Park City

The Edgewood-Park City Historic District developed as one of Knoxville's early streetcar suburbs. In 1890, streetcar lines were extended down Park (Magnolia) Avenue to Chilhowee Park, and down Washington Avenue.

In 1997, MPC successfully rezoned "Edgewood" to H-1 Historic Overlay zoning. Most, if not all of the homes in this H-1 overlay are listed in the Park City National Historic Edgewood area is a local historic designation by the MPC, not a national designation by the National Park Service, which administers the National Register of Historic Places.

The Edgewood Land and Improvement Company, formed by George F. Barber and Martin E. Parmalee, began to subdivide and promote lots in the Washington Avenue Addition along Washington and Jefferson Avenues east from Winona. From these beginnings was developed an incorporated municipality known as Park City, which included the Edgewood holdings and other surrounding subdivisions that developed shortly after it was founded. From the two names - Edgewood and Park City - conies the name of this historic district.

George F. Barber was a noted architect who moved to Knoxville in 1888 and established an office with Parmalee. Barber designed and marketed mail order house plans, publishing numerous periodicals and even maintaining his own publishing company, The American Home Publishing Company, which he established in 1898. George F. Barber maintained his architectural firm and designed and published house plans until his death in 1917. His designs were sold nationally and even internationally.

Barber's publications include The Cottage Souvenir (1891, Cottage Souvenir No. 2 (1892), New Model Dwellings and How Best to Build Them (1894), Artistic Homes (1895), Art in Architecture (1902-03), and Modern Dwellings (1901-1907). American Homes, which was an illustrated monthly magazine published by The American Homes Publishing Company, continued for six years. If any of these publications inspired the purchase of homes or designs by Barber, a client could fill out a questionnaire and send it with the appropriate fee to Barber's Knoxville offices. Plans, elevations, working drawings, a bill of materials or even pre-manufactured architectural details for the house could be purchased in this manner.

Barber's designs progressed through a series of styles, with the earlier ones best described as Eastlake, Queen Anne, or a mixture of the two Victorian styles. Elaborate in their detailing, they contained such features as patterned slate roofs, fishscale shingled wall coverings, turrets, bays, balconies, spindle work, beaded spandrels and elaborate brick work. Classical Revival details began to appear in his work by the early 1900's. These designs often featured paired and tripled wood columns with Ionic and Doric capitals, Palladian windows and dentil molding.

Although the location of all Barber houses in Knoxville has not been established, the Edgewood Land and Improvement Company development contains a great many of his designs, which could be expected since his architectural partner was one of the developers. Barber lived in at least two homes he designed, at 1635 Washington and 1724 Washington.

Barber Houses in Edgewood - Park City

1614 Washington Avenue 1618 Washington Avenue

1620 Washington Avenue 1635 Washington Avenue

1701 Washington Avenue 1702 Washington Avenue

1704 Washington Avenue 1705 Washington Avenue

1712 Washington Avenue 1724 Washington Avenue

1730 Washington Avenue 1802 Washington Avenue

1803 Washington Avenue 1804 Washington Avenu

1904 Washington Avenue 1905 Washington Avenue

1912 Washington Avenue 1603 Jefferson Avenue

1640 Jefferson Avenue 1701 Jefferson Avenue

1708 Jefferson Avenue 2039 Jefferson Avenue

There are probably other designs of Barber's in Edgewood-Park City. Some of his designs have been altered so that they are not easily identified, and no complete collection of his published designs is known to exist in Knoxville.

Mixed with the elaborate George F. Barber designs are other houses typical of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Queen Anne, Craftsman/Bungalow and Neoclassical styles are represented here. Merchants, clerks, factory workers and owners, salesmen and railroad employees who benefited from Knoxville's expanding economy and improved local transportation moved to Edgewood - Park City as Knoxville's central city became increasingly crowded and noisy. Knoxville in the late nineteenth century became the regional wholesaling center for the southeast. Its location on the railroads not only made this economic distinction possible, but also made the city a logical location for expanding manufacturing concerns, particularly in the textile industry. Standard Knitting Mills, located at the west end of the neighborhood, employed many of the people who found houses in the neighborhood. The boundaries of this district include much of the original Edgewood Land Improvement Company development, but only a small part of Park City. Park City was incorporated in 1907, and has been a part of Knoxville twice in its history. In 1891, Knoxville's government annexed the large developing area on its eastern boundary as the Tenth Ward. Two years later, when Knoxville had failed to address the area's educational and street improvement needs, the Tenth Ward was removed from Knoxville's incorporated area by an act of the General Assembly. Knoxville annexed Park City the second time in 1917, and this time the action was not reversed. However, public improvements were not widespread in the area until the 1920's.

Adjacent to the boundaries of Edgewood-Park City are many other houses that reflect the architectural styles and economic strength of nineteenth and twentieth century Knoxville. Those buildings are also eligible for listing under an H-l overlay, and should be included in the future as their owners desire the protection of a local historic designation.

PROPERTY INVENTORY: ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTIONS

The Edgewood-Park City Historic District contains distinctive architectural styles that date from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As is true with most of the historic architecture in Knoxville, there are very few "pure" styles. Instead, the styles found in the Edgewood-Park City Historic District draw characteristics from several styles to form an eclectic mix. The styles that are most representative of the neighborhood are discussed below. The sources used to compile this listing of styles include A Field Guide to American Houses, by Virginia and Lee McAlester, Guidelines for Completing Naitonal Register of Historic Places Forms. National Register Bulletin 16, compiled by the National Park Service, U. S. Department of the Interior. American Architecture Since 1870: A Guide to Architectural Styles, by Marcus Whiffen, and Identifying American Architecture by John J. G. Blumenson.



Late Nineteenth Century Styles

The last half of the nineteenth century saw a shift from the restrained, classical designs of Georgian, Federal and Greek Revival to the textured, varied designs of the Victorian era. By the time houses were being designed and built in Edgewood-Park City, in the late 1800s, these Victorian-era designs were well established.

Queen Anne: The Queen Anne style was popularized by a nineteenth century architect, Richard Norman Shaw, about 150 years after the time of Queen Anne's reign, which was from 1702 to 1714. The first American example of Queen Anne style is thought to be the Watts Sherman house in Newport, Rhode Island, built in 1874. By 1880, architectural pattern books were spreading the style throughout the country. The expanding railroads helped to popularize it by making pre-cut architectural details widely available.

The Queen Anne style contains varied, exuberant architectural elements. Details from many other styles are reinterpreted and captured in Queen Anne designs. Queen Anne houses have irregular floor plans, large porches, corbelled chimneys, and elaborate decoration on exterior surfaces. Roofs are complex and steeply pitched, some with coverings of colored slate, patterned oversize asphalt shingles, or terra cotta tiles. Ornamental wood shingles, with a diamond, square or fishscale pattern, are often used on gables. Turned wood porch columns are common, with trim of lacy, elaborately sawn wood spandrels. Porch railings may have beaded or turned balusters. Ornamented attic vents or windows are often found. Windows may be leaded glass, and transoms and sidelights enhance front entries. A Queen Anne window, of small square styled glass panes surrounding a large central pane, is common. Queen Anne Cottage: The Queen Anne Cottage grew out of the Queen Anne style. One or one and one-half stories in height, it usually has a hip roof with lower cross gables, or a cross gable roof, corbelled interior chimneys, and sawn wood

ornamentation. The Queen Anne Cottage has a large front porch, with wooden

columns which may be turned, chamfered or rounded. Sawn brackets, sawn wood or louvered attic vents, and spindled or turned balustrades are often found. Windows are double hung sash, with either two over two or one over one panes. There may be transoms and sidelights, with leaded or stained glass. Wall coverings are usually weatherboard. There may be patterned wood shingles in gables, with sawn wood bargeboard at the roof peaks. A Cottage window, an early form of the picture window, is often found in Queen Anne cottages. It consists of a large fixed pane with fixed or moveable transoms and narrow side windows. The side windows and transoms often are made of stained or leaded glass.

Eastlake: The Eastlake style was used at the same time as the Queen Anne style and is similar. Developed by Charles Eastlake, it is most frequently associated with interior design. It is more vertical than the Queen Anne style, with more massive wood trim, usually formed by a chisel or gouge. Rolls of spindles and beaded trim are common.

Shotgun: The term "shotgun" refers to a room arrangement in which the rooms of the house open in succession from front to rear without a hallway between them, and the doors to each room are lined up. The term "shotgun" comes from the description that a shotgun could be fired in the front door and all of the shot would exit through the rear doorway without hitting any intervening walls. Front gable roofs are common on the shotgun house, which has a full or three-quarter front porch. The houses were usually worker housing. Trim is not elaborate, and may be either from the Victorian era or from the later Craftsman period. Window pane configuration reflects the style of trim applied to the house.

Folk Victorian: This is another style from the Victorian era present in the Edgewood Land and Improvement Company Historic District. Folk Victorian houses usually feature a front gable and trim derived from the Queen Anne style. Full length porches with chamfered or turned posts are common, as are double-hung windows. Folk Victorian houses usually are simpler in massing and roof design than the Queen Anne houses or cottages that they imitate.

Early Twentieth Styles

After 1900, the styling of buildings began to change from the elaborate Victorian-era designs to simpler designs. Some of these were revival styles, based on earlier historic precedents. Particularly popular were Colonial and Neoclassical styles, but an interest in history also encouraged styles from the Spanish Colonial, Dutch Colonial, Tudor and Italian Renaissance periods. Another stylistic emphasis involved the Prairie, Bungalow, and Craftsman designs. These latter designs evolved as some of the first purely American architectural styles.

Craftsman/Bungalow: Buildings of this style have low-pitched gable roofs with wide overhanging eaves. Roof rafters are visible, and decorative beams and knee braces are widely used on Craftsman/Bungalow houses. Porches usually stretch across all or most of the front facade, with a roof supported by tapered or square columns, or by posts resting on piers or a balustrade. Dormers are used extensively. Weatherboard is a common wall surface material. Windows are usually double hung, with the upper sash often having three, four or more panes, while the lower sash has one pane.

American Four Square: This house style was used from the 1900's until the 1920's, and is recognized by its square appearance and often hipped, pyramidal roof. Front dormers are often used. It is almost always two or two and one-half stories in height, and the interior spaces are arranged into four square or nearly square, rooms. A full front porch is most common in these buildings. Detailing on the house may be from any of the styles common in the early twentieth century. Sidelights and transoms are often used on an American Four Square front entry, and these may be of leaded, stained or beveled glass. Double hung windows are common, and they may have a patterned upper sash or may be in a one over one configurations.

Tudor Revival: This style mimics or interprets medieval European design. Walls are primarily clad in either stone, stucco, or brick. Stone patterns are often square cut ashlar or dressed stones, and may be laid in either a random or broken range course. Stucco is trowelled into either a smooth, lightly mottled pattern or a pattern with more texture. Other exterior wall surface materials include weatherboard, wood shingles and applied half timbering. Decorative half timbering involves using horizontal, vertical and curvilinear wood members with either brick or stucco infill. Tudor Revival houses commonly feature steeply pitched roofs, often with side gables or multiple gables. Roofs and gable ends may feature a bell cast curve. Brick chimneys may be patterned. Stone quoin-like projections and voussoirs are common around door and window openings. Windows are usually casement or double hung, with diamond shaped panes often used as a design element. Other features may include castellated parapets, board-and-batten doors, and small entry porticos.

Colonial Revival: This revival style reflects a number of architectural features which first gained popularity in America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Colonial Revival houses typically have symmetrical facades and floor plans. Porticos commonly are used to emphasize the front entrance, and usually feature pilasters or supporting columns. Entries often have distinctive sidelights and fanlights, and decorative door crowns and pediments. Double hung windows with multiple panes are standard, and usually placed in a balanced design.

Common exterior materials include brick, stucco, and weatherboard. Side gabled and hipped roofs are typical on Colonial Revival residences, and often include a series of dormers or one continuous shed dormer. Historic roofing materials were usually slate, asphalt or wood shingle. Other elements that may appear as part of Colonial Revival houses include: full-width front porches, side porches, recessed entry doors, cast concrete sills, end chimneys, string courses, decorative cornices, and one-story wings.

Neoclassical: Facades of Neoclassical houses may feature columns on full or partial-width porches. Symmetrical front facades and multiple-pane glazing in double sash windows are used, especially on the front facade.