I'm lucky enough to be involved in listing a home that was built in 1824. Now this may not seem old to people on the east coast, but 1824 is only 4 years after the first steamboats arrived in here in Clarksville, TN.
I feel that it is my sacred duty to find a buyer for this home that will feel an emotional connection to it and appreciate its history.
A historic home is not perfect. This one has over a hundred and fifty years of families that have walked its halls, played in its yards, and slept in its bedrooms. The Civil War echos from its walls. The trees on the property are amongst the oldest and largest in the county. I hope that I can do justice to this special home by finding a buyer that will continue to care for it in a way that will allow future generations to enjoy its uniqueness.
Imagine the glory, grace, and elegance of the “Old South”. This was a period when life was simpler; fortunes were made from the land, and spectacular plantation homes were filled with the finest furnishings. Southern Pines echoes the feeling of this “Gone With The Wind” era.
The home is built in the Federal style and boasts a two-tiered portico. Notable features of this Southern mansion include the three story curving grand pegged walnut staircase, thick brick walls, exterior chimneys, 8 original (one is currently hidden) fireplaces including several of the original mantels, original wide hand-planed oak floors, and massive double-doors separating the living and dining rooms. Legend is that a crack in the brick was caused by a cannonball. In later years, as the home faced a different kind of war, a fallout shelter was added to the grounds.
A successful Clarksville merchant, Hugh McClure, made his fortune and began to accumulate land about six miles out of town on the Kentucky Road; accessible from Clarksville only by taking the ferry across the Red River. Construction of the home began only 28 years after Tennessee achieved statehood and only 4 years after the first steamboats navigated the Cumberland River to Clarksville.
The land on which the home stands was part of 640 acres of land owned by Wright Bonds. Hugh McClure and James Elder, Clarksville’s first Mayor, purchased 380 acres from him in 1805.
Hugh McClure was an Irish immigrant who arrived in Clarksville in 1797 and became a wealthy merchant, land speculator, and influential citizen. He built the first brick storehouse in Clarksville at the foot of Main Street near the Cumberland River.McClure built this home on the property circa 1825 although it is possible that it was actually much earlier. It was then known as Fairfield Farms. McClure added 413 adjoining acres to grow his ‘farm” to 793 acres.
The property passed to the McClure’s daughter, Elizabeth McClure Drane, wife of Dr. Walter Harding Drane in 1828. Dr. Drane was another influential citizen who came to Clarksville from Kentucky in 1825. He was a big supporter of the Clarksville Male Academy (now Austin Peay State University). Dr. Drane was especially instrumental in the building of turnpikes, bridges, and railroads. In 1843, he gave up his medical practice and moved to his farm on Hopkinsville Road permanently where he became a tobacco tycoon. Late in 1861, he served as a volunteer surgeon with the 14th Tennessee Infantry in Virginia. Dr. Drane died on his farm in 1865. 
Three of his sons built mansions on the Hopkinsville Road including the Minglewood Plantation that has also survived to this day.
At one time, a spring near the home flowed for several hundred yards before disappearing into a cave on the property.
For a short time, beginning in 1996, the property was a bed-n-breakfast known as Southern Pines.
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