The City of Oak Hill, Tennessee is a proud community with historic roots, a hidden jewel just south of downtown Nashville real estate.  Its 4,700 residents are drawn to the exclusive Oak Hill real estate’s single-family zoning along with low-density housing on large, tree-filled lots surrounding Tennessee’s largest natural area, Lake Radnor.

The architecture of Nashville real estate spans decades.  In the 1920’s, some of the pre-war Nashville estate homes were restored. Most Nashville homes have been built since World War II.  The Tennessee Governor’s residence, fifteen churches, and a number of schools are speckled throughout the elegantly landscaped 8 square miles of the city.

The preservation of Radnor Lake began 1913 when the thousand-acre tract purchased by the L&N Railroad to use for corporate hunting trips.  Ten years later, an executive stopped all hunting and fishing and declared it a wildlife sanctuary.  In danger of being developed by a new owner, in 1962 a grassroots preservation movement got involved and eventually nearly 750 acres were named as the state’s first natural area and protected ecosystem, which has grown to 1,200 acres today.

The City was incorporated in 1952 in an effort to maintain its residential character. Zoning regulations forbid businesses to operate within the city limits, and require churches and schools to function under conditional use permits.  With an elected board of commissioners who take care of community planning, land use, zoning, building permits, and building-codes inspections; and contract out street maintenance and paving, monthly chipper service, twice-weekly backdoor trash pickup, a recycling program, right-of-way maintenance, and other services, residents are well pampered.  Emergency services, including fire and police, are the responsibility of Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County.

Reading like a modern action movie, the city is plump full of exciting stories—some a little too exciting.  With a region blessed with abundant fresh water and wild game, the nomadic hunter-gatherers, Paleo-Indians, Archaic Indians, Woodland Indians, Early Mississippians and, ultimately, the Cherokee nation traversed these hills before the European explorers arrived in the middle of the sixteenth century.  Spaniards such as DeSoto searching for gold, French such as Marquette, Joliet, and La Salle, and the English. 

James Robertson established Fort Nashborough a couple hundred years later in 1779, and was joined by his friend John Donelson and 60 more families the next year. The Fort offered protection from attacks and access to supplies delivered via the Cumberland River.  Lucinda (Granny) White became known for offering food, brandy, and comfortable beds to travelers is honored for her kind hospitality as the namesake of a local roadway.  In 1789, Attorney John Overton opened a horse-breeding farm called Travellers Rest, producing famous high-quality thoroughbreds, Morgans, trotting horses, and saddle horses.  As the story goes, his law partner, General Andrew Jackson, marched his militia right through the neighborhood in 1814 on their way to Natchez Trace and the Battle of New Orleans.  The Glen Leven home built in 1857 was used as a field hospital during the battle.  Historical markers commemorate well-known conflicts during the Battle of Nashville. 

The region’s first amusement park with mechanical rides operated from 1887 to 1932 under the names Woodstock Park and Glendale Park.  People could ride the rail to the park from anywhere in town for 5 cents.

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