An old house you may not notice in Murfreesboro is this beautiful Italianate called “Oakhurst”. It’s located on Cherry Lane and hidden behind big, beautiful trees and “newer” homes that make it harder to see than it once was. In fact, this area used to be considered country and this was the eastern-most structure. This was the last Italianate-style home built in Rutherford County.
The land it sat on contained 125 acres. It was built by Leland Jordan for his bride after they were wed in 1879. It was a self-sufficient farming operation complete with barn, granary, buggy house, smoke house, cook’s house, family garden plot, and even a tennis court!
By 1909, Jordan’s wife had died and he was the principal founder and president of the Murfreesboro Bank & Trust Company. He eventually sold the home and moved to California in 1919. The home and land changed hands a few times as the land was sold into smaller lots and more homes were built around it.
Oakhurst fell upon hard times in the 1930s and the home was divided into apartments. In 1980, Bill and Barbara Cunningham bought the home and breathed new life into it and brought it back to a private residence. Then it was purchased by Kenneth J. and Carolyn Cruickshank (shown in the 3rd picture) who continued to bring it back to life and to what you see here today.
This is the side view of the home. See that tower on the left-hand side of the picture? That’s the front of the home! That’s a beautiful Italianate tower. It used to face East Main Street and had an East Main Street address. Now there is a home directly in front of it and it now has a Cherry Lane address.
