Living in Seven Hills

What’s actually there

• One acre lots on a ridge, which is why the streets bend rather than run. The USGS elevation service puts the high ground here near 860 feet, roughly 250 feet above Harding Place at Hillsboro Pike.
• Shy's Hill, the ground where the Battle of Nashville ended on December 16 1864, reached from 4619 Benton Smith Road. The Battle of Nashville Trust owns four parcels on that street totalling 5.86 acres, and they are held under conservation easement.
• A private club on 6.37 acres at 1317 Hildreth Drive, on the south side of Hildreth west of Mountainview, owned by Seven Hills Club and carried by Metro as club land rather than residential.
• Harding Place along the north edge, which is the road to Hillsboro Pike in one direction and Granny White Pike in the other.
• Green Hills retail about a mile and a half north, so the grocery run, the pharmacy and the mall are a short drive rather than a highway trip.
• Original mid century houses standing beside full rebuilds, because an acre this close to Green Hills is now worth more than most of the houses that came with it.
• The Forest Hills city line immediately south across Harding Place. Same 37215 zip, different city government, different zoning authority, and no city property tax on that side.
• Eleven separate plat sections, which is why lot shapes and street widths are not uniform from one block to the next.

The housing stock

The stock reads in two layers. Underneath are the houses built on the original plats between the mid fifties and the late sixties, ranches and splits set well back on an acre, and over the top of them are the rebuilds and the deep renovations, because a full acre inside the Metro line and a mile and a half from Green Hills is land value that eventually outgrows whatever is standing on it. The resubdivisions Metro recorded in 1996, 1998, 2006, 2014 and 2018 are the paper trail of that pressure. Zoning is the thing to read before you fall for a listing: RS40 and R40 across the upper streets hold a 40,000 square foot minimum and single family use, while the lower end of Shys Hill Road carries RS20 and R20, where lots run nearer half an acre and a couple of properties are platted as units with common area. Those are not the same product and they do not resell the same way. I am not going to hand you a median across 213 parcels that range from a half acre teardown to a rebuilt house on two and a half acres, because that number would describe nothing you could buy. Tell me the street and the lot size you want and I will pull the comparable set that actually applies.

Getting around

Harding Place is the spine. East it takes you to Franklin Pike and on to interstate 65, west it meets Hillsboro Pike, and from there interstate 440 is about three miles north with Vanderbilt just beyond it. Downtown is about six miles. The real variable is not distance, it is Hillsboro Pike at school release and at rush hour, and the second variable is the hill itself. These are graded streets with private driveways cut into a slope, and the two or three days a winter when Nashville ices over are felt here before they are felt on flat ground. Drive the route at the hour you would actually drive it, and drive the driveway too.

Things to do in Seven Hills

Places worth knowing before you decide whether you want to live here.

• Shy's Hill

  4619 Benton Smith Road. The hill where the Battle of Nashville ended on the afternoon of December 16 1864, now owned in part by the Battle of Nashville Trust and open free of charge from dawn to dusk. A rebuilt trail with stone steps climbs to the summit and the historical marker stands about a hundred yards in from Harding Place. Parking is minimal and large vehicles do not fit. Metro records four Trust parcels here, 5.86 acres in total, which matches the Trust's own figure of nearly six acres.

• Battle of Nashville Monument

  At the corner of Granny White Pike and Clifton Lane, about two miles east. Sculpted by Giuseppe Moretti and dedicated on Armistice Day, November 11 1927, to the Confederate and Union dead of the December 15 and 16 1864 battle and to Tennesseans lost in the First World War. A tornado destroyed it on March 31 1974. It was rebuilt and rededicated on June 26 1999 at this site, and the Tennessee Historical Commission owns it. The two acre interpretive park around it has parking, paths, benches and signage.

• Radnor Lake State Natural Area

  1160 Otter Creek Road, a few minutes south. Just over 1,400 acres around an 85 acre lake, with 7.75 miles of trail restricted to hiking, photography and wildlife watching. Dogs, jogging and bicycles are allowed on the Otter Creek Road Trail only, which catches people out constantly. The Walter Criley Visitor Center is reached from the west parking area off Granny White Pike.

• The Mall at Green Hills

  2126 Abbott Martin Road, about a mile and a half north up Hillsboro Pike. The rest of the Green Hills retail picture is on that guide rather than repeated here.

• Seven Hills Club

  1317 Hildreth Drive. A 6.37 acre parcel inside the neighborhood, owned by Seven Hills Club and classed by Metro as club and lodge land rather than as a residence. Membership terms belong to the club, so treat living here and belonging there as two separate questions and ask the club directly.

Checked against each business as of September 28, 2026. Nashville loses restaurants faster than most cities, so if something here has closed since, tell me and I’ll get it corrected.

Schools

• Metro Nashville Public Schools

  Look up an address with the district →

Metro Nashville Public Schools serves this address, and it also serves Forest Hills, Oak Hill and Belle Meade, because those satellite cities sit inside Davidson County and run no school system of their own. Crossing the Forest Hills line at Harding Place changes your city government and your city tax bill. It does not change your school district. Zoning is assigned by address rather than by subdivision name, and a neighborhood platted across eleven sections is easily large enough to cross a zone line, so confirm the specific address with the district before you rely on anything, including anything on this page.

I publish district and school zoning as published fact and nothing more. No ratings, no rankings, no comparisons. School zones are set by the district, assigned by address rather than by subdivision or city name, and they change. Confirm any address with the district itself, and evaluate the schools yourself against what matters to your family.

Common questions