Belle Meade was once one of the most famous thoroughbred horse farms in America — the bloodlines of three of every four Kentucky Derby winners can be traced back to its sires. The 1853 Greek Revival mansion and a cluster of original outbuildings (the carriage house, the original log cabin, the dairy) are now a museum and one of the most thoroughly documented antebellum sites in the South.
A standard ticket includes a tour of the mansion, the grounds, and the Belle Meade Winery in the carriage house — Tennessee's oldest winery, with a tasting that comes with the entry. The site has done significant work since the 2010s to integrate the histories of the people enslaved at Belle Meade into the main tour; the visit is more candid than visitors of an older era might expect.