The Northington-Beach House was built in 1886 for Michael Carr Northington (1850-1913) and Nannie Virginia Neblett Northington (1853-1932).
Photo by Sbugsyk
The Italianate Revival style mansion is located at 512 Madison St. Northington operated very successful tobacco and grocery businesses in the early 1870s. In 1873, he and partner J.W. Keesee started the tobacco firm, Keesee and Northington. In 1884, he joined the board of directors of Clarksville National Bank. He was a Mayor of Clarksville. Before his death, Northington sold the house.
Subsequently it had multiple owners. From 1906-1917, nurses from the hospital next door stayed there. The head of the nurses, Miss Irene Johnson, met and married (William) Oscar Beach (1888-1985) in 1921, they converted the house back to a single family residence and three years later moved into it . Mr. Beach ran Pan American Oil Company, which had one of the first service stations [renamed Beach Oil Company in 1973, it still operates], and grew over the years. In 1919, he founded the company Beach Brothers which became Beach Oil Company. As of 2010, the company remained family-owned. About 1940, Irene opened the Pan American Grill.
In 1947, Irene died. Mr. Beach married his third wife, Ursula Smith Beach (1900-1992) who was the Montgomery County historian. Among her works, Along the Warioto: A History of Montgomery County, Tennessee was published. She was also very involved in the Montgomery County Historical Society. After Oscar died, Ursula remained at the house until her death. Their son, William Oscar Beach, Jr. is a long-time Montgomery County judge and a civic center was named in his honor for his service.
About 1992, Connie Ervin and Donna Lovitt bought the property and opened a bed and breakfast which was unsuccessful. In 1997, Mary Higgs-Beach, a relative in the Beach family, bought Northington-Beach House/ Rose Garden at auction. She had lived there and opened a tea-room and garden shop called The Rose Garden. It served Clarksville for a decade.
In 2010, the house was owned by Jonathan and Rachael Vincent. In 2019, the Rose Garden building was available to be rented for office space. NRHP 2001
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