Below is the Hermitage, a place in Nashville listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
This is NOT to be confused with the Hermitage, another place in Nashville listed on the National Register of Historic Places, seen below.
Nashville is confusing.
It seems I did my Nashville research too quickly and sloppily. I knew there was a hotel called the Hermitage that would cost a grand for three days, and I quickly averted my eyes. Then in further Nashville research I discovered President Andrew Jackson stayed at the Hermitage.
“Well,” I thought, “That’s why it’s so expensive.”
But, I was encouraged, because it was on the National Register of Historic Places, and I read that there are tours. “Well, even if I can’t stay at the Hermitage, I’d love to go on that tour.”
YES I KNOW NOW THE HERMITAGE HOTEL AND THE HERMITAGE ARE TWO DIFFERENT PLACES.
However, when you are wandering around downtown Nashville and you encounter the Hermitage Hotel, it looks just like a president’s home. Of course, that’s why I asked the doorman where I could find the tour.
He said, quite apologetically, that they sometimes give tours for guests, and if I wanted to make a reservation and stay at the hotel they would be happy to give me a tour. I backed down and apologized my way down the street. Then I stomped around the outside, muttering “I’m an AMERICAN. Who do they think they are, keeping me out of President Andrew Jackson’s home because I can’t afford $300 a night? I’m an AMERICAN.” Stomp stomp stomp.
The next day, after I’d thumbed through a brochure and found the Hermitage Hotel and the Hermitage are two different National Historic places (!), we drove to the Andrew Jackson residence Hermitage.
I asked the man at the gift shop if anyone else ever confused the two places.
“Yes,” he said. “It is very hard to convince those people you can’t take their reservations.”