A Little Crieve Hall History

Here in the Women’s League we truly love our special community here in Crieve Hall. Today we’re celebrating the history of our beloved neighborhood by sharing a little bit about the history behind our area. We hope you’ll enjoy!

Crieve Hall neighborhood gets its name from the Tudor Style home pictured above built in 1898 by Jesse and Saidee Overton. Originally named Overton Hall, the home was erected on the old Travellers Rest plantation north of Hogan Road on what is today Stillwood Drive between Barrywood Drive and Crieve Road. Farrel Parkway may have once been the driveway leading to the home.

During their time there, Jesse and Saidee built handsome brick stables for their horses, raised Berkshire hogs and Jersey cattle and designed the formal gardens pictured here.

In 1925, the Overtons sold the residence and its then 433 acres to Herbert and Helen Ritchey Cheek Farrell, the daughter of Joel Cheek, the founder of Maxwell House Coffee. Herbert and Helen renamed the house Crieve Hall after the Farrell’s ancestral home in Northern Ireland.

The Farrells were known for hosting large fox hunts on the land followed by extravagant social breakfasts.

After Herbert Farrell’s death in 1947, Mrs. Farrel found Crieve Hall to be more than she could handle. She sold the property to developers who demolished the house in 1951 and subdivided the property that faces on today’s Farrell Parkway.

For more information about the history of Overton/Crieve Hall and other historic homes in Nashville, please read “Nashville Pikes: 150 Years Along Franklin Pike and Granny White Pike” by Ridley Wills II.