Joseph Thorpe Elliston

Joseph Thorpe Elliston (1779 – November 10, 1856) was an American silversmith, planter and politician. He served as the fourth mayor of Nashville, Tennessee from 1814 to 1817. He owned land in mid-town Nashville, on parts of modern-day Centennial Park, Vanderbilt University, and adjacent West End Park. Early life Elliston was born in 1779 in Culpeper, Virginia. He moved to Lexington, Kentucky, where he was trained as a silversmith by Samuel Ayers from 1795 to 1798, when he moved to Nashville, Tennessee. Career Elliston began his career as a silversmith in Nashville in 1798. He was the owner of a store on the corner of Union Street and 2nd Avenue in modern-day Downtown Nashville, which he ran with his nephew, also called John Elliston. The store burnt down in March 1814, but he opened a new one shortly after. He designed cutlery for President Andrew Jackson, which later became part of the collection of The Hermitage. He also designed jewelry with silver and gold. In 1811, Elliston purchased 208 acres for $11,435.75 in mid-town, from "what is now 20th Avenue to a line covering part of Centennial Park, and from a line well within the Vanderbilt campus today to Charlotte Avenue." He subsequently purchased 350 acres "along what is now Murphey Road, including the Acklen Park [West End Park] area." It ran across West End Avenue, which had not yet been built. Elliston built a small house, and he named it Burlington "after the Elliston homestead in Kentucky." The house stood on modern-day Elliston Place.