Blount Mansion

William Blount signed the Constitution and became one of Tennessee's first U.S. senators in 1796, deep in debt from land speculation. In 1797 a letter to James Carey outlining a plot to help Britain take Spanish Louisiana and Florida came to light, and the Senate voted 25 to 1 to effectively expel him, the first senator removed. The House impeached him, but in 1799 the Senate dismissed the case, 14 to 11, for lack of jurisdiction. At home he stayed popular: crowds paraded him through Knoxville, and he was named speaker of the state senate.

What the plaque says

Blount Mansion Built in 1792, this was one of the first frame houses west of the Alleghenies. It served as both the residence of William Blount, Governor of the Territory South of the River Ohio, and as capital of that territory, now the State of Tennessee. Born in North Carolina, Blount was a delegate of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and a signer of the Constitution of the United States.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Blount Mansion — steps away
  The 1792 frame house of William Blount, governor of the Southwest Territory, Knoxville's only National Historic Landmark, where the people he enslaved are named.
• Beck Cultural Exchange Center — 1.2 mi
  Knoxville's Black history museum and archive, opened in 1975 in the 1912 Dandridge Avenue house the community bought for $22,500.
• Green McAdoo Cultural Center — 16 mi
  The 1935 school in Clinton that sent twelve Black students down Foley Hill to desegregate Clinton High School in August 1956, now a museum with bronze statues of the Clinton 12.
• Museum of Appalachia — 17 mi
  John Rice Irwin's 65-acre collection of moved log cabins and mountain objects north of Knoxville, opened in 1969, with a cabin believed to be Mark Twain's father's.

More markers nearby

• James H. Robinson — steps away
• Old Knox County Courthouse — steps away
• Treaty of Holston — steps away
• Staub's Theatre — steps away