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Rippavilla
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
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Location	Spring Hill, Tennessee
Coordinates	35°43′54″N 86°57′14″W / 35.73167°N 86.95389°W / 35.73167; -86.95389
Built	1852
Architect	F. Stratton
Architectural style	Greek Revival, Colonial Revival
NRHP reference No.	96000773
Added to NRHP	July 19, 1996

Rippavilla Plantation, also known as Meadowbrook and Nathaniel Cheairs House, is a former plantation, historic house and museum, located in Spring Hill, Tennessee. This plantation had been worked by enslaved Black people for many years. It is open to visitors as a historic house museum.

It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 19, 1996, for its architectural significance.

History

The Cheairs family were part of a 1810 land grant awarded by President James Madison. Initially the property included a 1500-acre farm. Nathaniel Frances Cheairs IV (1818–1914) resided on the property along with his wife, Susan Peters Cheairs (née McKissack; 1821–1893) until her death. Around 1840, the Cheairs family owned 46 enslaved black people and up to 75 by 1860 (Rippa Villa, Battle of Franklin Trust). Nathaniel Frances Cheairs IV served in the Confederate Army, however the Rippavilla Plantation sustained minimal damage during the American Civil War.

The plantation house was built in several phases but was extensively remodeled between 1928 and 1932. Its architectural style was antebellum Greek Revival, however modifications to the house were done in a 20th-century Colonial Revival style.

His son, William McKissack Cheairs took ownership of the home until he sold it in 1920 to John G. Whitfield, a coal tycoon from Alabama.

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
2. ^ Tennessee Historical Commission (June 10, 1996). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Rippavilla". National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Retrieved June 21, 2021. (with 39 accompanying photos)
3. Littman, Margaret (19 March 2013). Moon Tennessee. Avalon Travel. p. 231. ISBN 978-1-61238-150-3.

External links

• - official site

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• Museums in Maury County, Tennessee
• Plantation houses in Tennessee
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