Thomas Hope (architect)

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Thomas Hope (December 25, 1757 - October 4, 1820) was an architect and amalgamation of British-born homes, active mainly in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the late 18th and early nineteenth centuries. Trained in London, Hope moved to Knoxville in 1795, where he designed and built some of the city's earliest houses. At least two houses built by Hope - Ramsey House (1797) in East Knoxville and Statesview (around 1806) in West Knoxville - are still standing, and have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Video Thomas Hope (architect)

Biography

Hope was born in Kent, England, in 1757, and studied the home construction trade in London. During the 1780s, he moved to Charleston, South Carolina, where he was hired to build a home for South Carolina grower Ralph Izard. This house stood on Broad Street in Charleston for decades. During the early 1790s, Harapan lived in Cheraw, South Carolina, where he married his wife, Elizabeth Large, in 1793. Hope then moved to Knoxville, which was then the capital of the Southwest Region, in 1795.

Hope's first project in Knoxville was Ramsey House, or Swan Pond, a two-story Georgian house completed in 1797. Hope found many jobs in Knoxville, a burgeoning border town requiring professional builders. In the decade after finishing Ramsey House, Hope builds a residence known as "Trafalgar" for John Kain's plantation, overlooking the Holston River in Knox County. Around 1806, Hope completed the Statesview Federal style for surveyor Charles McClung in what is now West Knoxville. In 1812, Hope built a house, later known as "Maison de Sante," for the Knoxville doctor, Joseph C. Strong, who stands on the corner of State Street and Cumberland Avenue. In addition to house construction, Hope set up a carpenter's guild in Knoxville in 1801.

The original design of James Park House in Knoxville, built around 1812, is sometimes associated with Hope. In 1816, Hope received several payments from Thomas Humes (1767-1816), builder of Lamar House Hotel, which suggests that Hope might play a role in the original design of the hotel (although there is little else to support this). Hope's final project is the original Rotherwood Mansion, built for Presbyterian minister Frederick Augustus Ross in what is now Kingsport, Tennessee. After Hope's death in 1820, her son oversaw the completion of Rotherwood.

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Style

Hope's influences include English architect Christopher Wren (1632-1723) and contemporary American architect Charles Bulfinch. Many of Hope's designs were inspired by William Pain's book of 1781, The Golden Rule Builder , which Hope brings with him in his various projects. Expectations typically use a mixture of Georgian and Federal architectural styles, depending on the client's needs.

Building

Hope is known to have built the following things:

• The Ralph Izard House , circa 1788, on Broad Street in Charleston, South Carolina; no longer standing.
• The Ramsey House , or Swan Pond, in East Knoxville, Tennessee, completed 1797. Built from Tennessee marble and limestone worked locally around a central hall plan; contains hand carved cornices. The house is now a museum.
• Statesview , built around 1806 in the Ebenezer community (now part of West Knoxville, Tennessee). Designed in Federal style, the original layout of the house was altered somewhat after being damaged by a fire in 1823. This house is now a private residence.
• Trafalgar , built around 1806 along the Holston River in Knox County; no longer standing.
• Joseph Strong House , built around 1812 in Knoxville; destroyed in 1971 to pave the way for highway construction.
• Rotherwood , built in 1820 in Boatyard, Tennessee (now Kingsport). The mansion was burned in 1865, and replaced shortly thereafter by the current Rotherwood Mansion.

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Furniture

Hope provides furniture for the many homes he built. The ledger owned by the War Department agent David Henley shows that Hope also provided furniture for the Tellico Silas Dinsmore agent in the mid-1790s. In Autobiography, historian J. G. M. Ramsey (1797-1884), son of Francis Alexander Ramsey, for whom Ramsey House was built, stated that Hope designed a bookshelf and a table for the home library. Since then, a number of pieces of furniture from early Knoxville have been associated with Hope, including the desks and bookshelves once owned by Knox County early settlers David Campbell.

While Hope provides furniture for some of her customers, whether she makes pieces of furniture or just gets it debatable. The furniture historian Ann McPherson states that certain parts associated with Hope contain rococo elements that Hope may not use, and show the similarity of the pieces to the cabinet-making style of Winchester, Virginia region at the end of the 18th century.

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Legacy

The Ramsey House and Statesview are the only surviving structures known to be built by Thomas Hope. The James Park House, which still stands in downtown Knoxville, is sometimes associated with Hope, although its original design has been modified many times. The destruction of Joseph Strong House in 1971 sparked criticism from preservationists, and was one of the events that led to the formation of the Knoxville-area preservation group Knox Heritage.

In 1868, Thomas Hope's grandchildren, David James Hope and John W. Hope, opened Hope Brothers Jewelry, which operated from a shop on Gay Street until the 20th century. In 1897, the Hope brothers set up a 12-foot (3.7 m) clock in front of their store which remained a landmark in downtown Knoxville for over a century. The Brothers Hope Jewelry Store became Kimball Jewelry in 1933, and in 2004, Kimball moved to West Knoxville, and took Hope hours with them. The town of Knoxville set up a new road clock to replace Hope's time in 2007.

In 1924, Hope's great-granddaughter, Albert Guinn Hope (1869-1955), built a house, "Hopecote," in what is now part of the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville. The house includes a closet attached to Thomas Hope. In 2012, Hopecote is added to the National Register of Historic Places.

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See also

• George Franklin Barber
• The Baumann family (architect)
• R. F. Graph

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References

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External links

• Ramsey House Plantation - the official site

Source of the article : Wikipedia