The Knox County Courthouse is a historic building located at 300 Main Street 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. Built in 1886, it served as Knox County's courthouse until the completion of the City-County Building in 1980, and continues to house offices for several county departments.

John Sevier John Sevier (September 23, 1745 September 24, 1815) was an American soldier, frontiersman, and politician, and one of the founding fathers of the State of Tennessee. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, he played a leading role in Tennes ...

, Tennessee's first governor, is buried on the courthouse lawn. The courthouse 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 ...

for its architecture and its role in the county's political history.Ellen Beasley, National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form for Knox County Courthouse, 2 November 1972.

Design

The courthouse is a 2.5-story brick structure with an imposing clock tower. It contains a mixture of architectural styles, including

Colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

elements in the clock tower and

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

elements (including

quatrefoil A quatrefoil (anciently caterfoil) is a decorative element consisting of a symmetrical shape which forms the overall outline of four partially overlapping circles of the same diameter. It is found in art, architecture, heraldry and traditional ...

patterns) in the balcony and porch. Much of the interior has been altered.

History

The Knox County Courthouse sits on what was originally Lot 36 of

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.Mary Rothrock, ''The French Broad-Holston Country: A History of Knox County, Tennessee'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: East Tennessee Historical Society, 1972), map facing page 36. The lot across the street to the north (Lot 37), currently occupied by the federal courthouse, was the lot set aside by James White for the county courthouse. The county's first courthouse was completed circa 1793, but was considered an eyesore.Harvey Broome, Mary Rothrock (ed.), "Knox County Government, 1792 - 1860," ''The French Broad-Holston Country: A History of Knox County, Tennessee'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: East Tennessee Historical Society, 1972), pp. 52-53, 68-69.

Thomas William Humes Thomas William Humes (April 22, 1815 – January 16, 1892) was an American clergyman and educator, active in Knoxville, Tennessee, during the latter half of the 19th century. Elected rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in 1846, Humes led ...

stated that a "frolicsome Irishman" burned this first courthouse down within a few years of its construction, to the delight of the city's residents. The lot of the current courthouse was originally occupied by a federal

blockhouse A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...

made famous by a

Lloyd Branson Enoch Lloyd Branson (1853–1925) was an American artist best known for his portraits of Southern politicians and depictions of early East Tennessee history. One of the most influential figures in Knoxville's early art circles, Branson rec ...

painting.

Knox County's second courthouse was built about 1797. This second courthouse was the setting for the George Washington Harris short story, "Eaves-Dropping a Lodge of Free-Masons." Harris described the "old stone Court-house" as having a "steep gable front to the street," a "disproportionately small brick chimney," "well-whittled door-jambs," "dusty windows," and "gloomy walls and ghosly echoes." By the 1830s, this courthouse had deteriorated, and local politicians began calling for its replacement. Construction on Knox County's third courthouse began in 1839, and was completed in 1842. This third courthouse was a

Federal-style Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the newly founded United States between 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815, which was heavily based on the works of Andrea Palladio with several inn ...

structure with

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

elements, and was constructed by John Dameron and Drury P. Armstrong. Knox-county-courthouse-1903

Construction of the fourth Knox County Courthouse began in 1884.Harvey Broome, Mary Rothrock (ed.), "Knox County Government, 1860 - 1900," ''The French Broad-Holston Country: A History of Knox County, Tennessee'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: East Tennessee Historical Society, 1972), p. 160. The lot across the street from the third courthouse, then occupied by a large hotel known as the Mansion House, was purchased. The county hired Stephenson and Getaz, a local contractor and architect, to build the courthouse. This firm used drawings prepared by the New York architectural firm, Palliser and Palliser.John Shearer,
Plan to Replace Windows in Historic Knox County Courthouse
" Knoxville ''News Sentinel'', 17 July 2009. Retrieved: 18 October 2011. Built at a cost of $82,000.00, this new courthouse was considered fireproof, and included a 2,500-pound bell. Wings (running parallel to Main Street) were added to the east and west sides in 1919. In 1980, Knox County courts and many county government functions moved to the newly completed City County Building on Hill Avenue. In subsequent years, after talk surfaced of tearing the courthouse down, a movement led by Knox County Executive Dwight Kessel convinced the county to preserve it. The building continues to house several county offices, including the office of the county clerk.

Cultural references

The

Hank Williams Jr. Randall Hank Williams (born May 26, 1949), known professionally as Hank Williams Jr. or Bocephus, is an American singer-songwriter and musician. His musical style is often considered a blend of southern rock, blues, and country. He is the son of ...

song "Knoxville Courthouse Blues" refers to the courthouse.

Cormac McCarthy Cormac McCarthy (born Charles Joseph McCarthy Jr., July 20, 1933) is an American writer who has written twelve novels, two plays, five screenplays and three short stories, spanning the Western and post-apocalyptic genres. He is known for his gr ...

's 1965 novel, ''

The Orchard Keeper ''The Orchard Keeper'' is the first novel by the American novelist Cormac McCarthy. It won the 1966 William Faulkner Foundation Award for notable first novel. Plot ''The Orchard Keeper'' is set during the inter-war period in the hamlet of Red B ...

'', includes a scene in which one of the characters carries a dead chickenhawk into the courthouse, for which he is paid a $1 bounty. McCarthy also mentions the courthouse in his 1979 novel, '' Suttree'', likening the sound of its bell to "a fogwarning on some shrouded coast."

Monuments

Tennessee's first governor,

(1745–1815), was originally buried in the Mississippi Territory where he died while surveying what would eventually become the Alabama-Georgia border. In 1889, a delegation led by Tennessee Governor

Robert Love Taylor Robert Love "Bob" Taylor (July 31, 1850March 31, 1912) was an American politician, writer, and lecturer. A member of the Democratic Party, he served three terms as the 24th governor of Tennessee, from 1887 to 1891, and again from 1897 to 1899, a ...

had Sevier's remains extracted and reinterred in the lawn of the Knox County Courthouse.Mary Rothrock, ''The French Broad-Holston Country'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: East Tennessee Historical Society, 1972), pp. 486-487. A monument was placed on the grave in 1893.John Wooldridge, George Mellen, William Rule (ed.), ''Standard History of Knoxville, Tennessee'' (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1900; reprinted by Kessinger Books, 2010), p. 555. In 1922, a movement led by former Knoxville Mayor Samuel Heiskell managed to reinter the remains of Sevier's second wife, Catherine "Bonny Kate" Sherrill Sevier, next to her husband. In 1946, a Sevier descendant, Mary Headman, placed a marker on the lawn honoring Sevier's first wife, Sarah Hawkins. Other monuments include the marble arched structure dedicated to Dr. John Mason Boyd (1833–1909), which faces the Gay Street/Main Street intersection, and stone monuments commemorating the site of the 1790s-era federal blockhouse, Knoxville's status as the first capital of Tennessee, and the 1791 signing of the

Treaty of Holston The Treaty of Holston (or Treaty of the Holston) was a treaty between the United States government and the Cherokee signed on July 2, 1791, and proclaimed on February 7, 1792. It was negotiated and signed by William Blount, governor of the South ...

. Another monument, "The Hiker," was erected by the county's Spanish–American War veterans in memory of their fellow soldiers, sailors and marines who died in the conflict. Two

Tennessee Historical Commission The Tennessee Historical Commission (THC) is the State Historic Preservation Office for the U.S. state of Tennessee. Headquartered in Nashville, it is an independent state agency, administratively attached to the Department of Environment and Co ...

markers recall the Treaty of Holston and the third, or "Old Knox County (1842–1886) Courthouse," which was located across from the present courthouse on Main Street.

References

{{Registered Historic Places Buildings and structures in Knoxville, Tennessee Government buildings completed in 1885 County courthouses in Tennessee Clock towers in Tennessee Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee 1885 establishments in Tennessee National Register of Historic Places in Knoxville, Tennessee

Design

History

Cultural references

Monuments

See also

References