The James Robertson House

GENERAL JAMES ROBERTSON's first residence was a one-room cabin constructed of hand-hewn poplar and cedar logs in early 1779 during his three-month exploration of the Cumberland country.   It was located on Richland Creek, at present-day 23rd and Park avenues, west of James Avenue and north of Robertson Road.  That locale is about 1.2 miles northeast of present H. G. Hill Park, where the double-log reconstructed Robertson House is located.

When the Robertsons permanently moved to their Richland Creek lands in October, 1784, they resided in the log cabin while their new home--the first brick house in Middle Tennessee--was under construction (at present-day 5904 Robertson Road) inside Robertson's station.

After the Robertsons moved into their brick home in 1787, Scottish schoolmaster and plantation overseer David Hood lived in the expanded log structure.  Both residences were known as Travellers' Rest, although the brick mansion was renamed Richland in 1816 (it burned in 1902).

By 1772, Robertson instigated writing the Watauga Association articles--the first independent government separate from British rule in America.  His work on the articles earned him the appellation of "Father of American Democracy," and his form of government was copied in the 1775 Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, which was the forerunner of the 1776 Declaration of Independence.

In the early spring of 1779, James Robertson and nine men arrived at French Lick in canoes and began exploring the Cumberland River area.  After traveling to Illinois, Robertson and his overland party returned to French Lick and crossed the frozen Cumberland on Christmas day.  They soon began building Robertson's Station / Fort Nashborough on the bluff, and the bustling outpost was renamed Nashville in 1784.

Both Governor William Blount and Andrew Jackson designated James Robertson, who established first settlements in all three sections of Tennessee, as "The Father of Tennessee."