The Old Customs House, also called the Old Post Office, is a historic building located at the corner of Clinch Avenue and Market Street in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Completed in 1874, it was the city's first federal building. It housed the federal courts, excise offices and post office until 1933. From 1936 to 1976, it was used by the Tennessee Valley Authority for offices. Expanded in 2004, the building is home to the East Tennessee History Center, which includes the Lawson McGhee Library's Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection, the Knox County Archives, and the East Tennessee Historical Society's headquarters and museum. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural significance.[1]
The Old Customs House is a three-story Italianate style building sheathed in East Tennessee marble. The smooth exterior walls contrast with rusticated quoins at the building's corners.[1] The former courtroom on the third floor is notable for its neoclassical detailing. Much of the original interior has been altered.[1]
History
The Customs House is situated on what was originally Lot 11 of James White's 1795 extension of Knoxville.[3] An 1871 map of Knoxville shows the property as an open grove surrounded by a few small houses.[4]
The Old Customs House, as it appeared in 1886
Through the 1850s, Congress was petitioned by cities across the country to provide courtrooms and post offices.
Congress appropriated funding for Knoxville's Customs House in 1856, and reappropriated the funding in 1869.[5] Construction of the original portion of the Customs House (at the corner of Clinch and Market), designed by U.S. government chief architect Alfred B. Mullett (1834–1890), began in 1871 and was completed in 1874.[5] The first floor was used as a post office, while the second and third floors were used for the federal court and office space for federal officials.[6]
As Knoxville's population quadrupled in the late 19th century, the increased postal activity left the Customs House critically overcrowded,[6] and the building was enlarged in 1910.[7] The building had a steam plant for heating and used electricity provided by the Knoxville Railway & Light Company.[8]
In the 1980s, the East Tennessee Historical Society (ETHS) moved to the Customs House and set up the East Tennessee Historical Center.[9] The society opened the Museum of East Tennessee History in 1993.[10] In 2000, the second-floor corridor of the building was named Deaderick Hall in honor of librarian Lucile Deaderick (1914–2006).[11]
2014
In 2004, a BarberMcMurry-designed eastern extension to the Customs House was completed, extending the structure the length of Clinch Avenue from Market to Gay Street.[12] This new complex, known as the East Tennessee History Center, includes the ETHS's headquarters, the Museum of East Tennessee History, the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection, and the Knox County Archives. The Old Customs House is depicted in the ETHS logo.
George Franklin Barber was an American architect known for the house designs he marketed worldwide through mail-order catalogs. Barber was one of the most successful residential architects of the late Victorian period in the United States, and his plans were used for houses in all 50 U.S. states, and in nations as far away as Japan and the Philippines. Over four dozen Barber houses are individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and several dozen more are listed as part of historic districts.
John Hervey Crozier was an American attorney and politician active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, during the mid-nineteenth century. Described as "an orator of uncommon brilliancy" and "one of the brainiest men ever sent by Tennessee to congress," Crozier represented Tennessee's 3rd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1845 to 1849. While originally a member of the Whig Party, Crozier switched his allegiance to the Democratic Party in the 1850s, and supported the Confederacy during the Civil War. Crozier retired from public life after the war, and spent his remaining years engaged in scholarly pursuits.
The East Tennessee Historical Society (ETHS), headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the study of East Tennessee history, the preservation of historically significant artifacts, and educating the citizens of Tennessee. The society operates a museum and museum shop in the East Tennessee History Center on Gay Street in downtown Knoxville. The East Tennessee Historical Society was established in 1834, 38 years after the establishment of the state of Tennessee, to record the history of the development and settlement of the area.
Margaret Elizabeth Crozier French was an American educator, women's suffragist and social reform activist. She was one of the primary leaders in the push for women's rights in Tennessee in the early 1900s, and helped the state become the 36th state to certify the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, giving women the right to vote, in 1920. She also founded the Ossoli Circle, the oldest federated women's club in the South, and led efforts to bring coeducation to the University of Tennessee.
The Andrew Johnson Building is a high-rise building in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Completed in 1929 as the Andrew Johnson Hotel, at 203-foot (62 m), it was Knoxville's tallest building for nearly a half-century. In the 1980s, it was converted to office space by Knox County. In 1980, the Andrew Johnson Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 2017, BNA Associates announced plans to convert it back to a hotel. The plans were approved in 2020. As of 2022, the county offices have been almost entirely vacated in preparation for the extensive renovations.
Charles McClung McGhee was an American industrialist and financier, active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the latter half of the nineteenth century. As director of the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway (ETV&G), McGhee was responsible for much of the railroad construction that took place in the East Tennessee area in the 1870s and 1880s. His position with the railroad also gave him access to northern capital markets, which he used to help finance dozens of companies in and around Knoxville. In 1885, he established the Lawson McGhee Library, which was the basis of Knox County's public library system.
Enoch Lloyd Branson (1853–1925) was an American artist best known for his portraits of Southern politicians and depictions of early East Tennessee history. One of the most influential figures in Knoxville's early art circles, Branson received training at the National Academy of Design in the 1870s and subsequently toured the great art centers of Europe. After returning to Knoxville, he operated a portrait shop with photographer Frank McCrary. He was a mentor to fellow Knoxville artist Catherine Wiley, and is credited with discovering twentieth-century modernist Beauford Delaney.
Anna Catherine Wiley was an American artist active primarily in the early twentieth century. After training with the Art Students League of New York and receiving instruction from artists such as Lloyd Branson and Frank DuMond, Wiley painted a series of impressionist works that won numerous awards at expositions across the Southern United States, and have since been displayed in museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Morris Museum of Art. In 1926, Wiley was institutionalized after suffering a mental breakdown, and never painted again.
The Mechanics' Bank and Trust Company Building is an office building located at 612 South Gay Street in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Built in 1907 for the Mechanics' Bank and Trust Company, the building now houses offices for several law firms and financial agencies. The building's facade was constructed with locally quarried marble, and is designed in the Second Renaissance Revival style. In 1983, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural significance.
The Fidelity Building is an office building in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Initially constructed in 1871 for the wholesale firm Cowan, McClung and Company, the building underwent an exterior renovation and was converted to Fidelity-Bankers Trust Company in 1929 and has since been renovated for use as office space. In 1984, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places for its architecture and its role in Knoxville's late-nineteenth century wholesaling industry.
Gay Street is a street in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, that traverses the heart of the city's downtown area. Since its development in the 1790s, Gay Street has served as the city's principal financial and commercial thoroughfare, and has played a primary role in the city's historical and cultural development. The street contains Knoxville's largest office buildings and oldest commercial structures. Several buildings on Gay Street have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
William Rule was an American newspaper editor and politician, best known as the founder of The Knoxville Journal, which was published in Knoxville, Tennessee, from 1870 until 1991. A protégé of vitriolic newspaper editor William G. "Parson" Brownlow, Rule established the Journal as a successor to Brownlow's Knoxville Whig.
The South Market Historic District is a cluster of five buildings at the intersection of Market Street and Church Avenue in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. The buildings, which include the Cherokee Building, the Ely Building, the Cunningham, the Stuart, and the Cate, were built circa 1895—1907, and were used for both office space and residential space. Several prominent Knoxville physicians and three marble companies operated out of the buildings in this district in the early 1900s.
The General Building, also called the Tennessee General Building or the First Bank Building, is an office high-rise located in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Constructed in 1925, the 14-story building is the only high-rise designed by Charles I. Barber, and has over the years housed the offices of dozens of banks, physicians, and various financial and architectural firms. The Lexington, Tennessee-based First Bank is the current anchor tenant. In 1988, the General Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its architecture and its role in Knoxville's commercial history.
The Medical Arts Building is an office high-rise located at 603 Main Street in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Completed in 1931, the 10-story structure originally provided office space for physicians and dentists, and at the time was considered the "best equipped" medical building in the South. The building has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places as one of the region's best examples of a Gothic Revival-style office building. It has recently been renovated into mixed-use, principally residential use.
The Baumann family was a family of American architects who practiced in Knoxville, Tennessee, and the surrounding region, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It included Joseph F. Baumann (1844–1920), his brother, Albert B. Baumann, Sr. (1861–1942), and Albert's son, Albert B. Baumann, Jr. (1897–1952). Buildings designed by the Baumanns include the Mall Building (1875), the Church of the Immaculate Conception (1886), Minvilla (1913), the Andrew Johnson Building (1930), and the Knoxville Post Office (1934).
Charles Ives Barber was an American architect, active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, and vicinity, during the first half of the 20th century. He was cofounder of the firm, Barber & McMurry, through which he designed or codesigned buildings such as the Church Street Methodist Episcopal Church, South, the General Building, and the Knoxville YMCA, as well as several campus buildings for the University of Tennessee and numerous elaborate houses in West Knoxville. Several buildings designed by Barber have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Mary Boyce Temple was an American philanthropist and socialite, active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was the first president of the Ossoli Circle, the oldest federated women's club in the South, and published a biography of the club's namesake, Margaret Fuller Ossoli, in 1886. She also cofounded the Tennessee Woman's Press and Author's Club, the Knoxville Writer's Club, and the Knox County chapter of the League of Women Voters. She represented Tennessee at various international events, including the Paris Exposition of 1900 and at the dedication of the Panama Canal in 1903.
The United States Post Office and Courthouse, commonly called the Knoxville Post Office, is a state building located at 501 Main Street in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Constructed in 1934 for use as a post office and federal courthouse, the building contains numerous Art Deco and Moderne elements, and is clad in Tennessee marble. While the building is still used as a branch post office, the court section is now used by the state courts. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its architecture and political significance.
Mary Utopia Rothrock, was an American librarian and historian.
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