Found the above house while browsing through the online collection. This house was photographed in February 1983. A quick google and bing maps search revealed nothing on Belcaro Road in Knoxville that looks remotely like this. Probably have to do some foot work and a bit more research to find out what happened to this amazing house.

The estate also included a formal garden on the back lawn.

We love this place…. and if you love homes, planning, architecture (particularly English Tudor), gardens, and trees you must put this place on your bucket list.  Forest Hills Gardens was developed by the Russell Sage Foundation in 1909 and largely completed by 1940.  The Architect was the brilliant Grosvenor Atterbury and the Landscape Architect renowned Fredrick Law Olmstead.   We have never seen a development that has such a wide array of residential offerings, from single family homes, garden homes and carriage houses to apartments and duplex homes.  In addition to the wonderful homes, there are several outstanding church buildings, a train station, parks, and a marvelous commercial center.  The design ideas found at Forest Hills are endless.  This community will be loved forever and for that reason it is truly a “green development”. No modern “cutting edge” development will ever improve on the timeless beauty and rightness found in Forest Hills Gardens.

For additional reading on this development get a copy of The Architecture of Grosvenor Atterbury and/or Tudor Style. Either book is a great addition to the library.

Just returned from Asheville, NC where I was attending to my father who is recovering from surgery, and yes, even in a serious time like that, I could not resist the urge to take a quick drive through a few downtown neighborhoods. I came away refreshed and inspired by Asheville’s rich architectural tradition and with plans to spend more time there in the near future.

It is very hard finding communities in the US that have their own local style of architecture.  But in Asheville you can find the same architectural theme on homes and commercial buildings: pebble-dash stucco walls, half-timbering, cedar shake accents, broad overhanging eaves with dove-tail rafters, timbered brackets supporting deep gable ends, and warm earth-tone colors resting on split-face granite foundations.  The best term I have found for this style comes from The Architectural Pattern Book by Urban Design Associates: “Biltmore Mountain Shingle” (p. 184).

Above are some prominent examples of this style. They are (top to bottom) the Southern wing of the Manor Inn and Cottages on Charlotte Street, a cottage once associated with the Manor Inn, and the new Grand Bohemian Hotel in Biltmore Village. Next time you are in town be sure to go by both locations. They are great examples of Asheville’s living tradition of a timeless local architectural style that is making Asheville one of our Nation’s most loveable places.

Lovable Place No. 2

Simply put… Home.  What is there not to love about white clinker brick, steel windows, slate roof, old towering oak trees and whistling radiators, all filled with children laughing and lots of love.  Living in a “lovable old home” there is much I gripe about, but in the end my affection for it always wins out.

The home is a simple arts-and-crafts inspired English Tudor built by a father-son/builder-architect team in 1927.  The concept is classic Tudor: side facing gable ends with a single dominant front facing gable, and of course, the well proportioned entry turret.  It is on an up-hill site,  has a wonderful walled courtyard in the back to retain the terrain above.   Some fascinating details include the use of teak wood for the interior paneling and trim, no interior wood casings on the windows, self-supporting precast concrete spiral stairs, and no exposed exterior wood – truly a low maintenance home.

The architect (the son) Edwin Peckinpaugh was 24 years old when he designed the home, a recent graduate of Penn University.  He went on to design some of our city’s great homes before moving to Sacramento, CA in the 1940’s – he was a real talent.   You can read more about Edwin at the now Stafford King and Wiese Architects.

Lovable Place No. 1

Sustainable buildings must be Lovable, Durable, Flexible, and Frugal.  ”The first of the four foundations of sustainable buildings is Lovability, because it does not matter how efficiently the building performs if it is demolished and carted off to the landfill in a generation or two because it cannot be loved. ”  - Steve Mouzon

Thank you Steve for your profound observations.  I was so inspired after listening to Steve’s interview on Treehugger that I wanted to dedicate a series of blogs to Loveable Places that are often old, inspiring, restful, natural, and places I love to spend time.  Odds are these places will long outlast most of our LEED certified buildings of today.

This first lovable place is a Georgian Cottage that I am blessed to stay at while traveling.  The photo says it all, no fuss just a perfect proportion, with proper scale, material, and detail.  Placed perfectly at the end of a terraced garden on the edge of the wood.  I will write more about it’s mother estate and Architect in subsequent blogs.

Jonesborough is Tennessee’s oldest city.  For those traditional-minded among us, it also contains some great buildings that have sprung up in the years since its founding.  Give it a visit if you haven’t already, it’s worth the pleasant walk down Main Street.

Dulin House, Knoxville, Tennessee

This little known and easily missed house located at 3100 Kingston Pike comes from the studio of one of the most famous residential architects to design a house built in Knoxville.  The Dulin House was designed in 1915 by John Russell Pope (1874-1937), a prominent architect from New York.  Pope’s main focus in practice was residential, but he completed a number of commercial and public buildings throughout the Northeast, including the Jefferson Memorial and the National Gallery of Art.

The Dulin House closely resembles Pope’s first residential commission, the Jacobs Residence, located in Newport, Rhode Island. Interestingly, the Dulin House was the original home of what is now known as the Knoxville Museum of Art. The museum, formerly the Dulin Gallery of Art, was founded by Mary Katherine Dulin Folger and was housed there from 1961 to the late 1980’s.  The 10 year span between Popes work on the Jacobs Residence and Dulin Residence reveals a maturing architect who was refining his style we might now refer to as modern classicism.

The Jacobs Residence, Rhode Island

Pope graduated from Columbia University in 1894 and also studied for three years at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He traveled extensively in Europe during this time and gained his love of Classicism.

Reference: James B. Garrison. Mastering Tradition: The Residential Architecture of John Russell Pope. New York: Acanthus, 2004.