The Baxters added this Victorian section to the house.
Ever since Crema opened, I've noticed a considerable uptick in people asking me if I know anything about "that house" — the one you can't help but notice if you park at the side of Crema. In fact, it's gotten to the point where when someone asks me about "that house," I just assume they mean the gray Victorian that overlooks downtown. I'm almost always right.
I do know quite a bit about it, but until Friday, I'd never been inside it. Home now to the law firm of McCune Zenner Happell, the back part is among the oldest houses still standing in downtown Nashville, if not the oldest. Built in 1821 by Henry Middleton Rutledge and his wife/first cousin Septima Sexta Rutledge (nee Middleton), Rose Hill, as the house was called, faced out toward the Lebanon Road. It was, as you might guess by the name, famous for its rose garden, which ran all the way down to the river.
Supposedly Rose Hill was modeled after the Middleton family home in Charleston, S.C., so if you knew what Middleton Place looked like, you'd have a good idea of what Rose Hill originally looked like. This is what Middleton Place looks like and has since the mid-1800s. So... yeah... not so helpful. A fire also struck Rose Hill in the mid-1800s, but the damage was not quite as extensive. So what we see today is shaped by that fire, the addition Capt. Baxter did, and subsequent additions. Still, you can get a sense of the old house if you study what is now the back part of the house that faces Rutledge Street.
