Circa 1793- Stockley Donelson- Alexander Bishop House

Location: 7924 Bishop Road, Knoxville (Powell area)

There is a decent article on Wikipedia about this house, one of the oldest homes in Knox County. The house was built circa 1793 by Stockley Donelson. In "The Papers of Andrew Jackson: 1770-1803," there is a footnote about Stockley Donelson. Click on the link to the book to read about him. The National Park Service's website for the National Register for Historic Places has some good black and white photos of the house, inside and out. I assume that they were taken in 1997, when the house was listed on the National Register for Historic Places.

Knox Heritage also has a couple of good pictures of the house in its Picasa web album of antebellum homes. Click here and here to see them.

The following information comes from the website of the National Register of Historic Places. In 1997, the Alexander Bishop House was nominated to be added to the National Register of Historic Places Inventory. The original nomination form can be seen on the NRHP site. Keep in mind that this information was current as of 1997; some of the information about the surrounding landscape and subdivisions has changed between then and now (2015):

"The Alexander Bishop House is located at 7924 Alexander Bishop Road, about eight miles north of downtown Knoxville, in Knox County, Tennessee. The house is in the Forked Pine community, which according to tradition, was named for a forked pine in the old stage road (present day Emory Road) located nearby. The house faces south; the driveway originally led to the house from the old farm road known as Jacksboro Road (presently called Pedigo Road). The house sits on a level lot on the east side of Alexander Bishop Road. A bank with a slope of approximately five feet serves as a border between the rear yard and the road. As the home was built before the current road, the west elevation of the house faces the street while the (front) east facade faces south, overlooking a garden of corn and a field beyond. The north and east borders of the approximately one acre lot are bordered by mature trees with dense foliage, and several mature trees surround the house. Within the thick grove of trees southeast of the house is a small cemetery (not within the nominated boundaries). Located beyond the trees to the east is a subdivision, hidden from view of the house by the trees. Another subdivision lies beyond the southern field. Farmland lies to the north and west of the home.

The Alexander Bishop House is a one and one-half story double pen, three bay log residence, covered with weatherboarding. The house is composed of two, one and one-half story, one pen log cabins. The first of the pens was built c. 1793, and the second pen also built c. 1793 (moved from another location on the property) was joined to it to form a dogtrot c. 1830. In 1856 a one story frame ell was added to the west half of the house and weatherboard siding was added. This addition, on the south elevation, serves as a dining room and kitchen. The original section of the home was also altered at this time with the addition of weatherboard covering to the exterior of the logs. Subsequent historic alterations to the house occurred around 1900 and included the removal of the rear chimney in the kitchen and dining room, the enclosure of the original front doors to the cabin, the addition of a front door opening into the central hall (formerly the dogtrot), the addition of two over two double hung windows and a back porch connecting to the east side of the rear ell. In the 1920s a section of the back porch was converted to a bathroom.

The one and one-half story section of the house has flanking exterior end brick chimneys with stone foundations, applied weatherboard siding, a stone foundation and a gable roof with asphalt shingles. The house originally had log exterior walls and a wood shingle roof. The rear section also features a c. 1900 shed roof porch with square chamfered wood columns. The house has a c. 1900 two over two double hung wood window on the east side of the front door and a four over four double hung wood window on the west side of the door. Double hung two over two wood windows appear in the remainder of the house. Prior to 1920 the log dovetail notching and the wooden pegs used in the original construction were exposed on the interior of the structure. At the rear northwest corner of the log construction is the c. 1856 one story frame ell. This addition has a gable roof of asphalt shingles and weatherboard siding. Floor joists in this section are comprised of solid tree trunks (puncheon). A dirt floor cellar is located beneath the ell.

The interior features four inch board flooring c. 1900, covering pre-existing wide board floors. Exposed second floor joists in the ceiling form exposed ceiling beams in the front two rooms. There are baseboards in the front parlor (southwest corner of the structure), five-panel doors, and an original board and batten door connecting the original portion of the house to the ell. The interior exposed logs were covered c. 1920, as was the original wood paneling in the ell. Boxed-in stairs with board and batten doors occupy the northwest and northeast corners of each log pen section of the house. Small windows on either side of the chimneys in the attic space at both ends of the house provide light for the two attic bedrooms. The attic bedrooms contain original window openings which open into the attic of the dogtrot that became the lower central hall; the upstairs bedrooms are not linked to each other, but are only accessible individually through each individual set of stairs. The walls in the dogtrot space still display the original exposed logs.

The Alexander Bishop House (survey no. 6906) is significant under criterion A as an illustration of early settlement patterns as delineated in the Knox County MPN and under criterion C for architecture as an example of a rural residence. The house was constructed c. 1793 by Stockley Donelson, according to local tradition. Construction methods, such as the use of full dovetail notching and pegged logs indicate a construction date in the late 1700's. Mrs. Charles Curd, who owned the home from 1825 until 1856, connected the original log house with another early log home moved to the site from elsewhere on the property, and constructed the dogtrot between the two pens. This work was done c. 1830, using slave labor. When the Curds sold the land to Alexander Bishop in 1856, he covered the house with weatherboard and added a rear ell. Alexander Bishop's brother Elijah, "updated" the house around 1900 by changing the front facade. A c. 1880 picture of the house shows the front facade as it looked before the changes (photograph not available for re-copying). Board and batten doors led into each pen, and six over six light double hung wood windows were located to the west and east of the front doors, respectively, with a third window located in the position of the original opening to the dogtrot. Although the house has undergone further remodeling since the early 1900s, these changes have been primarily maintenance and the addition of modern bathing facilities rather than renovations.

The property was originally part of a North Carolina land grant consisting of 640 acres, sold to James Swaggerty in 1793 for fifty shillings per 100 acres. Stockley Donelson, a friend and brother-in-law to Andrew Jackson, purchased the land from Swaggerty that same year. Donelson invested in land and owned several hundred thousand acres throughout Tennessee; however, family tradition state that Donelson built the log cabin in 1793 and lived there until he sold the property in 1796. Andrew Jackson is said to have spent several nights in the cabin, using it as a stopover on his trips between North Carolina and Nashville. Donelson sold the property to Charles McClung in 1796 and in 1825 McClung sold it to Charles Curd. A tombstone inscribed with Mrs. Curd's name remains on the grounds. In 1856 Curd sold the farm to Alexander Bishop. Alexander Bishop, the son of Baptist minister Reverend Jonathan Alexander Bishop, was born June 27, 1813, in Lee County, Virginia. He married Lydia McElroy in 183? and continued to reside in Lee County until 1813, when he moved with Lydia and their seven children to Knox County. Alexander Bishop was a deacon and Sunday school superintendent in the Baptist church. He did not own slaves and sympathized with the Union during the Civil War. In 1879 he moved to Texas with his wife and unmarried children, leaving the farm to his son, William. William sold the estate to his uncle, Elijah Alexander Bishop, in 1881. In 1907 Elijah left the property to his son, H.F., and in 1951 H.F. left it to his son, Vernon, who still resides in the old family home.

The Alexander Bishop house is the only extant one and one-half story, double pen log house known to remain in Knox County, and its early construction date can be confirmed based upon the construction methods and materials used, as well as the home's orientation to the road. The use of full dovetail joints and wooden pegs throughout the original portion of the structure indicates that the cabin was built prior to 1800. Later cabins in Knox County usually used square or v-notching and hand forged nails rather that wooden pegs. Likewise, the home's relative position to the road that bears its name denotes early construction. The Alexander Bishop House does not face Alexander Bishop Road, on which it is located. Instead, it faces south, with its rear side to the road. A driveway originally approached the house from present day Pedigo Road (originally called Jacksboro Road), which is located northeast of the property.

This house is significant in relation to understanding the history of construction materials and techniques in East Tennessee. Additionally local folk lore adds an increased significance from the notoriety the cabin had received due to its affiliation with Andrew Jackson. The tale is that the home belonged to Stockley Donelson and it was a frequently visit stop for Andrew Jackson. This local lore was relayed by Mr. Vernon Bishop. Finally, the structure in its entirety provides an excellent portrayal of the evolution of the frontier dwelling overtime. The house retains its original form and massing, massive stone and brick end chimneys, and interior detailing such as the two boxed staircases, and exposed beams and material. Each of the alternations that has been made to the house expresses a unique purpose, representing changing taste and values over time."