Rock Castle

Sarah Michie Smith is easily lost behind her husband's titles at Rock Castle. Daniel Smith was often away on military business, so she supervised the work, which his nephews Peter and Smith Hansborough largely carried out in limestone quarried on the property. After the family's first log house burned, they lived in two finished rooms of the stone house while construction continued into 1796. The two-story portico was added later, in the Greek Revival period, and sits slightly off center. Tennessee bought it in 1969; it opened to visitors in 1981.

What the plaque says

Rock Castle 1 mi. S. Begun 1784, Indian attacks delayed its completion until 1791. Was home of Daniel Smith, captain in Lord Dunmore's War; Colonel in Revolution; Brigadier General of militia in the Mero District; Member of the committee to frame the Bill of Rights; Territorial Secretary of State; U. S. Senator.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Andrew Jackson's Hermitage — 6.4 mi
  Andrew Jackson's cotton plantation east of Nashville, where visitors can walk to the quarters, Alfred's Cabin and the Enslaved Cemetery as well as the mansion.
• Tennessee State Capitol — 14 mi
  William Strickland's Greek Revival capitol on Nashville's Capitol Hill, finished in 1859 and built from the bottom up with the labor of enslaved men.
• Ryman Auditorium — 14 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.
• National Museum of African American Music — 14 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.

More markers nearby

• William Henderson — 0.7 mi
• Hendersonville, Louisville & Nashville Railroad Depot — 0.8 mi
• Free Hill Road — 2.4 mi
• The Cash Home — 2.9 mi