Community Guide - Harriman
Knoxville, Tennessee - Real Estate Guide

Victorian architecture helps Harriman retain its stately charm

The city of Harriman was founded in 1890 as a utopia of temperance and bastion of Victorian values.

Liquor is legal in the city these days, but the Victorian architecture remains largely intact to lend a charming beauty to the town of nearly 7,000 tucked into the shadow of the Cumberland Plateau.

Many of the city's historic homes are in Cornstalk Heights, a hilltop district of about 135 houses in 12 blocks that's on the National Register of Historic Places.

"This little district is a gem," said C.J. Sands of the Cornstalk Height Historical Community Organization.

Sands noted that the houses range from stately Tudors to delicate Queen Annes.

"We have a lot of different Victorian styles in this community," she said.

The town also features the Temperance Building, a Gothic edifice built of stone and dark-red brick. Originally built as the headquarters of the East Tennessee Land Co., the landmark building later housed American Temperance University and now contains city offices.

"We are so lucky to have that building," Sands said.
Behind the Temperance Building is the Harriman Public Library, a stately columned building constructed with funding from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation.

Unlike many communities in the region, Harriman didn't grow from a frontier settlement. Instead, the East Tennessee Land Co. created the town all at once by holding what locals call the "Great Land Sale."

Roughly 10,000 acres of land once owned by Col. Robert King Byrd was auctioned off in February 1890, to be transformed within a few short years into a town of 4,000 residents.

The town prospered as a manufacturing center through the first quarter of the 20th century. A devastating flood of the Emory River in 1929 wiped out a portion of downtown, though the city rebounded.

As Harriman grew during the latter part of the century, spreading up the surrounding ridges and reaching out south toward Interstate 40, the town's Victorian charm began to fade somewhat.

But in recent years, residents have bought and restored houses on Cornstalk Heights, triggering renewed interest in the town's history and its architecture.

"People are moving into the district who are looking to buy a home on the National Register," Sands said.

The Cornstalk Heights Historic District hosts an annual home tour to raise money for period-inspired lighting, landscaping and other beautification efforts. The tour is held on the second full weekend in December.

Now in its 16th year, the tour attracts visitors from all across the country, Sands said. Last year's tour included a dozen homes, the Temperance Building, the library and several churches.

"If you're a stained-glass buff, you'd better go to the churches," Sands said.

Harriman isn't the only Roane County city that shows off its historic buildings. Rockwood, founded just after the Civil War as a company town for an iron works, also hosts a holiday home tour. The Historic Roane County Courthouse in Kingston is one of only six antebellum courthouses still standing in Tennessee.

ROANE COUNTY
• Population (2000 Census): 50,910
• Founded: 1801; named after Gov. Archibald Roane, who was Tennessee's second governor. His term, 1801-1803, was sandwiched between the terms served by the legendary Gov. John Sevier.
• County seat: Kingston, population 5,246. Founded in 1799; one of the oldest towns in Tennessee, and was capital of Tennessee for one day in 1807. It was named after a prominent landowner, Maj. Robert King.

Other towns
• Harriman - Population 6,744. Founded in 1890 by the East Tennessee Land Co., as a utopia of temperance where alcoholic beverages would neither be made nor sold; named after Gen. Walter Harriman, a former governor of New Hampshire.

• Rockwood - Population 5,774. Founded in 1868, Rockwood was a company town for the Roane Iron Co.; named after the company's first president, William O. Rockwood.

• Oliver Springs - P opulation 3,303*. Founded in 1830; originally named Winter's Gap; ultimately took the name of postmaster Richard Oliver; town was famous for its mineral springs from 1894 until its magnificent resort hotel burned down in 1905. *Located in portions of Roane, Morgan and Anderson counties.

• Attractions:
Fort Southwest Point
Historic Roane County Courthouse
Watts Bar Lake
Mount Roosevelt State Forest
Tennessee Agricultural Exposition Center