Daylight Building (Knoxville, Tennessee)

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Daylight Building
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Location501-517 Union Ave., Knoxville, Tennessee
Coordinates 35°57′58″N83°55′14″W / 35.96611°N 83.92056°W / 35.96611; -83.92056 Coordinates: 35°57′58″N83°55′14″W / 35.96611°N 83.92056°W / 35.96611; -83.92056
Arealess than one acre
Architectural styleEarly Commercial
NRHP reference # 09000956 [1]
Added to NRHPNovember 25, 2009

The Daylight Building or Daylight Block is a two-story office and commercial building on Union Avenue in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee. The building was completed in 1927. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Knoxville, Tennessee City in Tennessee, United States

Knoxville is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Knox County. As of the 2010 census, the city has a population of 178,874, and is Tennessee's third largest city after Nashville and Memphis. Knoxville is the principal city of the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area, which was 868,546 in 2015.

Tennessee U.S. state in the United States

Tennessee is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th largest and the 16th most populous of the 50 United States. Tennessee is bordered by eight states, with Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina to the east, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to the south, Arkansas to the west, and Missouri to the northwest. The Appalachian Mountains dominate the eastern part of the state, and the Mississippi River forms the state's western border. Nashville is the state's capital and largest city, with a 2017 population of 667,560 and a 2017 metro population of 1,903,045. Tennessee's second largest city is Memphis, which had a population of 652,236 in 2017.

National Register of Historic Places Federal list of historic sites in the United States

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. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred in preserving the property.

Contents

History

The Daylight Building, faced with blond brick, was one of several downtown Knoxville buildings built by real estate developer Benjamin Howard Sprankle. [2] [3] The name "Daylight" referred to its design features that provided natural daylight to illuminate its interior. [3] [4] A glass clerestory on its roof allowed sunlight to enter the interior core of the building. Offices lining both sides of a square hallway surrounding the building's core had windows, open either to the outside or to the light well at the building's core. [3]

Real estate is "property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, buildings or housing in general. Also: the business of real estate; the profession of buying, selling, or renting land, buildings, or housing." It is a legal term used in jurisdictions whose legal system is derived from English common law, such as India, England, Wales, Northern Ireland, United States, Canada, Pakistan, Australia, and New Zealand.

Clerestory architectural term

In architecture, a clerestory is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. The purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both.

The building served for many years as offices for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). [2] It was one of four downtown Knoxville buildings that housed TVA personnel from 1933 until the early 1980s. Much of TVA's engineering staff was located in the Daylight Building, along with staff of the agency's training and soil conservation organizations. TVA vacated the building when the agency moved into a new office tower in the 1980s. [3] [5] The Daylight Building was later occupied by Whittle Communications, but most of the building sat empty for years after Whittle moved out in the early 1990s. [3] There were proposals to demolish the building. [3]

Tennessee Valley Authority American utility company

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter on May 18, 1933, to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development to the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected by the Great Depression. The enterprise was a result of the efforts of Senator George W. Norris of Nebraska. TVA was envisioned not only as a provider, but also as a regional economic development agency that would use federal experts and electricity to more quickly modernize the region's economy and society.

Engineering applied science

Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more specialized fields of engineering, each with a more specific emphasis on particular areas of applied mathematics, applied science, and types of application. See glossary of engineering.

Soil conservation Soil properties

Soil conservation is the prevention of soil loss from erosion or prevention of reduced fertility caused by over usage, acidification, salinization or other chemical soil contamination.

Developer David Dewhirst bought the Daylight Building in 2008 for $1.35 million. [6] The following year he began restoration of the building, including its glass clerestory and its daylight illumination, with the intention of creating retail space on the first floor with apartments above. The restoration process revealed some original design details that had gone unnoticed for many years, including copper window frames that had been obscured by yellow paint. [3] Tenants began moving into the building's 36 rental apartments in August 2010. [7]

Copper Chemical element with atomic number 29

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orange color. Copper is used as a conductor of heat and electricity, as a building material, and as a constituent of various metal alloys, such as sterling silver used in jewelry, cupronickel used to make marine hardware and coins, and constantan used in strain gauges and thermocouples for temperature measurement.

In order to qualify for historic preservation tax credits, Dewhirst sought listing on the National Register of Historic Places. [3] The building was listed on the National Register on November 25, 2009. [1] The listing recognized the building's role in TVA's early history and the lack of alterations subsequent to its use by TVA. [4] [8]

A tax credit is a tax incentive which allows certain taxpayers to subtract the amount of the credit they have accrued from the total they owe the state. It may also be a credit granted in recognition of taxes already paid or, as in the United Kingdom, a form of state support.

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References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. 1 2 Daylight Building, National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form [ dead link ]
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Neely, Jack (August 5, 2009). "Downtown's Daylight Building Starts Refurbishing; A long-neglected building on Union Avenue gets a major makeover". Metro Pulse . Knoxville, Tennessee. Archived from the original on February 28, 2012.
  4. 1 2 "Daylight Building". National Trust for Historic Preservation. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
  5. ↑ "501 - 517 Union Avenue - Daylight Building". Downtown Walking Tour. Knox Heritage. Archived from the original on 2013-04-28. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
  6. ↑ Flory, Josh (August 8, 2008). "Dewhirst plans to convert downtown building into apartments, retail shops". Knoxville News Sentinel .
  7. ↑ Bailey, Brittany (September 30, 2010). "Historic downtown Knoxville building welcoming new residents". Knoxville, Tennessee: WBIR TV. Archived from the original on 2013-10-20. Retrieved 2013-10-20.
  8. ↑ Flory, Josh (December 16, 2009). "Daylight Building named to National Register". Knoxville News Sentinel .
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