The Daylight Building or Daylight Block is a two-story office and commercial building on Union Avenue in downtown

Knoxville Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state's ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. The building was completed in 1927. It is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

History

The Daylight Building, faced with blond brick, was one of several downtown

buildings built by

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

developer Benjamin Howard Sprankle. The name "Daylight" referred to its design features that provided natural daylight to illuminate its interior. A glass

clerestory In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...

on its roof allowed sunlight to enter the interior core of the building. Offices lining both sides of a square hallway surrounding the building's core had windows, open either to the outside or to the light well at the building's core. The building served for many years as offices for the

Tennessee Valley Authority The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina ...

(TVA).Daylight Building, National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form
It was one of four downtown Knoxville buildings that housed TVA personnel from 1933 until the early 1980s. Much of TVA's

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

staff was located in the Daylight Building, along with staff of the agency's training and

soil conservation Soil conservation is the prevention of loss of the topmost layer of the soil from erosion or prevention of reduced fertility caused by over usage, acidification, salinization or other chemical soil contamination. Slash-and-burn and other unsust ...

organizations. TVA vacated the building when the agency moved into a new office tower in the 1980s. The Daylight Building was later occupied by

Whittle Communications H. Christopher Whittle (born August 24, 1947) is an American entrepreneur who has founded four innovative companies in the fields of education and media, serving as the CEO of each. Whittle Communications, a 1,000-person magazine, television, and ...

, but most of the building sat empty for years after Whittle moved out in the early 1990s. There were proposals to demolish the building. Developer David Dewhirst bought the Daylight Building in 2008 for $1.35 million. The following year he began restoration of the building, including its glass

and its daylight illumination, with the intention of creating retail space on the first floor with apartments above. The restoration process revealed some original design details that had gone unnoticed for many years, including

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

window frames that had been obscured by yellow paint. Tenants began moving into the building's 36 rental apartments in August 2010. In order to qualify for historic preservation

tax credit A tax credit is a tax incentive which allows certain taxpayers to subtract the amount of the credit they have accrued from the total they owe the state. It may also be a credit granted in recognition of taxes already paid or a form of state "disc ...

s, Dewhirst sought listing on the

. The building was listed on the National Register on November 25, 2009. The listing recognized the building's role in TVA's early history and the lack of alterations subsequent to its use by TVA.

References

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External links

Daylight Building
Dewhirst Properties
The Daylight Building
Dash Roberts Photography Buildings and structures in Knoxville, Tennessee Commercial buildings completed in 1927 Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee Tennessee Valley Authority National Register of Historic Places in Knoxville, Tennessee