Knoxville's Mid-Century Modern Architecture to be Documented

The Knoxville-Knox Metropolitan Planning Commission (MPC) office has received a federal Historic Preservation Fund grant from the Tennessee Historical Commission to update the City’s Historic Resource Inventory.

The original historic inventory was completed in 1986, but only buildings that were constructed in 1935 or prior were surveyed. The update will focus on buildings constructed between 1935 and 1966. Buildings constructed during this general timeframe are often referred to as "mid-century modern." The National Park Service has determined that buildings at least 50 years old have achieved sufficient age to be worthy of documenting for MPC and State Historic Preservation Office files. The inventory update will serve as a tool to help ensure that planning and zoning decisions do not harm important historic buildings, streetscapes, and neighborhoods.

The inventory documentation will include a photograph taken from the public right-of-way, as well as mapping and ​notes on architectural descriptions. The consultant conducting the survey update is Phil Thomason and Associates.

The survey update is planned for the Sequoyah Hills Neighborhood the week of June 13^th, 2016.

It will continue throughout various City neighborhoods until the end of August. This survey update project is not an effort to designate any property with a historic zoning overlay (H-1) or nominate it to the National Register of Historic Places; however, if you are interested in such a designation or would like more information on this project, please contact Kaye Graybeal, MPC Historic Preservation Planner at 865-215-3795 or via e-mail at Kaye.Graybeal@knoxmpc.org.

Cover photo: ​Seymour-Tanner House​, ©2015 Denise Retallack