The Murfreesboro Post
Oaklands Historic House Museum
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Residents are invited to celebrate the fall harvest on Saturday, Oct. 19, at 5 p.m. in Maney Hall at the Oaklands Historic House Museum with a hearty Southern supper inspired by the 1860s.
During supper, guests will be treated to mourning tours of the mansion. Customs such as widows’ weeds, the clocks being stopped at the hour of death, the curtains drawn being drawn, and the mirrors draped in black, will be explored. These types of rituals were all part of the unusual mourning customs and creepy superstitions of the Victorian era.
Admission is $30 per person with children younger than 5 years old admitted for free.
This historically self-sustaining plantation inspires visitors to consider the human similarities and cultural differences between the lives and those who lived, worked and played on these sprawling grounds. It promises to be a fun-filled evening where celebration abounds with memories of years past, good wine, and samplings of recipe favorites.
Oaklands Mansion was begun between 1815 and 1820 by Dr. James Maney and his wife, Sally Hardee Murfree, as a mere two room brick cabin built on her inheritance of 274 acres surrounding Maney Spring.
Their plantation home was consistently enlarged until it became a grand Italianate mansion by 1858. The impressive structure was then occupied through the 1950s until a brief period of vacancy and vandalism, which led it to be scheduled for demolition.
It was a group of 10 local ladies who saved the historic site from a demolition ball. By 1962, Oaklands Historic House Museum was open for tours and it still is today.
For more information or to register for the event, call 615-893-0022.