The Bradford-Berry House carries two family names, and both of them shaped the history of Middle Tennessee. We have met the Bradfords—the Revolutionary War veteran, the frontier builder, the father of a governor’s wife. Now it is time to meet the Berrys.
The Berry family’s story in Nashville begins with William Wells Berry, born in Tennessee in 1812. Berry became one of Nashville’s most prominent businessmen, founding the William Berry Wholesale Drugs Company and serving on the board of Planters’ Bank for nearly ten years. He was president of Third National Bank from its founding in 1865 until his death in 1876, and president of Equitable Insurance. He also owned large plantations in Arkansas. In 1840, he married Jane Eliza White, and together they built Elmwood, their estate near Franklin Pike.
William and Jane’s son Horatio Berry was born on April 18, 1851. Horatio married Nannie Smith—born in 1861, the daughter of Harry Smith and Sallie Sypert Smith—and around 1886, the couple moved to Hazel Path Mansion in Hendersonville. They acquired adjacent land aggressively, growing their holdings to more than 3,800 acres. At one point, the Berrys owned Hazel Path Mansion, Rock Castle, Tulip Grove Mansion, and the Bradford-Berry House. Their plantation produced 2,000 hams per year.
In 1887, Horatio purchased the Bradford homestead and several hundred acres of land for his newborn daughter Sarah Crosby Berry. Though Horatio’s wife Nannie renovated the house—adding a garage, kitchen wing, and an elevator—with the intention of moving there from Hazel Path, she never did. The house remained in Berry family ownership for decades. Sarah Berry was the last Berry to reside at the property, and she eventually sold it to General Electric in 1968.
But the most far-reaching Berry legacy belongs to Horatio and Nannie’s son, Colonel Harry Smith Berry. Born on January 28, 1882, Harry grew up at Hazel Path in the shadow of the Bradford-Berry House. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1904 and served in the U.S. Army, including duty in the Philippines.
After returning to Tennessee, Berry rose through the ranks of the Tennessee National Guard and served in both World War I and World War II. He was awarded the Legion of Merit for his service—one of the highest military decorations for outstanding meritorious conduct.
But Colonel Berry’s most visible legacy is the one you can see every time you check a flight status or book a ticket out of Nashville. In 1928, Berry established Nashville’s first airfield. That modest grass strip grew into Berry Field, the city’s primary airport. In 1988, Berry Field was renamed Nashville International Airport, but the airport code—BNA—was retained. Every flight, every departure, every arrival: they all trace back to a man who grew up near a house built by a Revolutionary War veteran on Drake’s Creek.
Colonel Harry Smith Berry died in 1965 at the age of 83. Nannie Smith Berry, his mother, had lived to 100, passing in 1961. The Berry family’s imprint on Sumner County and Nashville is permanent—written in stone, in brick, and in the runways of an international airport.
Two families. Two centuries. One house. The Bradford-Berry House is where these legacies converge—and where the next chapter of their story is being written.
