Belle Meade, Tennessee

Belle Meade is a suburban city on the west side of Nashville, Tennessee in Davidson County. Its total land area is 3.1 square miles (8.0 km²), and its population was 2,901 at the 2020 census. The city functions as an independent municipality with its own regulations, city hall, and police department, distinct from the Metropolitan Nashville Government (Metro). Residents pay property taxes for these services, and also pay taxes to Metro for fire protection, ambulance service, and other municipal functions. Belle Meade is the wealthiest city in Tennessee. The median annual income of Belle Meade residents is more than $250,000 according to the 2023 American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau. This exceeds the median annual income in the U.S. by more than three times.

Belle Meade traces its origins to Belle Meade Plantation, a 5,300 acres (2,100 ha) estate established in 1807 by John Harding and expanded by his son William Giles Harding, who built an imposing mansion on the property with the labor of enslaved African people. The Civil War took a heavy toll on the plantation, and after subsequent financial setbacks the property was subdivided in 1906. The city of Belle Meade was incorporated in 1938 on part of that land, along with adjoining property that later became Cheekwood Botanical Gardens, portions of Percy Warner Park, the Belle Meade Country Club, and residential development.

Among the early developers, Johnson Bransford commissioned noted landscape architect Ossian Cole Simonds to design the Belle Meade Links subdivision, while Luke Lea, working independently, secured a country club and golf course to relocate there and guided the layout of broad Belle Meade Boulevard, a focal point of the city that terminates at the entrance to Percy Warner Park.