Listed on the national register of historic landmarks, the Belmont Mansion and Bell Tower are the architectural centerpieces of Belmont’s campus. Formerly called Belle Monte, Italian for “Beautiful Mountain,” the mansion was the summer home escape for Adelicia and Joseph Acklen, one of the wealthiest families in the South during the Antebellum Period. The Acklens furnished the estate with an art gallery, conservatories, lavish gardens, statues, gazebos, water fountains, a lake, a bear pit, an aviary and a zoo. Over the years, the mansion and its surrounding property became a boarding school,an all-women’s college Ward-Belmont and the co-ed Belmont College before being named a university in 1991. Today, a non-profit organization maintains the Belmont Mansion as a historical museum and events facility for Ward-Belmont College reunions, weddings and other receptions. Belmont students have the opportunity to tour the Mansion for free.