From time to time, we're going to bring you virtual tours of some of the most beautiful estate and commercial greenhouses and glass houses. Here's a tour of the Belmot Mansion Greenhouses.

If you’re traveling through Nashville, Tennessee, it’s worth a trip to visit historic Belmont Mansion, the home of Adelicia Hayes Acklen Franklin Cheatham, a real-life southern belle with gumption. Born in 1817 into a well-to-do Nashville family, Adelicia married a man several years her senior who left her a wealthy widow upon his death. By the time of her death in 1887, Adelicia Acklen was ranked as one of the wealthiest women in America. When she married her second husband, Joseph Acklen, in 1849 they embarked upon building a magnificent Italianate-style home named “Belle Monte”—“beautiful view” in French. This massive 20,000 square foot home stands today as one of the finest house museums in the country.

Belmont Mansion was a marvel for its time. Set amid elaborate gardens, the estate contained a bear house, a private zoo, a bowling alley, an art gallery, a water tower, and a 200-foot-long greenhouse that provided both fresh edibles (grapes) and overwintered an extensive collection of landscape and potted plants for the estate gardens. According to mansion director Mark Brown, among the plants listed in documented accounts of the greenhouse are: cacti, camellias, night-blooming cereus, water lilies, and fuschias. It is likely that the greenhouses overwintered indoor potted plants as well, as Belmont was built primarily to serve as a summer residence only.

The greenhouses consisted of four connected sections, built entirely of glass, and heated by a basement furnace. They featured cast-iron grates that matched the cast-iron gazebos on the grounds (which are still standing). The greenhouses and grounds were maintained by a succession of full-time European gardeners, who lived in the Italianate-style gardener’s cottage behind the greenhouses. The still-standing water tower provided running water both for the greenhouses and for the Mansion. Interestingly, the original structures stood until the 1920s, when the precursor of Belmont University dismantled them to make way for expansion.

Learn more about the Belmont Mansion by visiting their website, here.