The James Park House is a historic house located at 422 West Cumberland Avenue in

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee, 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 Di ...

, United States. The house's foundation was built by Governor John Sevier in the 1790s, and the house itself was built by Knoxville merchant and mayor, James Park (1770–1853), in 1812, making it the second-oldest building in Downtown Knoxville after

Blount Mansion The Blount Mansion, also known as William Blount Mansion, located at 200 West Hill Avenue in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, was the home of the only territorial governor of the Southwest Territory, William Blount (1749–1800). Blount, a Fou ...

. The house 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 ...

, and currently serves as the headquarters for the Gulf and Ohio Railways.

History

Early history

The James Park House sits on what was originally Lot 59 in

Charles McClung Charles McClung (May 13, 1761 – August 9, 1835) was an American pioneer, politician, and surveyor best known for drawing up the original plat of Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1791. While Knoxville has since expanded to many times its original s ...

's 1791 plat of Knoxville.East Tennessee Historical Society, Mary Rothrock (ed.), ''The French Broad-Holston Country: A History of Knox County, Tennessee'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: East Tennessee Historical Society, 1972), pp. 464-466, map between pages 32 and 33. Sevier purchased the lot and began construction of the brick foundation of the house in the 1790s, and completed a portion of the wall facing Cumberland Avenue. Due to financial difficulties, however, he abandoned the house's construction, and moved to his farm at

Marble Springs Marble Springs, also known as the Gov. John Sevier Home, is a state historic site in south Knox County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The site was the home of John Sevier (1745–1815)—a Revolutionary War and frontier militia com ...

, on the city's periphery. Sevier sold the lot to his son, George Washington Sevier, in 1801, and the younger Sevier in turn sold it to South Carolina merchant James Dunlap in 1807.Samuel Gordon Heiskell, ''Andrew Jackson and Early Tennessee History'' (Nashville: 1918), pp. 199-200. In 1812, the lot with its unfinished house was purchased by James Park, a Scots-Irish merchant from

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconne ...

, Ireland, who had arrived in Knoxville in 1798. According to some historians, the original wing of Park's house was designed by Thomas Hope, an early Knoxville architect who also designed the Ramsey House and

Statesview Statesview, or States View, is a historic house located on South Peters Road off Kingston Pike in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Built in 1805 by early Knoxville architect Thomas Hope and rebuilt in 1823 following a fire, Statesview was o ...

. Likely before 1820, Park added a second wing to the house, giving it its characteristic L-shape. Park served as mayor of Knoxville from 1818 to 1821, and again from 1824 until 1826. In 1839, he lost Knoxville's first popular mayoral election to W.B.A. Ramsey by one vote.East Tennessee Historical Society, Lucile Deaderick (ed.), ''Heart of the Valley: A History of Knoxville, Tennessee'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: East Tennessee Historical Society, 1976), pp. 16, 76, 415-416, 483. Park and his wife, Sophia Moody, had 12 children, some of whom were born in the Park House. President

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...

stayed at the Park House on a visit to Knoxville in 1830.

Reverend James Park

Park's eleventh child, also named James Park, was born in the Park House in 1822. The younger James Park graduated from

East Tennessee College The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

in 1840 and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1846, after which he was licensed as a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

preacher. He briefly served as co-principal of the

East Tennessee Female Institute The East Tennessee Female Institute was an all-female institution of higher learning that operated in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, from 1827 until 1911. Originally chartered as the Knoxville Female Academy, the school offered high school ...

before moving to Rogersville in the 1850s to preach at that city's First Presbyterian Church. He returned to Knoxville in 1860 to accept a position as principal of the

Tennessee School for the Deaf The Tennessee Schools for the Deaf (TSD) is a state-operated residential and day school for deaf and hard-of-hearing students who reside in the state of Tennessee ranging from pre-kindergarten to grade 12 also includes a post-secondary transition ...

(then located in what is now

Old City Hall Old City Hall may refer to: Asia In Hong Kong * Old City Hall (Hong Kong) Europe In Croatia *Old City Hall (Zagreb) In Denmark * Old City Hall (1479–1728), in Copenhagen * Old City Hall (1728–1795), in Copenhagen * Old City Hall (Aalborg) ...

). During the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, Park moved to his country home in Cedar Springs (in what is now West Knoxville). In late 1863, General

James Longstreet James Longstreet (January 8, 1821January 2, 1904) was one of the foremost Confederate generals of the American Civil War and the principal subordinate to General Robert E. Lee, who called him his "Old War Horse". He served under Lee as a corps ...

, whose army was attempting to retake Knoxville from an occupying Union force, dined at Park's Cedar Springs house.Oliver P. Temple, ''East Tennessee and the Civil War'' (Johnson City, Tenn.: Overmountain Press, 1995), pp. 509-510. Park later recalled that Longstreet had an inaccurate map that showed the confluence of the

French Broad The French Broad River is a river in the U.S. states of North Carolina and Tennessee. It flows from near the town of Rosman in Transylvania County, North Carolina, into Tennessee, where its confluence with the Holston River at Knoxville forms ...

and Holston rivers to be below Knoxville, and refused to believe Park when he pointed out that the confluence was actually upriver from Knoxville. After the war, Park was appointed preacher of Knoxville's First Presbyterian Church, and he moved into the James Park House, where he would live for most of the remainder of his life. An 1871 map of Knoxville shows the house surrounded by a grove of trees and a few outbuildings, with the St. John's Episcopal Church (predecessor of St. John's Cathedral) across Cumberland to the north. An 1886 map, on the other hand, shows the house surrounded by the church and numerous smaller houses, reflecting Knoxville's rapid post-war growth.H. Wellge, "Knoxville, Tenn., County Seat of Knox County," Norris, Wellge & Co., 1886. Retrieved from the Library of Congress online database, 2 March 2011.

20th century

After Park's death in 1912, his house was sold and converted into office space. The house was used as a

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

workshop during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and served as a medical clinic in the years following the war. In 1945, the Knoxville Academy of Medicine, headed by prominent physician Herbert Acuff (who was also instrumental in constructing the nearby Medical Arts Building), purchased and renovated the house. The Academy used the house for several decades before relocating to West Knoxville. In 2002, Gulf and Ohio Railroads CEO Pete Claussen and his wife, Linda, purchased the house for use as the Gulf and Ohio's headquarters. Working with architect Lee Ingram of the firm, Brewer Ingram Fuller, the Claussens removed several modern elements and restored the house to its 19th-century appearance. These changes included the removal of a 1968 rear medical auxiliary and auditorium, and the restoration of the house's Victorian-era porch. The renovations were largely completed in 2007.Amy McRary,
A Beacon For History
" ''Knoxville News Sentinel'', 28 June 2007. Retrieved: 2 March 2011.

Design

The James Park House is a -story, L-shaped house with a modern service wing located at the rear. Claussen's restorations, guided in part by old photographs and architectural research, included the re-addition of a picket fence surrounding the property, reconstruction of the house's Victorian-style front porch, rebuilding of the front stairs, and the reshaping of the chimneys. An arched fireplace in the basement, the design of which is nearly identical to a fireplace in the nearby Craighead-Jackson House, was also restored. The floors of the modern addition to the house have been painted with various historical maps of Knoxville. One of the house's restrooms contains a ceiling-to-floor safe. Another restroom is modeled after the restroom of the Red Sage restaurant in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

A windowpane in the house contains the name "Sallie," which was probably etched by a daughter of the Reverend James Park.

References

Resources

* Isenhour, Judith Clayton. ''Knoxville - A Pictorial History.'' (Donning, 1978), page 164. * ''Knoxville: Fifty Landmarks''. (Knoxville: The Knoxville Heritage Committee of the Junior League of Knoxville, 1976), page 12. *
The Future of Knoxville's Past: Historic and Architectural Resources in Knoxville, Tennessee
' (Knoxville Historic Zoning Commission, October 2006), page 19.

External links

James Park House
— Brewer Ingram Fuller site containing photographs and restoration details

— Gulf and Ohio Railways site {{DEFAULTSORT:Park, James, House Houses in Knoxville, Tennessee Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee National Register of Historic Places in Knoxville, Tennessee