Ashwood Hall, Southern plantation in Maury County, Tennessee.

Ashwood Hall was a substantial plantation mansion in Maury County with expansive grounds and a main entrance oriented toward a church across the road. The structure dominated the Tennessee agricultural landscape with its prominent position and scale.

The mansion was built from 1833 to 1837 for Leonidas Polk, later Episcopal bishop, on land belonging to his father Colonel William Polk. In 1847 Polk sold it for US$35,000 to Rebecca Van Leer, heiress to an iron fortune, who had married his brother Andrew Jackson Polk; the couple spent a further US$35,000 on expansions. It burned down in 1874.

The name Ashwood passed from the mansion to the surrounding community, which is now called Ashwood. Leonidas Polk planted three ginkgo trees imported from China in front of the house; they survived the 1874 fire and still stand on the original spot.

The site is located near Columbia, Tennessee, in a rural area best explored during daylight hours. The grounds offer context for understanding the historical setting, though the original structure no longer stands.

Three ginkgo trees that Leonidas Polk imported from China were planted in front of the mansion; they survived the 1874 fire and still stand on the original spot. The house itself, built of brick with four Corinthian columns across its two-storey front, is gone.