In 1889 the association must have viewed the task ahead of it with something akin to terror: A tumble-down house, a neglected and weed-grown lawn and garden, dilapidated fences and out-houses—and an empty treasury. Window-panes were broken out; the woodwork had not known the touch of a paint-brush for forty-five years; the stately columns were rotting and awry; window shutters were off their hinges, flapping in the wind; the roof leaked so badly that the plastering was falling off the walls and ceiling; the wallpaper was hanging in tatters; the old dining-room was used as a place for storing sacks of wheat, with space left for General Jackson’s old carriage; the rear lawn had been plowed up and cultivated. Here was a rehabilitation job of sickeningly great proportions—and the fledgling organization did not even have enough cash in hand to start grubbing up the young elm and mulberry sprouts that covered the front lawn. But the ladies, buoyed up by their zeal and devotion, never lost heart. They would not permit themselves to be discouraged at the magnitude of the task confronting them. By dint of holding entertainments and concerts and balls and resorting to other money-making expedients they slowly accumulated enough to begin the work of making the most immediately necessary repairs. It was an Herculean task, and the marvel is that they had the courage and pertinacity to attempt it and stick to it in those early days when financial help was so hard to get. One of the earliest sources of revenue for the association was the staging of excursions to the Hermitage. This was before the days of good roads and automobiles and the place, located twelve miles from the center of Nashville, was distinctly inaccessible. There was a railroad station two miles from the house, and the plantation’s steamboat landing was located just back of the soldier’s home building three miles away. The first excursion was made by way of both rail and steamboats from Nashville, and was given on the occasion of the annual meeting of the National Educational Association in that city in July, 1889. This was the very first activity of the new organization, and it was on this occasion that the Hermitage was first thrown open as a public institution. “Pleasure wagons” met the trains and steamboats and transported the visitors to the house; and during the four days’ session of the educational association more than a thousand people drove up the driveway, bordered with its towering cedars, and visited Old Hickory’s old home.