Lotz House

Albert Lotz reached Franklin by way of a German guild and the New Orleans docks. Born in 1820, he became a master craftsman in Germany, reached America in 1848, married Margaretha in New Orleans and bought five acres from Fountain Branch Carter. By one account he built the two-story house himself, without enslaved labor, and made furniture, cabinets and pianos. After the battle, with a wall blasted away and shell holes in the roof and floors, the house became a field hospital while Lotz supervised repairs. The Heritage Society saved it in 1974.

What the plaque says

Lotz House In 1858, the Lotz House was built on property purchased from Fountain B. Carter by German immigrant Albert Lotz, a master carpenter and piano maker. On November 30, 1864, before the Battle of Franklin, the Lotz family sought refuge across the street in the Carter House. When the Confederates broke through the Union defenses on Columbia Pike, they were halted by Union Col. Emerson Opdyke's brigade, which was on both sides of the Pike, north of the Lotz House.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Carnton — 1.3 mi
  The McGavock farm in Franklin, worked by 44 enslaved people in 1860, that became the largest field hospital of the Battle of Franklin.
• Fort Negley — 17 mi
  The largest inland stone fort of the Civil War, built in 1862 on St. Cloud Hill by more than 2,700 conscripted Black laborers, hundreds of whom died.
• National Museum of African American Music — 18 mi
  A downtown Nashville museum, opened in 2021, tracing gospel, blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and hip-hop through Black history from 1619 to 2016.
• Ryman Auditorium — 18 mi
  The 1892 brick tabernacle in downtown Nashville that was the Grand Ole Opry's home from 1943 to 1974, now a National Historic Landmark and working concert hall.

More markers nearby

• Carter House — steps away
• Battle Ground Academy — 0.3 mi
• St. Paul's Episcopal Church — 0.4 mi
• Chickasaw Treaty Council — 0.4 mi