Bill Lee's House

Bill Lee ran Lee Company, his family's mechanical construction and services firm, before politics; he has been Tennessee's 50th governor since January 2019. The governorship comes with this state-owned house.

Far Hills was completed in 1931 for William Ridley Wills, founder of National Life and Accident Insurance. Tennessee bought it in 1949, and 9 governors from Gordon Browning to Bill Haslam made it home.

The Cultural Landscape Foundation credits the Georgian Revival design to architect Russell Hart. The grounds are a certified arboretum, 175 trees across 63 species, with some 64,000 daffodils in the beds.

On Davidson County's parcel roll the owner still reads “State of Tenn Governors Mansion,” 10.43 acres on the north side of Curtiswood Lane, held under a 1949 deed.

Oak Hill's planning commission voted unanimously in December 2007 against an underground event hall, citing narrow Curtiswood Lane and evacuation of a buried room. The State Building Commission overrode it in January 2008.

Phil Bredesen never moved in; he and Andrea Conte kept their own Nashville house through the rebuild. Songwriter Bob McDill, next door, called their underground hall plan “a pretty wild idea” when it surfaced.

Conservation Hall sits under the front lawn, lit through a glass atrium set into the grass. School groups touring the grounds guess helicopter pad, pool, or skating rink.