Rattle & Snap was built by George Washington Polk and his wife, Sallie Hilliard, in 1842-1845 on land inherited from his Revolutionary War hero father, Col. William Polk of North Carolina. A National Historic Landmark, the fully restored and furnis hed antebellum mansion stands stately as one of a handful of Greek Revival masterpieces in this nation. Complete with Carriage House/Stables, gardens, ice house, gift shop - even an interpretive farm, Rattle & Snap takes one to the days when cotton was "king" and Southern grace was commonplace. Today, most architectural scholars call Rattle & Snap "the grandest of its style in Tennessee to which only a handful in the nation are comparable." The mansion is an obvious and interesting departure from the conventional architecture of antebellum homes in this part of the South. To the usual four Corinthian columns were added a commanding six, three to each flank and three paces to the rear.
