For most of his career as a leader of the nation’s investor-owned hospital industry, Tommy Frist lived in a not-too-showy but attractive ranch-style house at 508 Belle Meade Boulevard.

In early 1993, however, the HCA co-founder began purchasing large tracts of land two and a half miles away, near the edge of the Belle Meade city limits. Frist was planning something big and secluded, but he didn’t appear to be in any real hurry to start or complete the project.