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Donelson, Nashville — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Donelson is an eastern neighbourhood of Nashville, Tennessee, built around the James Buchanan House on Elm Hill Pike.
About Donelson
Where to stay in Donelson
Where you base yourself shapes the visit — here's the character of each area.
Donelson spreads across the eastern edge of Nashville, a low-slung residential quarter well apart from the honky-tonks of the central city. Most visitors base themselves near Elm Hill Pike, within easy reach of the James Buchanan House, then drive the short hop into downtown Nashville when the wider city calls. Beds gather along the through roads.
Choose here for a calmer stay than the crowded core of Nashville, still close to Tennessee's capital.
About Donelson
What are the main landmarks in Donelson?
The James Buchanan House anchors Donelson. This early brick dwelling stands at Elm Hill Pike and dates to about 1800, one of the older surviving houses on this side of Nashville, and it carries a place on the National Register of Historic Places. Its walls outlasted the farms around them.
For a visitor, it fixes the neighbourhood's story in a single building rather than a museum row, giving Donelson a landmark set apart from the rest of Tennessee's capital.
What is the history of Donelson?
Before the houses, there were fields. Donelson grew from the open country east of Nashville, and the James Buchanan House on Elm Hill Pike, raised around 1800, records how early families settled these fields long before the district folded into the wider city. Streets replaced the pastures in time.
That single brick house still stands as the neighbourhood's oldest witness, a quiet marker of Donelson's start on the eastern rim of Tennessee's capital.
Where is Donelson?
Donelson lies along the eastern side of Nashville, a gently rolling residential district in temperate Tennessee, threaded by Elm Hill Pike and set apart from the city's downtown core.
More areas in Nashville
Updated July 2026