The Oaklands Historic House Museum traces its history back to 1813 when Sallie Murfree Maney inherited a 274-acre property from her sire, Col. Hardee Murfree. In the years to follow, Sallie and her husband, Dr. James Maney, grew prosperous and gradually added beautiful attachments to their increasingly large mansion.

Now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Oaklands Historic House Museum had welcomed prominent visitors such as Jefferson Davis, the Confederate President during the Civil War, First Lady Sarah Childress Polk, and esteemed oceanographer and naval officer Matthew Fountaine Maury.

In the 1950?s, the mansion suffered from a deep state of neglect, victimized by theft and vandalism, before it was purchased by the City of Murfreesboro in 1958. A decade after, the Oaklands Association, an organization formed by local ladies, had succeeded in saving the mansion from razing and turned it into a historic museum instead.