Maxwelton | |
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| Location | 3105 Southern Ave. Memphis, Tennessee |
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| Coordinates | 35°6′53″N89°57′27″W / 35.11472°N 89.95750°W Coordinates: 35°6′53″N89°57′27″W / 35.11472°N 89.95750°W |
| Area | 1.5 acres (0.61 ha) |
| Architectural style | Late Victorian, Pianobox |
| NRHP reference # | 80003866 [1] |
| Added to NRHP | March 10, 1980 |
Maxwelton is a historic single-story house in Memphis, Tennessee, that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the only extant example in Memphis of a Victorian piano box house. [2] It is currently a private residence.
Memphis is a city located along the Mississippi River in southwestern Shelby County, Tennessee, United States. The 2017 city population was 652,236, making Memphis the largest city on the Mississippi River, second-largest city in Tennessee, as well as the 25th largest city in the United States. Greater Memphis is the 42nd largest metropolitan area in the United States, with a population of 1,348,260 in 2017. The city is the anchor of West Tennessee and the greater Mid-South region, which includes portions of neighboring Arkansas and Mississippi. Memphis is the seat of Shelby County, the most populous county in Tennessee. As one of the most historic and cultural cities of the southern United States, the city features a wide variety of landscapes and distinct neighborhoods.
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 preserving the property.
The piano box house is a vernacular architectural style found in houses built in Middle and West Tennessee, from the mid-19th century into the early part of the 20th century. These one-story houses acquired the name "piano box" from their shape, which was seen to resemble that of a rectangular grand piano. [2]
Vernacular architecture encompasses the vast majority of the world's built environment, and thus resists a simple definition. It is perhaps best understood not by what it is, but what it can reveal about the culture of a people or place at any given time. The sheer range of global building types and developments--from Mongolian yurts to Japanese minka to American roadside commercial strips--suggests that vernacular architecture is everywhere, but tends to be disregarded or overlooked in traditional histories of architecture and design. As geographer Amos Rapoport has famously written, vernacular architecture constitutes 95 percent of the world's built environment: that which is not designed by professional architects and engineers. While such an understanding has its limitations, it nonetheless indicates the vastness of the subject and helps us recognize that all aspects of the built environment can impart something about the society and culture of a people or place. If nothing else, vernacular architecture cannot be distilled into a series of easy-to-digest patterns, materials, or elements. Vernacular architecture is not a style.
Middle Tennessee is a distinct portion of the state of Tennessee, delineated according to state law as the 41 counties in the Middle Grand Division of Tennessee.
West Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of the state of Tennessee. Of the three, it is the one that is most sharply defined geographically. Its boundaries are the Mississippi River on the west and the Tennessee River on the east. This region's boundaries have been expanded slightly to include all of Hardin County, which is bisected by the Tennessee River. The states of Kentucky and Mississippi provide the respective northern and southern boundaries, with the exception of a portion of Lauderdale County, Alabama, which lies southeast of Hardin County. The region consists of twenty-one counties.
Maxwelton was built around 1860 from Tennessee native Poplar and Cypress woods. It features a long recessed central porch between two flanking parlors. The interior of the home has 14-foot (4.3 m) ceilings. Its floors are made from 4-inch (100 mm) pine boards. There are five fireplaces with wooden mantels and some have ornately tiled hearths. It is named after a famed estate Maxwelton House home of Annie Laurie in Dumfriesshire, Scotland.
Glencairn is an ecclesiastical and civil parish in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.
"Annie Laurie" is an old Scottish song based on a poem said to have been written by William Douglas (1682?–1748) of Dumfriesshire, about his romance with Annie Laurie (1682—1764). The words were modified and the tune was added by Alicia Scott in 1834/5. The song is also known as "Maxwelton Braes".
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Sharing a border with England to the southeast, Scotland is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, by the North Sea to the northeast and by the Irish Sea to the south. In addition to the mainland, situated on the northern third of the island of Great Britain, Scotland has over 790 islands, including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides.
Judge John Louis Taylor Sneed purchased the home in 1874. [3] The home has been in the Sneed - Ewell family for four generations. Upon Judge Sneed's death, his wife inherited Maxwelton. Since the couple had no children, after her death the home was passed to her nephew, John Sneed Webb and then to Webb's daughter, Kathleen. In 1918 Kathleen was married in the home to Arthur Peyton Ewell and they had two sons, Arthur Webb Ewell and John Sneed Ewell, both of whom were born in Maxwelton's west bedroom.
Maxwelton was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. [1]
