The Belle Meade Railway Station

In 1872 the Belle Meade railroad station was an active part of General Harding's Thoroughbred industry. The railroad line running through the Belle Meade farm passed through numerous owners and names: in 1867 the State of Tennessee took over the line after it could not repay a sizeable state loan, in 1870 the state leased the N&NWRR line to the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad for six years, and by 1873, after many sales and name changes, it was officially called the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railroad. The line included stations at Belle Meade and Bellevue, flag stations at Vaughn's Gap and Pegram, and a watering place at Newsome's Tank, 17 miles from Nashville and 153 miles from Hickman, Ky. General Harding and his head groom, Bob Green, trained newly born colts to walk ramps and load into train cars so they could be shipped north for sale, and in May 1878 General Harding also sent 200 deer fawns by train to the Blooming Grove, Pennsylvania, Hunting & Fishing Club. About 150 people came by train to attend General Harding's 1876 yearling sale, where buyers came to see and bid on the get of Bonnie Scotland and Harding's new sire John Morgan. Visitors commonly traveled from West Side Park in downtown Nashville to the Belle Meade station for horse sales. Before the 1878 yearling sale, General Harding built a new sale barn 112 feet long and 75 feet wide in a wooded lot across Richland Creek west of the main house, enclosing an open court 66 feet square used as a display ring for showing horses. The Jackson family also frequently used the train for leisure, with General Jackson making many trips to New York City, and Belle Meade received prominent visitors including President Grover Cleveland in 1887, who, like other arrivals by train, was met at the depot by carriages and drivers for the trip up the main drive to the house.

Belle Meade, Tennessee · United States