I had the opportunity to tour Belmont Mansion this week. The home of Joseph and Adelicia Acklen, it is on the Belmont University Campus. Built in the style of an Italian villa, the mansion is opulent. It had its own water tower, zoo, greenhouse, bowling alley and billiard room plus a grand salon where the elite of the country dined in splendor. Adelicia who was once thought to be the richest woman in America, had an inordinate love of statuary, and her decorator followed the grand Victorian tradition of more is better.
Nevertheless, it is always fun to see how the other half lived. After visiting these mansions, I sometimes want to sing with Tevye "If I Were A Rich (Wo)Man."
Why couldn't my ancestors have been rich Southern landowners instead of poor sharecroppers? Oh, Well, I guess we would not have had as much fun as richies as we did rising above our hard scrabble existence.
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