Ashlar Hall
Status: Preserved
Address: 1397 Central Ave
Date Built: 1896
Ashler Hall - 1896: On Central Avenue. Designed by Brinkley Snowden who graduated from Princeton in 1890. The name comes from the term 'ashler' used to describe squared, hewn stone. The house came to be owned by Holiday Inn Corporation. Next it became a fine restaurant. And then it was sold to Prince Mongo, an eccentric Memphis Millionaire. He has moved on. Now the property is for sale again, sitting vacant, in a sad state of decay.
Austin, John Alexander, House
Status: Preserved
Address: 290 South Front St
Date Built: 1876
The James Lee/ Goyer house
The James Lee House is a historic home at 690 Adams Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee. It used to house the Memphis Academy of Art. It is 8,100-square-foot home was constructed by William Harsson in 1848. Harsson's daughter Laura married Charles Wesley Goyer, who bought the house in 1852. Goyer who had it expanded by the architecture firm of Edward Culliatt Jones and Matthias H. Baldwin in 1871 after seeing their work in designing the neighboring Woodruff-Fontaine House. A Princeton University educated riverboat captain bought the house in 1890 and in 1925 it became the James Lee Memorial Art Academy a predecessor of the Memphis Academy of Art. The home was used by Canadian indie rock group the Tokyo Police Club a music video for their 2008 song In a Cave.
Circa 1900. Gypsy Cotillion Ball at the James Lee Home. The women are dressed as gypsies
Links:
Sara Patterson James Lee House April 2011 Abandoned Memphis The Commercial Appeal
Photo of James Lee House (Flikr)
Abandoned Memphis James Lee House photo gallery The Commercial Appeal
Allen, Walter Granville, House
Status: Preserved
Address: 8504 Macon Road
Date Built: C. 1913
Mollie Fontaine Taylor House
The Mollie Fontaine Taylor House is a historic Victorian architecture residence at 679 Adams Avenue converted into a bar an restaurant in the Victorian Village section of Memphis, Tennessee. Built circa 1886 it was a wedding present for a wealthy daughter of Nolan Fontaine. The father's home where she grew up, the Woodruff-Fontaine House, is across the street and is now a museum.
Mollie Fontaine Taylor House: Built in 1890 on Adams Avenue. The home was built as a wedding present for a daughter. It certainly belongs to the Victorian style that states 'If one kind of decoration is good, then two or three kinds would be better'. and could easily be compared to a wedding cake. Mollie's father lived across the street and Mollie lived in this house until her death in 1936. Currently the house is a bar/restaurant and is said to be haunted by Mollie's ghost.
External links
Memphis Historic Homes
photos of house (Flikr)
Mollie Fontaine Lounge website
Barton, Pauline Cheek, House
Status: Preserved
Address: 6562 Green Shadows
Date Built: 1937
Woodruff-Fontaine House
WOODRUFF-FONTAINE HOUSE: Adams Avenue. Dating from 1871, this is one of the most elegant of the city's old Victorians. Unlike most of the homes in the area, this was built all at one time. It has a steep mansard roof, showing the French influence. The home was built by Amos Woodruff - a carriage maker who had become president of two banks, a railroad company, etc. etc. In 1883 Noland Fontaine purchased the home and his family lived here for the next 46 years, becoming famous for their lavish parties - often more than 2000 guests. Tennessee governors and President Grover Cleveland attended parties here. In 1930 Rosa Lee purchased the house for the expansion of her art academy next door. After the art school moved to Overton Park in 1959, the house was vacant until 1961. Purchased by the Association for Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities, it is now open for tours.
The Woodruff-Fontaine House is a historic building constructed in 1871 on what was once "Millionaire's Row" on Memphis, Tennessee's Adams Avenue. It is located at 680 Adams Avenue and operated for tours, luncheons, weddings, and as a gift shop. It was designed by the Jones and Baldwin firm of Edward C. Jones and Matthias H. Baldwin. Impressed by its construction, the neighbors had their home, the Goyer Lee House, expanded by the same firm.
External Links:
Historic Properties in Memphis/Endangered
Woodruff-Fontaine House website
Anderson-Coward House (Justine´s Restaurant)
Status: Preserved
Address: 919 Coward Place
Date Built: 1854
Anderson-Coward House. Coward Place. Built in 1840. For 37 years this building housed 'Justine's', which was considered the city's finest restaurant. This elegant building survived a shirmish on the property during the Civil War, but it can't seem to escape the vacancy and vandalish of today. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and on another list - the 'endangered list.'
Annesdale House
Address: 1325 Lamar
Date Built: 1850
Annesdale: Built in 1850 on Lamar Avenue. The home was Originally built by Dr. Samuel Mansfield, a wholesale druggist from Maryland, on 200 acres on the outskirts of Memphis. Nineteen years later, Colonel Robert Brinkley bought the estate as a wedding gift to his daughter Annie and at that time, it was named Annesdale, for Annie's Dale. Since 1869, Annesdale has been home to the same family for at leat 7 generations. It is Italian Villa in style, built with bricks made on the site. The four-story tower overlooks the present seven and a half acre park-like setting.
Robert S. Bowles, Houses
Status: Preserved
Address: 544-548 Vance Avenue
Removed From National Registrar 7/22/1980
Maxwelton
Maxwelton, currently a private residence, is a single story Victorian Piano Box House located on Southern Avenue near Buntyn's Station along what was the Memphis and Charleston Railroad.
In Middle and West Tennessee, Piano Box Houses were erected from the mid-19th century into the early part of the 20th century. The name for these one-story houses derives from their similarity to box-shaped pianos.
Maxwelton was built around 1860 of Tennessee native Poplar and Cypress woods and features a long recessed central porch between two flanking parlors. The interior of the home has fourteen foot ceilings and four inch pine board floors. There are five fireplaces with wooden mantels and some have ornately tiled hearths. It is named after the famed estate in Scotland whose stories are chronicled through story and song. Maxwelton was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Judge John Louis Taylor Sneed purchased the home in 1874 and the home has been in the Sneed - Ewell family for four generations. Upon his death, his wife inherited Maxwelton and since there were no children from their union the home was passed to her nephew, John Sneed Webb and then to Webb's daughter, Kathleen. In 1918 Kathleen was married in the home to Arthur Peyton Ewell and they had two sons, Arthur Webb Ewell and John Sneed Ewell both of whom were born in Mawelton's west bedroom.
Location: 3105 Southern Ave., Memphis, Tennessee
Coordinates: 35°6′53″N 89°57′27″WCoordinates: 35°6′53″N 89°57′27″W
Area: 1.5 acres (0.61 ha)
Architectural style: Late Victorian, Pianobox
Governing body: Private
NRHP Reference#: 80003866
Added to NRHP: March 10, 1980
Boyce-Gregg House
Status: Preserved
Address: 317 South Highland
Date Built: 1920-21
Bradford-Maydwell House
Status: Preserved
Address: 648 Poplar Avenue
Date Built: C. 1859
Capt. Harris House
Status: Preserved
Address: 2106 Young Avenue
Date Built: 1898
Robert M. Carrier House
Status: Preserved
Address: 642 South Willett St
Date Built: 1926
Cornelius Lawrence Clancy House
Status: Preserved
Address: 911 Kerr
Date Built: 1900
E.H. Crump House
The E.H.Crump House. Circa 1908. 1962 Peabody Avenue. "Boss" Crump is said to have picked every mayor the city had from his own term starting in 1909 til his death in 1954. Doric columns support the Greek Revival front porch.
Status: Preserved
Address: 1962 Peabody Avenue
Date Built: 1909
E. H. CRUMP HOUSE. Peabody Avenue. Circa 1908. Doric columns support the Greek Revival front porch. Ed Crump was the 'Boss' of Memphis and is said to have picked every mayor the city had from his own term starting in 1909 until his death in 1954. A second story is now being added to the rear of the house to blend in seamlessly with an earlier addition.
Rowland J. Darnell, House (Nineteenth Century Club)
Address: 1433 Union Avenue
Date Built: 1907
ROLAND DARNELL HOUSE - 19th CENTURY CLUB - On Union . Built in 1909 by lumberman Roland Darnell. It was one of many fine mansions that lined this street. Now it is the only one. Currently owned by the 19th Century Club for the last 85 years, it is currently in grave danger. The club cannot afford the price to renovate and has already auctioned off the original antiques. Now the property, with its original interior details, is up for sale. Since Union is lined with fast food joints, the fate of this elegant mansion should not surprise anyone.
Elam Homestead
Status: Preserved
Address: 1428 Fox
Date Built: 1854
Source: Internet
