In 1834, Andrew Jackson Donelson began planning his return to Tennessee after Jackson's presidency ended in 1837 and chose to build a new home on his land adjoining The Hermitage so he could remain near Andrew Jackson. Under the supervision of master builders, skilled laborers and slaves completed the house in 1836. Donelson first named the plantation home Poplar Grove after the tulip poplar trees around it, then renamed it Tulip Grove in 1841 at the suggestion of President Martin Van Buren. Donelson owned 85 enslaved laborers who worked on the 1000-acre plantation. In 1858, he sold the property and moved with his family to Memphis. Tulip Grove remained a private residence until 1964, when the Ladies' Hermitage Association acquired it. Its Greek Revival style reflects Americans' desire to link the United States, the first modern democracy, with the ancient democracy of Greece, and pattern books such as Asher Benjamin's The Architect, or Practical House Carpenter helped spread the style. Some architectural historians have called Tulip Grove the finest example of Greek Revival architecture in Tennessee. Much of its design came from Asher Benjamin's pattern book, including the columns, entablature, and mantelpiece; the Doric columns, pediment, and cornice are original to the house, and except for Victorian-era fish scale shingles in the pediment, the exterior appears much as it did in 1836. Very little is known about the interior during Donelson's residence, but a surviving bill records construction materials, costs, and prices, including $300 for the elliptical stairway and $500 for the front portico.