Belle Meade isn’t just a historic plantation in Nashville, Tennessee. It’s also the state’s wealthiest zip code. I’d been longing to catch closer glimpses of the huge homes behind the trees on Harding Pike, so this cloudy day I took my little iPhone and set out to capture some of the architectural gorgeousness.
After a little driving, these amazing neighborhoods started to seem repetitive. Like they were suburban homes on steroids. It was in a more ordinary-looking neighborhood that I stopped in front of a stunning brick building called The Belle Meade.
To me, there’s something about exploring a building I’ve never been in. It’s absorbing, magical, mysterious, a whole new story ripe with possibility, catnip for my imagination. So I imagined myself living in this building, parking my car (somehow not my beloved older-model Accord) in the circular driveway, bringing groceries in through the dark wood doors and perching on a windowseat to daydream weekends away.
On Harding Pike, the main drag through Belle Meade, I’d had several near wrecks trying to catch glimpses of another old brick building. It was huge, intriguing, shielded from the roads by trees. Street parking was plentiful so I approached it on foot: on old, broken-down apartment building with a/c window units and in the back, a later addition to the original structure with siding. Cars were housed in what looked like an old stable beside the building. When I imagined living in this building, it was a very different life… a musician’s life perhaps, or an artist’s life.
Nearby, vines covered a privacy wall, and two lit lanterns flanked the metal gate.
~ The Dauntless Princess ~