Part 3

That Mrs. Jackson had designated the spot where the house should stand was recalled by the General again in 1834 after the fire when it was suggested to him that it might be rebuilt in another location. Then he wrote to his adopted son: "Was it not on the site selected by my dear departed wife I would build it higher up the hill;" but the fact that Rachel had originally selected it definitely settled in his mind any question as to whether the location of the house should be changed.

In the interest of strict accuracy it should be pointed out that the ground where the house stands is not quite so prairie-like level as Parton describes it. On the contrary, it is on the side of a gently sloping hill. The floor of the front portico is but one step off the ground, whereas a flight of several steps is needed to reach the back porch; and there is a quite perceptible rise of ground between the entrance gate and the house.

Detailed and reliable information about the actual construction of the original Hermitage on this site is peculiarly scarce. In all the published Jackson correspondence there is but one reference to the building operations, this being unfortunately without date and merely referring to some difficulties encountered in having the house painted. In a footnote in the published "Correspondence of Andrew Jackson" Doctor Bassett mentions having seen a receipted bill dated June 12, 1818, for $200 for china and silver plate. Doctor Bassett says that it seems fair to assume that this indicates an outlay for the new house, although this is manifestly nothing more than speculation on his part. Most of what we know today about the circumstances attending the construction of the original building is mere surmise, based on inferences and deductions. Jackson was a prolific letter writer; but for some strange reason he seems to have written little or nothing about the building of his new home. Also, unfortunately, there is no information available as to the identity of the original contractor or architect--if there was one.

It has been stated in published articles that the Hermitage was built by an architect named Joseph Reiff; but the only foundation for this seems to lie in the fact that he was the man in charge of the rebuilding after the fire. Mr. Reiff, by the way, did not pose as an architect at all. In the articles of agreement covering the rebuilding he refers to himself simply as a carpenter; and it seems likely that he was one of the class of men known in that time as "journeyman builders"--practical carpenters who went about the country equipped with books of plans of basic architectural designs which they adapted to the needs of their clients. But, regardless of what was his correct technical designation, there is nothing whatever to connect Mr. Reiff with the original building operation in 1819.

Bearing in mind the custom of the times, it is most probable that the house was designed by Jackson himself and the actual construction work done by skilled slave labor, perhaps under the direction of some master builder. The design of the original Hermitage was severely simple and had little about it to suggest that its plans were drawn by a professional architect. It was not at all beyond the capacity of General Jackson. The foundation was of native limestone, quarried on the farm by slaves. The poplar structural lumber and timbers, and the wide red cedar boards for the porch floors, were cut nearby from local timber. The walls were built of brick, burned on the place as was the practice in those days. Brick making was still primitive in its processes. A bed of clay was located, the top soil was removed and lime sprinkled on the clay, and then a black boy on a mule had a good time treading the lime into the clay and thus preparing the raw material for the bricks, which were shaped in hand molds and baked in improvised kilns.

By combining all the available information, it appears certain that the original Hermitage was a simple two-storied, square brick building consisting of four rooms and a hall downstairs and the same arrangement upstairs. There was originally no portico at the back or front, nor did the two wings then grace its sides. It was just a square brick house, with no embellishments or architectural pretensions. From references in letters it seems that, as was common practice at the time, the house and its immediate yard were enclosed in a picket fence, and there is substantiation of this in one of the early prints of the Hermitage, but there are no signs of such a fence today.

It was in this plain house that Jackson and Rachel lived for ten happy years. He was not away from home much in those days. He was elected to the Senate in 1823, but he soon resigned that office. While he was in Washington, chafing under the time-wasting deliberations of Congress, he wrote to John Coffee: "How often does my thoughts lead me back to the Hermitage. There in private life, surrounded by a few friends, would be a paradise compared to the best situation here; and if once more there it would take a writ of _habeas corpus_ to remove me into public life again." And he was sincere when he wrote that.

In 1831, after he had been inaugurated President, and while he was living in the White House, General Jackson contracted to have the Hermitage enlarged and elaborated in keeping with the increased prestige of its master. Andrew, junior, had just married, too, and the President probably wished to have the house improved for the benefit of his new daughter-in-law, of whom he was very fond. Accordingly, arrangements were made for the addition of the two wings--that containing the dining-room and pantry on the western side and the one embracing the library, or office, the side entrance and the overseer's room on the garden side of the house. It was at this time also that front and back porticos were added; although, according to engravings made at the time, the front portico was not then two stories high. It merely extended across the front of the lower floor, with its roof below the level of the upstairs windows, except at the front door where it was two stories high with a pediment at the top. The contemporary pictures also show the wings with gables at the front and back, instead of with flat roofs as at present. This remodeling work was done by a contractor named D. Morrison, who had just finished building the stone tomb over Mrs. Jackson's grave in the garden.

Mr. Morrison wrote to President Jackson on December 6, 1831, announcing the completion of the work on the house and giving some interesting details about the job. In this letter he said:

"The additions and improvements are completed. In addition to the improvements as exhibited in the plan I showed you, I have erected a neat and appropriate portico on the back side of the central building which adds very much to the comfort and convenience of your dwelling. The Hermitage as improved presents a front of 104 feet. The wings project 9 feet in front of the central building and are connected by a collonade of the same breadth. The collonade consists of 10 lofty columns of the Doric order, the entablature carried through the whole line of front, and has wreaths of laurel leaves in the frieze. The upper story consists of a portico surmounted by a pediment which breaks the monotony of the composition in a very satisfactory manner. The materials employed in the improvements are all of the best quality the neighborhood affords. The colonnade is covered with the best copper, the sheets weighing from 12 to 14 pounds each sheet, and the gutters that convey the water from front to back are also of copper. The wing buildings and porticos are roofed with good cedar shingles. The dining room is large and will dine 100 persons at one time comfortably. The wing at the east end contains the library, a large and commodious room; an overseer's room; and a covered way that protects the three doors leading to the library, overseer's room and to the back parlor. The old kitchen is removed and the materials employed in the erection of a large and commodious smoke-house which is placed on a line with the new kitchen."

The reference to the kitchen in Mr. Morrison's letter, by the way, seems definitely to establish the fact that the present kitchen and smokehouse were built in 1831 and were not parts of the original establishment as built in 1819, as was for a long time supposed. Exactly where the old kitchen stood is not revealed in any records now available; but just to the east of the present kitchen there may be seen in the grass the outlines of a stone foundation which probably indicates its former location.

The total cost of the improvements made at this time was $2,488.50, not including $131.00 paid out at the same time for papering and painting the whole house. The itemized list of expenses was as follows:

Stone-cutters, masons and bricklayers, $491.00 Carpenters and joiners, 678.00 Painters and glazers, 187.00 Plasterers, 168.00 Coppersmith and tinner, 350.00 Lumber and shingles, 468.50 Hardware, glass, etc., 110.00 Turner's bill, 25.00 Hauling lumber from Nashville, 11.00 $2,488.50

General Coffee, Jackson's old friend and fellow veteran of the Battle of New Orleans and the Indian wars, drove over to the Hermitage from time to time while the remodeling work was in progress and kept an eye on it. On April 28, 1831, he wrote the President at Washington: "Your mechanics were at work on the improvements making on the mansion house. I took the liberty of suggesting some immaterial alterations in the addition, which was approved of by the projector of the building, who said he would consult you about it." This alteration in the plan, it is revealed in one of Mr. Morrison's letters to President Jackson, consisted in extending the eastern or library wing back twenty feet further than called for in the original plan, the additional space thus gained being used for the covered passage and overseer's room. This overseer's room, also called the steward's room, was in later years used as the nursery for the children of Andrew, junior, and later the covered passage was bricked in and the side entrance hall thus created as it is today.

Accurate and dependable pictures of the brick Hermitage as it appeared in 1819 are singularly scarce, and the few available efforts at its picturization differ considerably in appearance.

In one of Earl's early portraits of General Jackson the General is shown standing on a slight eminence, with the Hermitage at a distance in the background. This picture of the house, a veritable portrait from life, is doubtless a trustworthy representation of the original brick house; and there is presented herewith a reproduction of this picture, obtained by successive enlargements of the background of the Earl portrait. It ought to give a reliable idea of the appearance of the place before the wings were added.

Similar in appearance is an undated engraving ("Drawn and engraved by H. B. Hall") which was reproduced in Bassett's _Life of Andrew Jackson_ and also in Marquis James' _Border Captain_. Presumably this was drawn by Mr. Hall on the spot, as it is quite similar to the Earl picture showing the gabled roof and double chimneys at each side of the house.

The most amusing and least accurate of all the available pictures of the early Hermitage is to be found in _The Jackson Wreath, or National Souvenir_, a laudatory book about Jackson, the President elect, published in Philadelphia in January, 1829. In this book is an attractive engraving of a suspiciously conventional house which bears the descriptive entitlement: "The Hermitage;" but faith in the accuracy of the picture is shaken by a naive footnote (in microscopic type) which says with engaging candor: "On the commencement of this work, proper steps were taken to procure a drawing of the Hermitage from the spot, by addressing a prominent establishment at Nashville; whether the several requests were ever received by them is not known, but the drawing never came to hand here. A gentleman at Washington, intimate with the grounds, politely furnished a description from which a drawing was made. Anyone who is acquainted with the difficulty of producing a correct drawing from description will overlook any difference that may appear in the likeness to the place it is intended to represent."

This imaginative engraving shows a square house, with the gable end in front, and with two single chimneys--one at the left and one in the rear. There is also a neat little portico at the front door, and an out-house close by the left-hand side of the house. Despite its confessed inaccuracy it was obviously the source of at least two other popular engravings of that day which reproduced with fidelity its improperly placed gable and chimneys; and even as late as 1855 as reliable a monthly magazine as Harper's illustrated an article about Jackson with an alleged picture of the Hermitage which was plainly but a copy of the engraving in the "Jackson Wreath" with merely a few slight changes in the arrangement of the conventionalized trees and horses in the foreground.

Fortunately there is preserved a contemporaneous picture, reproduced in this book, which is generally accepted as a fairly accurate representation of the house as it appeared after the wings were added and before the fire. After the fire the front portico was rebuilt two stories high all the way across; and the six large columns as now seen replaced the smaller posts formerly used. This picture, judging from the location of the tomb so close to the house, is not free from the imaginative latitude the artists sometimes allow themselves; but it is said to give a good idea of the way the house looked before the fire.

In October, 1834, occurred the burning of the Hermitage, an event that attracted widespread attention. Jackson was at that time at the White House in Washington, but his adopted son and his wife were occupying the Hermitage.

An account of the fire in a Nashville newspaper of October 14th announced the event in the following words: "Yesterday evening about 4 o'clock the roof of the Hermitage was discovered to be on fire, and all attempts to arrest the progress of the flames proving unavailing, the entire edifice with the exception of the room attached to the northern end and used as a dining room was in a few hours consumed. The valuable furniture in the lower story was fortunately saved, though much broken and otherwise injured in getting it out. That in the second story, we understand, was chiefly destroyed. The fire is supposed to have been communicated to the roof by the falling of a spark from one of the chimneys, and there being at the time a light breeze from the northwest the progress of the flames was proportionately rapid. The numerous and valuable private papers of the President were probably all preserved. We need not add that the event has occasioned to this community deep and universal regret."

President Jackson was promptly advised of the fire in letters from his adopted son; from Stockley Donelson, his nephew; and from Colonel Robert Armstrong, postmaster at Nashville and one of Jackson's strongest personal and political friends.

Stockley Donelson thus explained the origin of the fire: "A fire was kindled in the old dining room and the chimney caught on fire, which not being observed immediately and the wind being from the northwest, the fire was communicated to the roof. The flame however had not spread very far before it was discovered by Squire and Charles and the alarm given. Cousin Sarah was at this moment in the house having just returned from a short ride and Andrew was in the field, but a short distance from the house. The fire was soon discovered by Wm. Donelson's hands who were working near at hand, by A. J. Donelson's workmen and hands, as well as by your own hands. They were all on the ground before the roof fell in, etc. Mr. Rife by his own exertions succeeded in getting on the dining room roof and extinguishing the flames, etc. Others were employed in getting out the furniture, etc., which was nearly all saved except some bedsteads upstairs. I have made inquiry. I interrogated Mr. Rife and Mr. Hume who were upstairs and in the old dining room where the fire was kindled first and they both say it was not an unreasonable large fire. The weather was very dry and windy. When the fire was first discovered by Charles and Squire they made every effort to get a ladder, but none could be found, and there was no other way to get to the roof, etc. Cousin Sarah acted with firmness and gave every necessary direction to save the furniture; and her and Andrew, though much hurt, I am happy to add bear the misfortune with fortitude." Mr. Donelson went on to say that the walls of the house "being originally well built are not much damaged" and that there would be no difficulty in rebuilding.

Colonel Armstrong in his letter was careful to say that in his opinion the fire was "purely accidental;" and he estimated that the house could be rebuilt on the old site for $2,000 or $2,500. He recommended rebuilding on the old site ("for I know the walls and foundation were good"), and volunteered to be of any possible assistance.

The news of the burning of his home must have been a crushing blow when it reached President Jackson in the White House. Following the particularly turbulent session of Congress which ended in June, 1834, the weary President had gone back to the Hermitage and spent the summer there in the pleasant process of recuperating from the debilitating effect of his long drawn out battle over the bank. All of the administration's domestic problems were settled, in one way or another; and he spent the summer in riding about over the Hermitage plantation, visiting his friends and neighbors, and entertaining the customary flow of guests. Early in October he brought his vacation to an end and started on his return to Washington; and he had hardly arrived back at the White House before the letters reached him telling of the fire.

But Jackson accepted this blow of Fate with resignation and equanimity. His letter to Andrew, junior, is a model of calm fortitude under a sudden stroke of adversity:

"Dear Andrew: I have this moment received your letter of the 13th instant giving an account of the unfortunate occurrence of the burning of my dwelling. As no neglect is imputed to anyone and as it appears one of those accidental occurrences where there is no blame to attach to any one, we ought and I do meet it as an act of Providence and always reconciled to His will and prepared to say at all times and under all circumstances 'The Lord's will be done,' it was He that gave me the means to build it and He has the right to destroy it, and blessed be his name. Tell Sarah to cease to mourn its loss. I will have it rebuilt. Was it not on the site selected by my dear departed wife I would build it higher up the hill, but I will have it repaired. You say the walls are uninjured. Let workmen be employed forthwith to repair it. Let scantling and brick be got and have it covered in before the hard frost with rain injures the walls. If tin can be got in Nashville have a tin roof put on it. If the walls can be repaired and the house covered in before winter the windows can be so closed as to prevent the walls or scantling within from being injured. I write to Col. Armstrong, whose letter is before me, who will aid you in obtaining materials and workmen to cover in and repair the house. I write in haste. Say to Sarah not to grieve or repine about the loss. We will have it all repaired. I write to Mr. Toland this evening to send on by the ship Chandler Price via New Orleans as much tin as will cover a house 80 feet by 44 and hope it will reach you in due time. This will enable you to borrow the tin in Nashville from anyone who has it. I suppose all the wines in the cellar has been destroyed, with Mrs. Donelson's box of China. Give me as accurate an account of the loss of furniture as you can at as early a period as possible. In all your bustle and improvement, my son, have your cotton picked out and housed. It becomes us now to act with economy and use industry to repair and regain the loss. Therefore, as the only fund to aid in paying for the land and repairing the building and other engagements are the cotton crop, I urge you to have it carefully taken in, ginned, baled and sent to market." As soon as the news of the fire became known throughout the country there was set on foot in New Orleans a movement to rebuild the Hermitage by popular subscription; and a Nashville citizen, George C. Childress, wrote to Jackson to ask him if such an action would be agreeable to him.

"We see from the New Orleans papers," wrote Mr. Childress, "that a proposition is made in that city to raise a fund to rebuild the mansion house at the Hermitage, every individual in the United States who may choose to contribute fifty cents and no more in order that it may be in the power of every man who may wish to join in tendering to you this complimentary mark of public gratitude and contributing to the repair and preservation of a residence which is almost looked upon as National property. There is no doubt that an ample fund would be raised in this manner to rebuild the house in the most elegant manner and I write, sir, to know if it would be agreeable to you to accept this complimentary token of gratitude at the hands of your admiring countrymen."

This letter is found in Jackson's correspondence file, and on the back of it is endorsed in the General's firm handwriting: "Mr. Childress to be answered: I respect as I ought the feelings that dictated the generous feeling in the proposition, but can not accept the boon. I am able to rebuild it, and hope whatever generosity the good people of New Orleans intended to bestow on me as a memento of their regard for my public services may be applied to some charitable institution."