Blount Mansion

By 1925, the area around the Blount Mansion had been allowed to seriously deteriorate. Slums existed in the waterfront area. Blount Mansion was in seriously run-down condition. Across the street from the Mansion site, the Andrew Johnson Hotel was under construction as part of a downtown revitalization. Efforts were underway to purchase the Blount Mansion property, and raze the only home of a signer of the U.S. Constitution outside of the 13 original states for hotel parking. Local figures such as Mrs. B.B. Cates, Dr. James Hoskins, a Dean at the University of Tennessee and President of the East Tennessee Historical Society, and Miss Mary Boyce Temple, a regent of the Bonny Kate Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, spearheaded the effort to save Blount Mansion. Mary Temple gave her check for $100 to secure the option on the property in November of 1925, and on November 17, 1926, Blount Mansion Association, Inc., was established to preserve the property. Miss Temple served as the first President of the Association. The Mansion was restored and opened for tours in 1930, the same year the last loan of the $31,500 purchase price was paid in full. Now, Blount Mansion, designated as Knoxville's only National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service in 1965, has become the oldest museum in Knox County.