James Park Home

James Park, a Scots-Irish merchant who reached Knoxville in 1798, bought Sevier's abandoned foundation in 1812 and finished the house. He served two stints as mayor, lost the city's first popular election in 1839 by one vote, and sat out the war at his country home. Andrew Jackson stayed here in 1830; a windowpane etched Sallie, probably by a Park daughter, survives. After 1912 it was offices, a Red Cross workshop and a clinic. A 2002 purchase brought restoration, removing a 1968 rear addition, largely finished by 2007.

What the plaque says

James Park Home Governor John Sevier brought this block from General James White in 1797 and laid foundations for, but did not build, his residence. The site was acquired in 1812 and house erected by James Park, pioneer merchant, whose family lived here for three generations. Since 1945 it has been the medical library and museum of the Knoxville Academy of Medicine. James Park House The Foundation for this house was laid by Governor John Sevier on a block bought from Knoxville founder James White in 1797. James Park, pioneer merchant and Knoxville's second mayor, completed the main house in 1812. His son, Dr. James Park occupied the house until 1912. It subsequently housed a War Work Shop and tearoom for the Red Cross, the Reaves-Leach infirmary, and the Knoxville Academy of Medicine. The Gulf & Ohio Railways renovated the house in 2006.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Blount Mansion — 0.2 mi
  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 — 1.4 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

• Thomas William Humes — steps away
• Knoxville: A Divided City — steps away
• Treaty of Holston — steps away
• Old Knox County Courthouse — steps away