Designed by William Strickland, the tomb was originally located in the garden at Polk Place, a mansion in downtown Nashville, where the former president and his wife Sarah Childress Polk (1803-1891) resided upon their return to Tennessee. In 1891, when Mrs. Polk died, she was buried next to the president at their home and was later reinterred with him at the state capitol. Today, Polk’s tomb is located to the east side of the Tennessee State Capitol grounds.
