DESIGNATION REPORT KENNEDY-BAKER-WALKER-SHERRILL HOUSE (1849) 9320 KINGSTON PIKE (CLT ) KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE July 12, 2007

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1 DESIGNATION REPORT KENNEDY-BAKER-WALKER-SHERRILL HOUSE (1849) 9320 KINGSTON PIKE (CLT ) KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE July 12, 2007 Description The Kennedy-Baker-Walker-Sherrill House is located on the south side of Kingston Pike, facing north, at the western edge of an undeveloped tract of approximately 100 acres that is the subject of a 2007 rezoning application. It is surrounded by urban development. The house is a two-story brick, three bay Federal style residence built in a T-plan shape in The house is comprised of a two story front section one room deep, with a lower, two story rear portion set at a right angle to the front section. A one story brick wing with a gable roof and a corbelled brick cornice was added to the west elevation of the north façade c by Dr. William J. Baker. There is an additional rear addition, c. 1955, which is non-contributing. The Kennedy-Baker-Walker-Sherrill House is built with common bond six-course brick construction, and is topped by a gable end roof of standing seam metal. A brick foundation supports the house, which is topped by a corbelled brick cornice. Interior end brick chimneys with corbelling appear on the two story portion of the house; a newer modern brick chimney is located on the rear (south) elevation at the eastern half of the structure. Six pane wood double hung sashes appear on all elevations, with the façade exhibiting a three-rank division. Arched brick lintels top the downstairs façade windows flanking the primary entrance, which is capped by a fanlight and flanked by several light sidelights. A fanlight also tops the entry on the west wing, which is accessed by a nine-light half-view door with bottom panels. The other windows on the structure are topped by flat-arched brick lintels. An original three-quarters one story porch offers access to the front entry. Its shed roof is supported by paired square wood columns with square bases. The columns are linked by square wood capitals that support an arched wood trim marking each of the three porch bays. Oversize brackets appear on the porch roof overhang, and are doubled at each pair of porch columns. Engaged pilasters mark the joining of the porch edges to the front elevation. A screened porch is located along the east façade of the home s rear ell, and has been enclosed. An additional modern (c.1960) rear addition houses a two bay garage. This addition is not contributing to the structure. The interior of the home features original plaster and lathe walls and wide board floors. Horizontal board wainscoting appears in the northeast room. The second story is

2 accessed by a stair with a simple walnut railing that proceeds from the entry hall to a landing, and then to the second story. Paneled doors access cabinets flanking each fireplace; in some instances those have been modified by a newer wall in front of the original to provide storage. Electricity, plumbing and baths were added c Statement of Significance The Kennedy-Baker-Walker-Sherrill House, built in 1849 according to tradition, is significant for its architectural design and for its association with early Knox County settlement patterns. According to tradition the house was built by a former apprentice of Thomas Hope ( ). Hope moved to Knoxville from Charleston, and in1796 advertised in the Knoxville Gazette for an apprentice carpenter. Like many houses built after 1820, the Kennedy-Baker-Walker-Sherrill House was made of hand-made brick and bears the dark reddish brown color associated with wood-fired brick kilns, and laid in the six-course common bond often found at that time. The house is perhaps the best extant example of Federal design in Knox County, and certainly the most intact. Most of the early Knox County brick homes that survive have the formality and massing of the Federal style, but display Georgian, Greek Revival or even Italianate detailing. The Kennedy-Baker-Sherrill house not only exhibits the formality of the Federal style, but also incorporates such typically Federal features as an elliptical arched door, windows crowned with arches, and the sophisticated delicate window mullions that are rare in Knox County. Knox County deed records indicate that James Kennedy and his wife Jane Cox Kennedy owned the property in Jane Cox Kennedy was the daughter of Lewis Cox of Louisville. Cox possessed large land holdings on both sides of the Tennessee River as early as When he died in 1834, he willed some of his property north of the Tennessee to his daughter. Family tradition in the Cox family indicates that the house was built in In 1858, Dr. William J. Baker ( ) bought the estate from Kennedy and settled with his family in the house. In part, he wished to be near his brother, Dr. Harry Baker, who lived in the house known today as the Baker-Peters House (9000 Kingston Pike). Dr. William Baker was born in Lancaster, Kentucky and was a graduate of Transylvania University. He came to Knoxville about 1825 and advertised in the Knoxville Register in He married Mary Ann Cox in 1827 and located his home and office on Gay Street between Clinch and Church. For a time in 1829 his brother Dr. Leonidas W. Baker was associated with him, but this brother returned to Kentucky where he died. Dr. William Baker was appointed a trustee of East Tennessee College in 1836, and was a member of the Board of Health established for Knoxville in Dr. William Baker was also a brother of James Harvey Baker ( ) who was a prominent doctor a few miles

3 west of Knoxville, and who was killed at his home during the Civil War. William Baker moved to the estate known as Cedar Grove in He added the one-story wing to the west of the house for use as his office. Dr. William Baker had no children, and when he died in 1865, the property devolved to his niece, Katherine Elizabeth Baker and her husband J. W. Walker. The house remained in the Walker family until it was sold in Since 1953, the house and land have belonged to the Sherrill family. The Kennedy-Baker-Walker-Sherrill House is one of the few surviving examples of Federal architecture in Knox County. Kingston Pike was once the wagon road to Nashville; today it is one of the county s major commercial thoroughfares. The old wagon road was one of the most traveled transportation corridors for western migration from the 1790 s to the 1820 s, and was a choice settlement location for many of Knox County s early influential citizens. The significance of the Kennedy-Baker-Walker-Sherrill House in illustrating Federal architecture and the settlement patterns not only for Knox County, but for points beyond, cannot be underestimated. The Kennedy-Baker-Walker-Sherrill House maintains its architectural and historical integrity; its highly visible location on Kingston Pike ads to the significance of the building. Design Guidelines The Secretary of Interior s Standards for Rehabilitating Historic Buildings shall govern the issuance of Certificates of Appropriateness for alterations to the exterior of the Kennedy-Baker-Walker-Sherrill House. The Standards are listed below. 1. A property will be used as it was historically or be given a new use that requires minimal change to its distinctive materials, features, spaces, and spatial relationships. 2. The historic character of a property will be retained and preserved. The removal of distinctive materials or alteration of features, spaces, and spatial relationships that characterize a property will be avoided. 3. Each property will be recognized as a physical record of its time, place, and use. Changes that create a false sense of historical development, such as adding conjectural features or elements from other historic properties, will not be undertaken. 4. Changes to a property that have acquired historic significance in their own right will be retained and preserved.

4 5. Distinctive materials, features, finishes, and construction techniques or examples of craftsmanship that characterize a property will be preserved. 6. Deteriorated historic features will be repaired rather than replaced. Where the severity of deterioration requires replacement of a distinctive feature, the new feature will match the old in design, color, texture, and, where possible, materials. Replacement of missing features will be substantiated by documentary and physical evidence. 7. Chemical or physical treatments, if appropriate, will be undertaken using the gentlest means possible. Treatments that cause damage to historic materials will not be used. 8. Archeological resources will be protected and preserved in place. If such resources must be disturbed, mitigation measures will be undertaken. 9. New additions, exterior alterations, or related new construction will not destroy historic materials, features, and spatial relationships that characterize the property. The new work shall be differentiated from the old and will be compatible with the historic materials, features, size, scale and proportion, and massing to protect the integrity of the property and its environment. 10. New additions and adjacent or related new construction will be undertaken in such a manner that, if removed in the future, the essential form and integrity of the historic property and its environment would be unimpaired. 11. In addition to the Secretary of Interior s Standards listed above, any future development of the site shall be limited by the maintenance of a view shed running to Kingston Pike, and preserving views of the house s façade from Kingston Pike. While the area between the house and the south curb of Kingston Pike may be the site of atground improvements, such as roads or drives, retention ponds or other site improvements, those improvements shall not restrict the view of the house. Paved areas located in the view shed shall be screened by the use of low landscaping that softens the appearance of paved areas but does not block the view of the front façade of the house. 12. The contributing portions of the Kennedy-Walker-Baker-Sherrill House in 2007 include the original T-shaped portion and the one story ell on the west front elevation (c.1859). The one story c.1955 garage addition at the rear is non-contributing and may be removed, returning the house to its c footprint and design.

5 Bibliography Angel, Margaret. Telephone interview. July, Knox County Deed Records. Rothrock, Mary U. French Broad-Holston Country. East Tennessee Historical Society: Knoxville, Tennessee pp Thurman, Elizabeth Walker. Personal interview. Knoxville, Tennessee. September 21, 1992.

301 7½ Street SW

301 7½ Street SW 104-0213-0072 Primary Resource Information: Single Dwelling, Stories 2.00, Style: Other, ca 1890 July 2006: This late-19th-century, 3-bay, 2-story, hip-roofed frame I-house features projecting