Here are 10 things *I* didn’t know about President Andrew Jackson and his famous home, The Hermitage, until my visit there yesterday. 1) Jackson was verrrry skinny. The man was 6’1″ and 140 pounds when elected president. (John Quincy Adams, just before him, was 5’7″ and stout; Martin Van Buren followed him at 5’6″ and also full-figured.) 2) Nobody knows why Andrew Jackson called it The Hermitage. The future president first called his new farm “Rural Retreat,” then switched to The Hermitage. His first cabin there was small and remote; possibly he was being wry? The Hermitage is about 12 miles east of Nashville — a half-day’s ride back in Jackson’s time.  5) Andrew Jackson, Jr. was not a great money manager. “Andrew Junior believed that money was for spending and enjoying, not for earning,” as the tour guide put it. After President Jackson died, Junior blew through everything his dad left him, sold The Hermitage for $50,000 — a mammoth amount in those days — and then blew through that, too. Gambling and high living, those were the problems. Eventually he and his family returned and lived at The Hermitage through the grace of the state of Tennessee. Reckless to the end, Andrew Jr. died at The Hermitage in 1865 after shooting himself in a hunting accident. 6) Andrew Jackson VI is alive and well and is a judge in Knoxville. He has a wife, two daughters and a dog, but there is no Andrew Jackson VII. 7) The Hermitage is not a national park. It’s run by the Ladies’ Hermitage Association, a non-profit group founded in the 1880s to save the house, which had fallen on hard times and was about to be turned into a home for old Confederate soldiers. If that sounds a lot like the ladies’ association that rescued Mount Vernon in the 1850s, that’s because the LHA was modeled after the Mount Vernon group. (Kudos to the Hermitage ladies, by the way, for keeping things balanced editorially. There’s plenty pro and con about Jackson on the site, including frank notes on his slavekeeping. Not that the ladies spit on Old Hickory by any means, but it could have been much more of a hagiography. The Alamo, for instance, is run by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas in the manner of a religious shrine.) 8) Jackson was a newshound. He subscribed to “15 different newspapers from all over the world,” according to our guide. Jackson saved the papers in handsome bindings, and most are still on site at The Hermitage. His study, by the way, is awesome. Alas, no photos were allowed inside the home. One last point about The Hermitage: it’s popular. As we left a little after noon, 40 history-minded citizens were waiting in line to get in. Good for them! See our complete Andrew Jackson biography » Andrew Jackson: legacies and controversies March 15, 2017, marks 250 years since Andrew Jackson's birth. The Hermitage unveiled the restored tombs of President Andrew Jackson and his wife, Rachel, on Sunday after vandals defaced the landmark in April. On April 27, members of the Andrew Jackson Foundation, which runs The Hermitage, discovered the grave of the nation's seventh president defaced with obscenities, the word “killer” and anarchist symbols in red and black spray paint. “There were a lot of emotions, but what we really felt was violated," said Howard Kittel, president and CEO of The Hermitage. “The overwhelming response via social media, our guests and people who took it upon themselves to contact was disbelief, sadness and anger that someone would do this to a president’s grave.” Related: After Andrew Jackson's grave was vandalized, crews are trying to restore it Related: Andrew Jackson's Hermitage tomb vandalized with profanities, police report filed The markings were carefully removed by conservation specialists that utilized special tools, including a laser cleaning process, to dissolve paint that soaked deep into the stone. The Hermitage unveiled the result of 11 days of restoration work during a ceremony on Sunday. It's the first time Jackson's tomb has been vandalized. “The ceremony went very well. We had some good speakers on hand that addressed major issues in terms of what’s going on in society and how the tomb plays into that," said Tony Guzzi, vice president of site operations at The Hermitage. “We had probably 200 people out there to see it and I think everyone was fairly impressed with how it looked.” Related: Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin on advice past presidents can give to Trump The Hermitage attracts visitors from all around the globe, including President Donald Trump, who visited and placed a wreath on the tomb last year on the 250th anniversary of Jackson’s birth. The Hermitage has bounced back from adversity before. In the spring of 1998, a tornado uprooted about a thousand trees on the estate. Nicknamed “Old Hickory,” Jackson served as the president from 1829 to 1837. Though widely revered as a talented general and advocate for the common man, he has also had a polarizing history due in part to his policies toward Native Americans — including the Trail of Tears, the forced relocation of the Cherokee — and his ownership of slaves on his more than 1,000-acre plantation and mansion. “He was a human being,” Kittel said. “He made mistakes, but he also had great accomplishments and I don’t think you can find a president that didn’t have that dichotomy of greatness and also some really bad decisions as well.” The vandals of Jackson's tomb have yet to be identified, though Nashville police are still investigating. “Metro is still continuing their investigation, but they still haven’t found anything to this point,” Guzzi said. “We’re looking to improve security with everything from cameras for perimeter detection to increasing the ability of our guards to get more places by focusing them in on their security duties better.” Immediately following the vandalism, the foundation started placing a guard at the tomb, whereas before the security guards had rounds. “We’re living in a time right now where monuments, or symbols to our past, are being seen very differently than they have before. Increasingly, works of architecture that are intended to honor our past are having to be protected for what they represent, Kittel said. Kittel and Guzzi said they have tried to create an atmosphere at The Hermitage where the legacy of Jackson can be discussed openly, and they hope that future vandals will consider other methods of expression. “I’m just happy it’s a resource for the public to come and see again,” Guzzi said. “I’m hopeful that in the future people will find a more constructive way to express themselves.” |
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