1842 Greek Revival Plantation Home of Judge Josephus Guild
810 South Water Avenue, Gallatin, TN 37066
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Modest admission for daytime tours; paranormal investigation programs priced separately.
Access
Limited Access
Historic two-story home with multiple staircases and uneven grounds
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1842 · Greek Revival Architecture · Thoroughbred Horse Farm History · Andrew Jackson Connection · Antebellum and Civil War History · National Register of Historic Places
Judge Josephus Conn Guild (1802-1883) built Rose Mont in Gallatin, Tennessee, completing the house in 1842. The Greek Revival design centered on a two-story portico facing south across the original five-hundred-acre estate, which became one of the largest thoroughbred horse farms in Middle Tennessee through the antebellum period.
Guild was a prominent Tennessee jurist and railroad executive. He served as a Tennessee Circuit Court judge, as president of the Edgefield and Kentucky Railroad, and as a Tennessee state legislator. His friendship with President Andrew Jackson is documented in correspondence, and Jackson is known to have visited Rose Mont on multiple occasions.
The Guild operation depended on enslaved labor. Census schedules and property inventories document the names and household roles of the enslaved people who lived and worked on the estate before emancipation; the site's contemporary interpretive program covers this history with archival neutrality. The Civil War cut into the operation, and the property was reduced in scope and reorganized in the postwar decades.
Rose Mont passed through descendant family hands until the mid-twentieth century. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is operated today as a historic house museum by Historic Rose Mont. The site has been featured on the Travel Channel's Generations of Ghosts (Ghost Hunters, season 16, episode 7, 2023).
Sources
Rose Mont's site director Eli Geery and museum staff have documented patterns of reported phenomena across years of operation. The most consistently named entity is Betty, the daughter-in-law of Judge Josephus Guild, whose figure has been reported on the second floor of the home roughly once a week according to staff accounts. Two additional Guild-family figures are described in regional coverage but appear less often.
The pattern of reported phenomena includes doors opening and closing on their own, footsteps on the main staircase, disembodied voices, and full-body apparitions described as moving through specific rooms rather than along passageways. Site staff have noted that activity reportedly correlates with electrical storms; this pattern is mentioned in interviews but is not independently verified.
Rose Mont was featured on Ghost Hunters season 16, episode 7, Generations of Ghosts, aired in 2023. The site programs scheduled paranormal investigations several times per year. The interpretive program also addresses the lives of the enslaved people who labored on the property, an aspect of the household's history that is treated separately from the paranormal lore and with appropriate archival care.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Tour the 1842 Greek Revival home of Judge Josephus Conn Guild, a confidant of Andrew Jackson and operator of the largest thoroughbred horse farm in Sumner County. Interpretive content covers the household's antebellum operation, the enslaved people who labored on the property, the Civil War-era division of the estate, and the multi-generational family history.
Scheduled after-hours investigations on the property, hosted by site staff and partner investigators. Sessions cover the main hall, the upstairs bedrooms (particularly Betty Guild's room), and the staircase where footsteps are most consistently reported.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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