Overbrook was built in 1913 by Joseph Warner (1865-1939) and Lillian Black Warner (1874-1944) at 4210 Harding Rd. (Joseph’s first wife was Mary Frances Duncan Warner (1870-1894) and married in 1892.) On land purchased 3 years earlier in 1910, Overbrook is a brick Neoclassic Revival style mansion that originally had 96 acres. The property was earlier part of the Charles Bosley plantation. Joseph joined his father James C. Warner, in the iron business along with brothers, Percy and Edwin, and was president of Warner Furnace and Warner Iron Company. He was also a director of Merchants Bank. He and his brothers also invested in a North Nashville cotton mill. The property was unusual because its large acreage was so close to Nashville. At some point, it acquired the nickname “White House.”
Ten years later, in 1923, it was bought by St. Cecilia Congregation of the Dominican Order of Sisters of Charity and leased as a residence until 1936; whereupon Overbrook School was started. In 1961, St. Cecilia Academy, an all-girls Catholic high school started in the “White House,” and new buildings for Overbrook School and the establishment of Aquinas Junior College. The “White House” remains in use as the administrative building. The name Overbrook comes from the mansion’s position overlooking the brook that runs through the front of the property and into Richland Creek.
The Dominican Order of the Sisters of Charity maintained their Motherhouse near above current Metrocenter on the old Buena Vista site. The same groups also had been called to start the early practice of religious-affiliated hospitals.They opened St. Thomas Hospital in the original Ensworth mansion on Hayes St. NR 1984 See Buena Vista, Ensworth (Hayes St.)
Photo by Skye Marthaler
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