In-Home Drug Testing Forest Hills, TN

Local Area Info: Forest Hills, Tennessee

Nashville was settled by Anglo-Europeans in 1780, and over the next two decades settlers staked claims on what was originally land cultivated and hunted by Native Americans. Several land grants were awarded to Revolutionary War veterans. The recipients of these grants seldom settled the land themselves, but either sold them to individuals or passed them along to their children or other relatives. In the Forest Hills area, William Nash received a 640-acre (2.6 km2) grant along what is now Granny White Pike south of Tyne Boulevard. Nash opted to sell off parcels of his land, including a 160-acre (0.65 km2) tract to Henry Compton in the early 19th century. Much of the land west of Hillsboro Road was part of a grant awarded to James Robertson.

A Revolutionary War veteran named McCrory chose to give his land grant to his son Thomas, who came to the area in 1790. The younger McCrory went on to acquire some 3,700 acres (15 km2) in Davidson and Williamson counties, including land along what is now Old Hickory Boulevard. McCrory built a two-story log dwelling on this property in 1798. The property was purchased by William B. Carpenter in 1837, and his daughter and son-in-law Mary E. and George Mayfield inherited the house in 1869. It remained in the Mayfield family until 1939. This is the oldest building remaining in Forest Hills, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. As Nashville assumed prominence on the western frontier, a road known as the Natchez Trace was created to provide an overland route for settlers returning from New Orleans. Many settlers in the Ohio and Cumberland River valleys floated on rafts down the Mississippi River to New Orleans to sell their goods. Prior to the invention of the steamboat, western settlers had no choice but to walk home through the wilderness to reach home. In order to provide an improved road, the Natchez Trace was constructed from Nashville to Natchez, Mississippi.

Construction of the Natchez Trace began in 1802, and work continued on improving the road until it was officially declared complete in 1809. From the early 19th century to the 1820s, the Natchez Trace was the primary north/south route through central Tennessee. With the advent of steamboat travel, the use of the Natchez Trace declined significantly, and the old roadbed was used as local farm roads by the mid-19th century. Various surveys and land records of the 19th century refer to the "Natchez Trace" or "Natchez Road" located on at least three different routes in Davidson County, two of which ran through Forest Hills. As National Park Service historian Dawson Phelps wrote in the 1940s, "All this has been very confusing to many Nashvillians who dabble in local history. Each has a definite idea that one or the other of the roads mentioned above is the Old Trace and is eager, at the drop of a hat, to defend his position obstinately, profanely, and at great length." However, a recent study of the Natchez Trace identified one of the main routes extending through what is now Forest Hills along either side of present-day Hillsboro Pike.