James K. Polk House

Samuel Polk built this house in 1816, and his son James lived here as a young man until 1824, when he left to read law in Nashville under Felix Grundy. James owned it after his father died in 1827. His mother stayed until her death in 1852, and his brother William was the last Polk to live in it. William's son kept it until 1871, then it passed through several owners. In 1929 Saidee Grant, the president's great-great niece, and the state of Tennessee acquired it. It became a National Historic Landmark in 1961.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• James K. Polk Home and Museum — steps away
  The 1816 brick house in Columbia where Polk practiced law and campaigned for the legislature, now a museum that also tells of the people the Polk family enslaved.
• The Mink Slide and East 8th Street — 0.3 mi
  Columbia's Black business and church district south of the courthouse square, where on the night of February 25, 1946 a white mob gathered and Black veterans stood guard.
• Gordon House and Ferry Site — 14 mi
  A brick house of 1818 beside the Duck River at milepost 407.7 of the Natchez Trace Parkway, where a Chickasaw partner and a Tennessee captain ran a ferry and an inn.
• Henry Horton State Park — 19 mi
  A Duck River park on Governor Henry Horton's former farm in Marshall County, with a mill ruin from 1845, kayak floats and the grave of a governor the House declined to impeach.