Ravenswood Mansion grew from a plantation established in 1825 when James Wilson II, a wealthy slave-owner of 55 people, purchased hundreds of acres in the Brentwood community. As with most southern plantations of the period, the land was likely cleared, materials fashioned, and the house built by enslaved people. When completed, the home was christened "Ravenwood" in honor of Sam Houston, whose Cherokee name was "the Raven," and at some later unknown time an "s" was added to create "Ravenswood." Wilson became a prosperous businessman and landowner with large plantations in Tennessee, Louisiana, and Mississippi, and by the 1860s the property included eight log cabins and two brick cabins for the enslaved, as well as a detached brick kitchen built to reduce the risk of fire spreading to the main house. Wilson Pike, originally the Harpeth Turnpike, was a toll road built around 1840 by the Harpeth Turnpike Company, in which James H. Hazard Wilson II was the majority stakeholder, and he is believed to have joined other plantation owners in building the Boiling Spring Academy on Moores Lane to educate his children. Over time many families lived at Ravenswood, and in 1961 Marcella Vivrette and Reese Smith, Jr. bought the house and 500 surrounding acres, restored part of the original plantation, and carefully preserved the home’s history during renovations. Ravenswood Mansion was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, and the house remained associated with the Smith family after the deaths of the parents, while the two brick cabins for the enslaved still stand today.