Colonel John Williams House

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Col. John Williams House
U.S. National Register of Historic Places

Location:	2335 Dandridge Ave. Knoxville, Tennessee
Built/Founded:	1826
Architect:	Melinda White Williams
Architectural style(s):	Federal
Added to NRHP:	December 3, 1980
NRHP Reference#:	80003843

The home was built in the 1826 by Melinda White Williams, youngest daughter of Knoxville founders James and Mary White. It is in the Federal style. After Williams' death in 1837, the estate was subsequently sold. The house was leased to the Tennessee School for the Deaf and Dumb Negro Division. In 1885, the adjoining land was bought for use by the school. The property continued to be used by the school until the end of segregation in the 1960s.

The Williams House was built in 1825-1826 by Col. John Williams' wife, Melinda White Williams, while he was away serving as Charge'de Affairs to Venezuela for President John Quincy Adams. Col. Williams was originally from Surrey County, North Carolina being the fourth son of Col. Joseph and Rebekah Lanier Williams. Col. Williams had been a U.S. Senator and was the hero of the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814 (Jackson’s first military victory.)

The house and property were sold to a local Dr., around 1850, then bought before the Civil War by the State of Tennessee. It was used as the Colored Deaf and Dumb School for many years – certainly one of the first institutions of its kind in existence.

It was rehabbed by the state in both 1923 and 1948. In the latter it was turned into classrooms for students and was last used in approximately 1982. For many years it simply sat there while adjoining buildings were used for the Sertoma Learning Center.

After asbestos was found in those other buildings, Sertoma moved to other quarters and the state simply abandoned the property in 1991. An effort was made to preserve it at that time, but it did not get back into family ownership until 1998.

      The house is currently under renovation by the family.

[edit] References

Knoxville: Fifty Landmarks. (Knoxville: The Knoxville Heritage Committee of the Junior League of Knoxville, 1976), page 17.
The Future of Knoxville's Past: Historic and Architectural Resources in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Knoxville Historic Zoning Commission, October, 2006), page 20.