Polk Home Interiors

Polk Home Interiors

After President Polk died of cholera only 3 months after leaving office, Sarah Polk lived in Nashville until her death, but the house she and President Polk built for his retirement is no longer standing. An "irrevokable" will that left the property to the State of Tennessee for preservation was broken by a later relative, the land sold and the house demolished. Today the place where it stood is a parking lot. However, some of the furnishings used in the Nashville residence are today preserved in the Polk Home in Columbia, thanks to the generosity of other family members.
Dining Room Northwest Room -- the Boys' Room
There were two other rooms in the house besides those shown here. The parlor or living room at the front of the ground floor, and a master bedroom above the dining room. Unfortunately, my pictures of those rooms didn't turn out well.

The senior Polks had a large family, and although they did not all live at home simultaneously (James went off to school before his youngest brother was born), they still filled this relatively small house to the brim. The Boys' Room in the northwest corner of the second floor was home for up to six sons, and the GIrls' Room (which had a fireplace, a luxury the boys didn't enjoy) housed four or five daughters.

The desk now in the northwest bedroom belonged to President Polk, and the chair with a writing arm was built to Sarah's specifications. She used it for most of her post-Washington life to carry on extensive correspondences.

The bed in the Girls' Room (with a portrait of Sarah's sister, Susana, hanging over it) features the Polk family symbol, the acorn.

Northeast Room -- the Girls' Room


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