John Rapier Jr. Image courtesy of the Western University Archives and Special Collections, London, Ont. John H. Rapier, Jr., was born in Florence, Alabama to free Black parents Susan and John Rapier, Sr. By 1860, his father was one of the wealthiest free Blacks in Alabama.  The family made every effort to financially provide for their children’s education. Rapier, Jr.’s mother died in the late 1830s, so his father decided to send him and his brothers to stay with their grandmother, Sally Thomas, in Nashville, where the boys attended school. Sally Thomas, born into slavery in 1790 in Virginia, grew up on a 1500-acre tobacco plantation owned by Charles S. Thomas. John Thomas, Charles’ son, is believed to be the father of Sally’s two sons, John, Sr. and Henry. (Sally herself was a child of miscegenation).  Around 1818, John Thomas joined the westward movement of slaveholders across the Appalachians and settled in Nashville, bringing with him Sally and her two sons. In Nashville, Sally managed to live a quasi-independent life there.  John Thomas allowed her to hire out as a cleaning woman as long as she gave him part of her earnings.  She rented a two-story frame house at the corner of Cherry (4 th ) and Deaderick Streets from which she ran a laundry business and a boarding house.  Her businesses were 2 ½ blocks from Adelicia Acklen’s Cherry Street house. Sally also arranged for her sons to be hired out – John as a waiter and poleman on a river barge, Henry as an errand boy. With their earnings, she hoped to one day purchase “free papers” for her children. Catron was the first U.S. Supreme Court judge from Tennessee. He was also a friend of the Acklens and signed an order of protection for Adelicia when she went to Louisiana during the Civil War to sell her cotton. Image courtesy of the LOC. In 1827, Sally gave birth to another son, James P. Thomas. His father was reportedly one of his mother’s boarders, John Catron, who would become a U.S. Supreme Court judge. Under state law children of enslaved women remained in bondage, regardless of the father’s status. During this period, Nashville had a significant population of free Blacks. By 1833, this community had grown large enough to start the first school for Blacks in the city. That school educated 200 students before it closed in 1836 due to white suspicions that the school’s leader, a Black barber named Alphonso M. Sumner, was assisting runaway slaves. Undeterred by the situation, a group of free Blacks petitioned the state of Tennessee for permission to open a private school, which was granted with the stipulation that the school be run by a white person. The community then hired John Yandle to lead the school. Sarah Porter Player and Daniel Wadkins, a Black minister who had taught at Sumner’s school, assisted him. Eventually Yandle quit, leading Wadkins and Player to each open their own schools, which operated out of private homes and rented buildings. Both schools closed in 1856 when Nashville banned all Black educational institutions. John Rapier., Jr. attended one of these schools with his uncle James Thomas. The rudimentary education John received here paved the way for his higher education and future career.  In the end, it was not Nashville laws that ended Rapier Jr.’s education in the city, but his grandmother’s death due to cholera in 1850. He travelled back to Alabama to live with his father, but he would not remain there long. To fund his expedition, William Walker appealed to Nashville’s elite. The Acklens hosted a dinner at Belmont Mansion for Walker and other prominent Nashvillians in 1858. It is unclear whether the Acklens gave him any money. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress. Throughout his young adult years, Rapier, Jr. traveled extensively, believing that he could not find true liberty in the US. He followed William Walker to Nicaragua with the hope that Walker would liberate the country. He soon discovered Walker’s true intension was an expansion of slavery into Central America. He abandoned Walker’s project and went to Kingston, Jamaica, where he studied dentistry with a Canadian dentist, Dr. William Beckett. With this experience in hand, Rapier returned to the United States to continue his education. He started at Oberlin College in Ohio, but the school did not offer a medical program so he set his sights on the University of Michigan. However in 1860, Michigan did not admit Black students. Always careful in crafting his social interactions to his advantage, Rapier Jr. used his observations on racism to present himself as a mixed-race man from Kingston, Jamaica. He arrived in Ann Arbor on October 1, 1863 and enrolled in that academic year. That likely would not have happened if he presented himself as a Black U.S. citizen. Due to stress-related illnesses and community hostility, he departed Ann Arbor for Keokuk Medical College, also known as Iowa College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he completed his medical degree in 1864. Dr. Alexander T. Augusta After some difficulty, he managed to get an Army Commission as a contract surgeon. Rapier then began work at the US Army Contraband Hospital (later the Freedman’s Hospital) in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1864. He joined the staff of Dr. Alexander T. Augusta, who was the Black surgeon in charge of the hospital and held the rank of major in the U.S. Army. Rapier remained in Washington D.C. until his death in 1865 at the age of 30. He was one of only 14 Black men known to serve as a surgeon in the U.S. Army during the Civil War. Bibliography DeGregory, Crystal A. “Nashville’s Clandestine Black Schools”. The New York Times. 2015. Hoobler, James. “Sally Thomas, 1787-1580”. Monuments & Milestones. Nashville City Cemetery Association. Vol. 5 No. 1, Spring/Summer, 2009. Lovett, Bobby L. The African-American History of Nashville, Tennessee, 1780-1930. University of Arkansas Press, 1999. "Rapier, John H., Jr." Notable Black American Men, Book II. Encyclopedia.com . (February 2, 2026). https://www.encyclopedia.com/african-american-focus/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/rapier-john-h-jr Schopieray, Cheney J. “Col[ore]d Men are not Admitted Here”. African American Student Project University of Michigan. March 9, 2022. Schweninger, Loren. “A Slave Family in the Ante-Bellum South”. Journal of Negro History. Vol. 60. January, 1975.

With the completion of the billiard room, we have begun our next restoration project - the east service gallery. This gallery connected the billiard room, and likely two bedrooms with a bathroom at the end. Before 1859, the gallery was essentially an open porch. With the construction of the grand salon in 1859-60 both the east and west galleries were enclosed. In 1913, with the joining of Belmont College and Ward School into one entity, the galleries were totally reconfigured. An historic photo in our collection hints at the pre-1913 appearance. From 1913 to early in the 21st century this gallery has changed multiple times. With the discovery of an original billiard room door opening to the gallery in 2020, we began to consider a full restoration. 2025 saw significant progress on the Service Gallery thanks to a state grant and private donations. The Tennessee State Museum awarded a grant to do basic construction work including demolition, electrical work, new flooring, new ceiling and framing doorways. Thanks to matching private donations, the space is ready for phase two of the restoration. As of this date the gallery has been stripped of all modern additions and a period-appropriate random width floor has been laid. Next an extension of the original wall (removed in 1913) will be restored. Pictured here is the space with modern features, two construction images, and the space as it is today, with a new ceiling and floor installed.

On Monday, September 11, 2017, Belmont Mansion received a long awaited delivery - the historic reproduction carpet that will complete the restoration of the Central Parlor. Over the last eighteen months, we have anxiously awaited the final piece - the historic reproduction carpet. This carpet was made by Grosvenor Wilton Company Ltd. of Kidderminster, England. Grosvenor Wilton is the oldest carpet maker in England and has a wealth of historic patterns in their archives. After manufacturing, the carpet made its way to Cincinnati, Ohio, where it was in the capable hands of Gfroerer Company, which managed the final preparation and installation. This included hand sewing each panel together which resulted in a single roll. Gfroerer is a family run business that has been in the industry for five generations, and we were fortunate to have a Gfroerer family member oversee the installation. We have waited three long years to complete the Central Parlor's restoration and we think you will agree when we say it was worth the wait! Before and After Photos

A Much Needed Safe for the Pantry The inventory of Belmont taken after Adelicia’s death in 1887, lists a safe located in the pantries.  After decades of searching for a 19th century safe, a casual conversation with a former board member yielded Belmont just what was needed, a circa 1870s cast iron safe.  Steve Sirls and Allen DeCuyper donated the piece to fill a gap in our collection. In this location a safe was likely used for the storage of sterling flatware and serving pieces. The lock mechanism for this safe was made by Yale Lock Company. It is unclear where the safe was made, but the name "Louisville" is painted on the bottom of the safe front beneath the door. Portrait of Elizabeth Hunt Acklen When visitors walk through the Acklen’s library at Belmont Mansion, it is easy for them to miss this portrait of Elizabeth Hunt Acklen. But Elizabeth is an important part of the mansion’s history. She was the wife of Samuel Black Acklen and mother of Joseph A. S. Acklen, Adelicia’s second husband. Elizabeth was likely born in Hawkins County, North Carolina, in the 1780s, which later became a part of the State of Tennessee. Her father, John Hunt, was among the first white settlers to move into Mississippi Territory, then still held by the Cherokee and Chickasaw nations. The state legislature originally named the town Twickenham, but local citizens petitioned the legislature to rename it Huntsville, since they had originally called it Hunt’s Spring.   The portrait is oil on canvas and has been attributed to Huntsville artist William Fry, 1822-1872. The Belmont Mansion Association recently had the opportunity to purchase this portrait from Franck and Stephen Kaiser, direct descendants of Adelicia and Joseph Acklen. We wish to thank the Kaiser brothers for thinking of the mansion for the portrait’s new permanent home.

The Tennessee Association of Museums recently awarded Belmont Mansion an Award of Excellence for the exhibit, “Upon the Toils of Many: The Story of Enslaved, Free Black, and Immigrant Laborers at Belmont Mansion”. The mansion was also one of six organizations considered for the coveted TAM Presidents’ Award. Stated Myers Brown, Executive Director of Belmont Mansion, “The Belmont Mansion Association is honored to be recognized for its efforts to preserve and tell the story of all those who lived and worked on the Belmont estate.”   The exhibit is included with all ticket purchases. Come explore this history today! ”Upon the Toils of Many: The Story of Enslaved, Free Black and Immigrant Laborers at Belmont Mansion” was funded in part by a grant from the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area.

During the first phase of the Billiard Room restoration, a small portion of an Acklen period floorcloth was discovered under a college era wall. The Acklens likely used floorcloths in rooms that received heavy foot traffic, such as the front hall, the dining rooms, and the billiard room.   Floorcloths were made of large sections of canvas carefully painted in multiple colors to resemble popular carpet patterns of the period. Workers in large factories produced such floor coverings. Designs were block-printed by hand with one patterned block used per color. The more colors in a floorcloth the more blocks required for printing. Once the design was complete, up to ten coats of varnish were added to serve as a protective layer.   Grace Abernethy, a Kentucky based artist who has painted other historic finishes at the mansion, took the surviving remnant of original floorcloth from the billiard room and replicated the design. Working over a five-month period, she sewed canvas strips by hand to completely cover the floor. She then carved linoleum blocks which she used to print each square of the design onto the cloth. The design was then covered with multiple layers of varnish. Recreated with painstaking details, this floorcloth makes Belmont Mansion’s reproduction unique among house museums in the South and indeed the country.   On March 3rd, 2025 in celebration of Women’s History Month, we are holding a lecture at the mansion where you can learn more about Grace’s work, along with other female-drive restoration projects in the billiard room. Speakers include Grace Abernethy, Kelly Ciociola, and Elizabeth Williams, with the conversation moderated by Belmont Mansion’s Executive Director, Myers Brown. Tickets are free but advanced registration is required.

Like most elements of the Billiard Room restoration, the decorative ceiling involved the work of multiple craftsmen. To be specific, it required masters in plasterwork and someone with experience in historic finishes.   In the mansion’s early college era, decorative elements like the plaster cornice in the Billiard Room interfered with the modern uses of the room and were removed. Fortunately, traces of the size of the cornice remained to guide the current restoration. An architectural plan book from the 1850s provided a period appropriate cornice design. Early college photographs reveal painted ceilings throughout the downstairs. Using the research gathered from the existing ceiling, photographs, and lithographs of period rooms, Curator Jerry Trescott developed a plan for the restoration of this ceiling.   We knew Grace Abernethy, an accomplished professional of historic finishes, could create a painted ceiling. She started with an 1850s period lithograph to create a design and found color inspiration in the original floorcloth remnant. Gilt work, which was typical of this 1850 period, added a finishing touch.   As for the recreated plaster cornice, we went to Liddle Brothers Contractors, the only firm in Middle Tennessee or Nashville which still trains and employs craftsmen to do this work. Layer by layer, they built up this substantial cornice – all of plaster. It was fascinating to watch – take a look at the video from our website,   https://www.belmontmansion.com/the-billiard-room   The total effect is stunning and is, yet again, evidence of how extraordinary this house was in 19th-century Nashville.

An original Acklen sofa, which was exhibited in an upstairs bedroom, recently underwent restoration to its historical appearance. The sofa was part of a larger grouping of which only two other pieces survive.  Produced in a French style of the late 1860s, the sofa was likely made in New York.    During its lifetime massive changes occurred to the sofa which changed the original finish and upholstery. With ongoing work in the Billiard Room, the sofa required full restoration. I removed the crushed velvet upholstery. Next, I stripped the cherry wood frame of layers of heavy varnish. This revealed areas that retained traces of an original black finish and traces of gilding in the incised carving. This evidence brought me to the conclusion that the sofa originally had a black ebonized finish, accented by gold leaf typical of the era.  With these findings, I recommended the original finish be restored.  Grace Abernethy, a specialist in historic finishes, accomplished this goal.   Damask was a common fabric choice for 18th century French sofas and 19th century copies.  Our restoration utilizes a light blue figured damask, an appearance that the Acklens would have recognized. Come see this remarkable piece.

What are you seeing? Years of research, creation and execution by a team of talented people. Several years ago, it was discovered that the two pantries on the main floor of the mansion were covered in wallpaper that resembled wood graining. (The Acklens didn’t just have faux graining on wood-work – they included the walls of these crucial workspaces!) To restore those rooms Grace Abernethy recreated a full section of the wallpaper which was then digitized. Belmont Mansion staff member Danielle Ullrich then fitted the images together into a full digital file which could be printed. Chromatics, a local fine art and photography printing company, printed rolls of wallpaper that exactly mimicked the historic paper. Recently, Kemp Wallcoverings installed the paper. Pat Edwards Electric then installed in the room the two 19th century gasoliers which @Hillsborohardware had re-assembled. The result is tremendous and a huge step forward in the accurate depiction of this 19th century house. It could not have been done without the work of each of these people who excel in their crafts. The pantries were rooms exclusively used by the enslaved, free Black or European immigrants. The service pantry, pictured here, is now accessible to visitors. This small room is filled with cabinets, shelves, and work tables where a cook and assistants plated and served the meals eaten in the family and formal dining rooms. These rooms provide essential backdrops for sharing the story of the people who worked at Belmont Mansion.

While we have yet to raise all of the funds, a significant donation allowed us to begin treatment on the original Billiard Room floorcloth remnant. This rare treasure provides amazing evidence of the 1860s floor covering. The conservation work includes carefully removing the original cloth, cleaning, and paint analysis. Ultimately, this remnant will provide data for recreating the Billiard Room floorcloth. Kelly Ciociola, a professional conservator, moved to Nashville and opened her own firm last September. Prior to that, Kelly was the conservator at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami. She is a graduate of the Clemson/College of Charleston joint master’s program in Historic Preservation. This is her first project for the Belmont Mansion Association.

The long-awaited dream has become a reality. There is now a reproduced Tennessee chocolate marble mantel in the Billiard Room. A mantel is the focal point of any historic room and a prominent architectural feature. Belmont’s Billiard Room mantel did not survive renovations made by the college in the 1890s.  When restoration work removed those 1890s additions, evidence of a chimney at the north end of the room appeared. Rehorn & Kelly Inc., a monument company here in Nashville, accepted the task of reproducing and installing a mantel known to have been in the mansion in 1860. Chocolate marble is a native Tennessee stone found just west of Knoxville.  Installed on October 26, this reproduction mantel will be the highlight of Joseph Acklen’s Billiard Room. Come see for yourselves, we love it!

The Billiard Room continues to be the focus of Belmont’s restoration work. Our 1850s ceiling design is now complete. Grace Abernethy is beginning replication of the straight grain oak patterning (circa 1860), on wooden elements of the room. After major restructuring of the north end of the room occurred in 1860, a total redecoration of the room was required. Along with a new graining pattern on all wooden trim, French gilded wallpaper was installed. A reproduction of that historic wallpaper is now in hand. We’ve located a local conservator to begin preservation of our floor cloth remnant, also dating from 1860. Artwork by Grace for the floor cloth will be next to create a full-size reproduction of the original pattern. Alf Sharp is progressing well on our billiard table restoration. He has now carved the second of the four legs. Our ever-diligent master carpenter, Marshall Switzer is reproducing a door from the Billiard Room to the Service Gallery.