Longview (Nashville, Tennessee)

The mansion is located at 811 Caldwell lane in South Nashville, the county seat of Davidson County, Tennessee and capital of the state.[2][3]

A one-story cottage was built in the Antebellum era for Henry Norvell and Laura Sevier, the granddaughter of John Sevier, who had served as the first Governor of Tennessee.[3] During the Civil War, the house was used by Confederate General John Bell Hood in his preparation before the Battle of Nashville of December 15–16, 1864.[3]

In 1878, the cottage was purchased by James Erwin Caldwell, the president of the Cumberland Telephone and Telegraph Company, which installed the Bell System in the American South.[3] Caldwell redesigned the house in the Italianate architectural style, and added a second story.[3] He lived there with his wife, Mary Winston, and their ten children.[3]

The house was redesigned in the Beaux-Arts architectural style in 1906.[3] In that process, the house was expanded with a portico, a winding staircase, and an attic in the third story.[3]

After Caldwell's death, the house was sold to the Franklin Road Church of Christ.[3] It was converted into a church building, and it remained a church for eight years.[3] In 1960, the house was purchased by Dr Nicholas de Palma.[3] He sold it in 1977.[3]

It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since January 12, 1983.[2]