Oaklands is the premier Italianate house in Rutherford county, and is listed individually on the National Register of Historic Places both for its architectural significance and its rich historical associations. The only historic house museum in Murfreesboro, Oaklands has been featured in many publications and is the subject of several major studies and reports.

Oaklands plantation began in the late eighteen teens when Dr. James Maney and his wife, Sallie Murfree Maney, built a two-room brick house next to a large spring north of Murfreesboro. In 1813, Sallie inherited 274 acres of land north of the town named for her father, Colonel Hardee Murfree. It was on this tract that the Maneys constructed what would become one of the most elegant homes in Middle Tennessee.