Blount Mansion

The Blount Mansion, also known as William Blount Mansion, located at 200 West Hill Avenue in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, was the home of the only territorial governor of the Southwest Territory, William Blount (1749–1800). Blount, also a signer of the United States Constitution and a U.S. Senator from Tennessee, lived on the property with his family and ten African-American slaves. The mansion served as the de facto capitol of the Southwest Territory. In 1796, much of the Tennessee Constitution was drafted, in Governor Blount's office at the mansion. Tennessee state historian John Trotwood Moore once called Blount Mansion "the most important historical spot in Tennessee." The house is a wood-frame home sheathed in wood siding, built with materials brought from North Carolina in an era when most homes in Tennessee were log cabins. The two-story central portion of the home is the oldest section. The one-story west wing is believed to have been constructed next; archaeologists suspect the west wing was originally an outbuilding, which was then moved and attached to the main house, and there is some evidence the west wing was originally the servants' quarters. The one-story east wing was the final section to be constructed, perhaps as late as 1820. Blount's office, from which he governed and conducted his business affairs, was built along with the house and is a one-story, free-standing building and had a modest front porch. By 1925, the house had deteriorated, and a local developer, B.H. Sprankle, intended to demolish it and replace it with a parking lot to serve the new Andrew Johnson Hotel, then under construction. The Blount Mansion Association was chartered the following year, and after a massive publicity campaign by Mary Boyce Temple and the Bonnie Kate Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the East Tennessee Historical Society, the Association raised enough money to purchase the house in 1930. The Blount Mansion Association has since maintained the house as a museum, and has made numerous renovations to restore the house and property to its late 18th-century appearance. In the 1960s, the mansion was designated a National Historic Landmark.