ethnically cleansed the region of Native Americans.

[18] In 1818–1819, prior to his appointment as provisional Governor of the Florida Territory, Jackson built a brick house to replace the log structure he had lived in after purchasing the land.

[19] At the peak of operations, Jackson held 161 slaves in total: 110 at the Hermitage and 51 at Halcyon plantation in Coahoma County, Mississippi.

Joseph C. Taylor wrote an account in his diary: At 2 this morning Co.'s according to previous agreement, saddled up and started for a big scout.

On each side of this mall there is a nise row of large cedar trees, which almost darken the passage as the branches meet overhead.

The inside of this heart, and also on each side of the carriage way is thickly set with pines, cedars and other shrubbery of long standing, which almost excludes the sun shining on the ground.

Over time, the organization bought back all the land that had been sold, taking ownership of the last parcel that restored the site boundaries in 2003.

An F-3 tornado crossed the property at about 4 p.m. on April 16, 1998, missing the house and grave site but toppling 1,000 trees on the estate, many that were reportedly planted by Jackson himself nearly 200 years earlier.

[citation needed] Each year, the home receives more than a quarter million visitors, making it the fourth-most-visited presidential residence in the country (after the White House, Mount Vernon, and Monticello).

[2][26][27] Based on archaeological excavations and other research, the Hermitage mounted an exhibition on slave life at the plantation in 2005.

It is installed in the Visitor Center and provides much more focus on the lives of enslaved African American families at the plantation, ranging from the domestic staff to field laborers.

[18] In 2006, the remains of 61 enslaved people who had been the legal property of Rachel Jackson's nephews were discovered near the Hermitage.

Both the constellation and "follow the drinking gourd" refer to the practice of navigating by the North Star to escape from slavery.

[36] More than 480 veterans who died there were buried in an onsite cemetery, each marked with a white, military-style gravestone and arrayed in circles around a monumental stone.