Cornstalk Heights Historic District
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Monte Vista, a Colonial Revival-style house in Cornstalk Heights, built in 1905
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| Location: | Roughly bounded by Georgia Ave., Sewanee St., Morgan Ave. and Trenton St., Harriman, Tennessee |
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| Coordinates: | 35°56′3″N 84°32′48″WCoordinates: 35°56′3″N 84°32′48″W |
| Area: | appx. 66.43 acres (26.88 ha) |
| Built: | 1890–1940 |
| Architect: | Will Geaseland, et al. |
| Architectural style: | Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Bungalow |
| Governing body: | Private |
| NRHP Reference#: | 90002142[1] |
| Added to NRHP: | January 11, 1991 |
Harriman was envisioned as a large-scale industrial center where the application of late 19th-century social reform principles, namely prohibition, would create an ideal living environment. The East Tennessee Land Company, led by Gates, designed the city in late 1889, including in the design several larger, more expensive lots in what is now Cornstalk Heights. Most of the district's earliest houses cost over $3,000 apiece, with some as high as $10,000— enormous sums for the period. Throughout the 1890's and early 1900's, Harriman's affluent residents built dozens of Victorian homes, most of which are still standing. In 1990, the Cornstalk Heights Historical Community Organization was formed to prevent the district's Killeffer Park from being converted into a housing development.
Location
Cornstalk Heights is situated atop a low-rising ridge in the original section of Harriman, which is bordered by an oxbow bend in the Emory River on the north, east, and south, and by Walden Ridge on the west. The heights rise to a maximum of about 100 feet (30 m) above the rest of the city. The district is located along Cumberland, Clinton, and Trenton streets, which run north-to-south, and Walden, Crescent, Queen, and Virginia avenues, which run east-to-west. A narrow alleyway runs along the crest of the ridge between Clinton and Cumberland streets. The district consists of blocks 413-806 Clinton Street, 409-829 Cumberland Street, 502-702 Trenton Street, 418-503 Queen Avenue, 319 Virginia Avenue, and 330, 402-417, and 424-506 Walden Avenue.The neighborhood contains 110 houses, 100 of which are contributing properties in the National Register listing. Killeffer Park, located along Cumberland Street, is also a contributing property. Two churches in the district— the First Presbyterian Church and the Open Bible Baptist Church— were built in 1956 and 1985, respectively, and are non-contributing buildings due to age. The district's lone contributing commercial building is located at the corner of Walden Avenue and Clinton Street.
History
On Christmas Day, 1889, the East Tennessee Land Company platted a 343-acre (139 ha) section of Harriman that included most of what is now Cornstalk Heights. These lots were sold in late February 1890 at an auction attended by over 4,000 prospective buyers from across the country. In the Cornstalk Heights section, lots along Cumberland Street and the section of Walden Avenue between Cumberland and Clinton streets typically sold for over $2,000. Lots along Clinton Street typically sold for over $1,000. The deeds to these lots required that lot owners construct frame or brick houses with at least six rooms. Over the next two years, fourteen contractors began building homes in Cornstalk Heights, using primarily materials from new industries that had been established across town along the Emory River. The homes of Gates and Gates' successor as the East Tennessee Land Company's general manager, William H. Russell (1857–1911), were probably the earliest homes built in Cornstalk Heights. Gates' house was demolished in the 1950s, but Russell's house still stands at 525 Cumberland Street.
The Reverend Alexander Killeffer, a photographer for the East Tennessee Land Company, founded Harriman's St. Andrews Episcopal Church in the early 1890's, and helped build its original meeting house at 630 Trenton Street, where the Open Bible Baptist Church now stands. The original design of Harriman included a park along Cumberland Street, originally named Fisk Park, but eventually renamed "Killeffer Park" after Killeffer's son, Louis, a long-time resident of Cornstalk Heights. The site along Clinton Street now occupied by the First Presbyterian Church was originally the site of a school, which operated from 1891 to 1917.
Designs
Houses in the district range from one to three stories, and typically follow irregular floor plans. Most have gabled roofs, aluminum, brick, or stone siding, and limestone or brick foundations. The district has 33 contributing outbuildings, mainly carriagehouses, servants' quarters, and garages. To compensate for abrupt changes in elevation, limestone retaining walls surround the perimeters of several housing lots, as well as Killeffer Park. The district's sidewalks still consist of the original bricks laid out in the 1890's.
Notable houses
- Russell-Jackson House (525 Cumberland Street), an Eastlake-style house built in 1890 for William H. Russell, general manager of the East Tennessee Land Company, and believed to be the oldest standing house in Cornstalk Heights.
- Nottingham-Webb House (417 Clinton Street), also called the D'Armond House, a Queen Anne-style house built in 1890 by early Harriman judge C. W. Nottingham.
- Hopkins-Bensey House (725 Cumberland Street), a Folk Victorian house built c. 1890-1892, and once used as a Presbyterian manse.
- Bushrod Hall (422 Cumberland Street), also called the Paige-Robinson House, a Queen Anne-style house built in 1892 by lumber mill owner S. K. Paige. In 1895, the American Temperance University purchased the house for its School of Domestic Sciences for Young Ladies, which operated until 1900. The house was renamed "Bushrod Hall" after one of the school's benefactors.
- Williamson-Jones House (629 Cumberland Street), or Lane House, a Folk Victorian house built by A. T. Waters in 1893. The Williamson and Jones families were later owners. The Lane family lived in the house between 1914 and 1965.
- Winslow House (802 Clinton Street), a Queen Anne-style house built in 1895 by Harriman Land Company manager Henry Winslow. Winslow's son, John Cooper Winslow, lived in the house until the 1970's, but stayed in just one room, leaving the remainder of the house as it was the day his mother died. John Cooper Winslow's odd behavior led to the development of a number of ghost stories surrounding the Winslow House.
- Monte Vista (514 Cumberland Street), or the Cassell-D'Alessandro House, a Colonial Revival-style house built in 1905 by Judge Robert Cassell and his wife, Perle.
- Killeffer House (506 Clinton Street), a Colonial Revival-style house built in 1939 to replace a 1904 house which had burned. Dr. Louis Killeffer, a physician whose parents were among the city's earliest residents, lived here until the 1970's.
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