The Holston
Encyclopedia
The Holston is a condominium
high-rise located at 531 South Gay Street
in Knoxville
, Tennessee
, USA. Completed in 1913 as the headquarters for the Holston National Bank, the fourteen-story building was the tallest in Knoxville until the construction in the late 1920s of the Andrew Johnson Hotel
, located a few blocks away. The Holston was designed by architect John Kevan Peebles, and today represents the city's only Neoclassical Revival-style
high-rise. In 1979, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places
for its architecture and its prominent position in the Knoxville skyline.
Founded in 1890, Holston National Bank had grown to become one of Knoxville's three largest banks by 1913, when it built the first twelve stories of the Holston building. The thirteenth and fourteenth stories were added in 1928 after Holston National merged with Union National to create Knoxville's largest bank, Holston-Union. The new bank failed in 1930 during the onset of the Great Depression
, however, and was replaced the following year by the Hamilton National Bank of Knoxville. Over the next four decades, Hamilton National remained Knoxville's largest bank, at times controlling over half of the city's banking resources. Hamilton National was seized by Jake Butcher
's United American Bank in 1975 following a bid war, and the new bank moved its headquarters to the nearby Plaza Tower
in 1978.
. The first two stories of the Gay Street facade are slightly recessed, with four Ionic column
s spanning the recess, and a central entrance topped by a pediment
and the Roman numerals
MDCCCCXII ("1912"). The entrance and the first-floor windows are decorated with rosette
s.
The building's Clinch Avenue facade contains a row of Ionic pilaster
s which support an entablature
adorned with triglyph
s and metope
s. The roof of the building is surrounded by an overhanging heavy metal cornice
, which was part of the building's 1913 design, and was raised to its present position in 1928 when the thirteenth and fourteenth stories were added. The edges of the cornice were originally decorated with acroterion
s, but these were later removed. A sculptured frieze
spans the building's Gay Street and Clinch Avenue facades between the eleventh and twelfth floors.
The interior of the Holston, although heavily renovated in 1977, still contains several original elements. The entrance foyer
has a vaulted ceiling with plaster rosettes, and a frieze decorated with triglyphs and metopes. The lobby originally contained Greek and Art Deco
motifs, but these were removed during the 1977 renovation.
In 1912, Holston National initiated construction of its new headquarters at 531 South Gay. The Holston building was designed by Norfolk, Virginia
, architect John Kevan Peebles, and was built by the George A. Fuller Company
of New York. The Knoxville-based Fenton Construction Company was responsible for the building's marblework, and the Nashville
-based Edgefield and Nashville Manufacturing Company did the interior woodwork. The building, which opened on June 16, 1913, surpassed the Burwell Building
(located on the opposite corner of Gay and Clinch) as Knoxville's tallest building.
In 1928, Holston National Bank merged with Union National Bank to form Holston-Union National. The new bank's $16 million in assets made it by far Knoxville's largest bank. That same year, Holston's long-time president, Joseph Gaut, stepped down, and was replaced by former Union National cashier
J. Basil Ramsey. Ramsey's tenure was brief, however, due largely to the Wall Street Crash of 1929
and the subsequent large-scale bank failures. On November 10, 1930, a bank run
at the Holston-Union generated $750,000 in withdrawal requests, and the bank was forced to close.
In 1931, the Hamilton National Bank of Knoxville opened in the Holston building as a replacement for Holston-Union. Led by president Charles Preston (whose brother, president of the Hamilton National Bank of Chattanooga
, had helped organize the bank), the new bank worked hard to regain the trust of Knoxvillians, many of whom had grown suspicious of banks, by ensuring that its reserves were greater than its outstanding loans. In 1940, Hamilton National controlled over half of Knoxville's banking reserves, and remained the city's largest bank into the 1970s.
In late 1974, Dean Moses, president of the Memphis-based Transcom and Financial, Ltd., and Jake Butcher, president of United American Bank, both tried to seize majority control of Hamilton National Bank, igniting a bid war that caused the bank's stock price to skyrocket. In February 1975, Moses refused to match Butcher's offer of $307 per share, and on February 19, Hamilton and United American merged. The new bank built the 27-story Plaza Tower a few blocks away for its new headquarters, but continued to operate a branch in the Holston. Butcher's banking empire collapsed in 1983 after he was charged with bank fraud.
During the twenty-first century, developer Dewhirst Properties converted the Holston into a luxury condominium high-rise. In 2008, a condo in the Holston became the first in Knoxville to sell for over one million dollars.
Condominium
A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...
high-rise located at 531 South Gay Street
Gay Street (Knoxville)
Gay Street is a street in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, that traverses the heart of the city's downtown area. Since its development in the 1790s, Gay Street has served as the city's principal financial and commercial thoroughfare, and has played a primary role in the city's historical and cultural...
in Knoxville
Knoxville, Tennessee
Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...
, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, USA. Completed in 1913 as the headquarters for the Holston National Bank, the fourteen-story building was the tallest in Knoxville until the construction in the late 1920s of the Andrew Johnson Hotel
Andrew Johnson Building
The Andrew Johnson Building is a high-rise office building in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. Completed in 1930, the structure was Knoxville's tallest building for nearly a half-century. The building was originally home to the Andrew Johnson Hotel, and is now used for office space by Knox...
, located a few blocks away. The Holston was designed by architect John Kevan Peebles, and today represents the city's only Neoclassical Revival-style
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
high-rise. In 1979, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
for its architecture and its prominent position in the Knoxville skyline.
Founded in 1890, Holston National Bank had grown to become one of Knoxville's three largest banks by 1913, when it built the first twelve stories of the Holston building. The thirteenth and fourteenth stories were added in 1928 after Holston National merged with Union National to create Knoxville's largest bank, Holston-Union. The new bank failed in 1930 during the onset of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, however, and was replaced the following year by the Hamilton National Bank of Knoxville. Over the next four decades, Hamilton National remained Knoxville's largest bank, at times controlling over half of the city's banking resources. Hamilton National was seized by Jake Butcher
Jake Butcher
Jacob Franklin "Jake" Butcher was a U.S. banker and politician who built a financial empire in East Tennessee, was the Democratic Party nominee for governor of Tennessee in 1978 and the primary promoter of the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee, and who lost his business and his personal...
's United American Bank in 1975 following a bid war, and the new bank moved its headquarters to the nearby Plaza Tower
First Tennessee Plaza
The First Tennessee Plaza, or Plaza Tower, is an office high-rise located at 800 Gay Street in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. Completed in 1978, the 27-story structure is Knoxville's tallest building and an iconic part of the city's skyline...
in 1978.
Design
The Holston is a fourteen-story building that stands on a 50 feet (15.2 m) x 140 feet (42.7 m) lot at the northwest corner of Gay Street and Clinch Avenue. Most of the building is built with buff yellow brick, with the exception of the first three stories of the Gay Street and Clinch Avenue facades, which are sheathed in Tennessee marbleTennessee marble
Tennessee marble is a type of crystalline limestone found primarily in East Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. Long esteemed by architects and builders for its pinkish-gray color and the ease with which it is polished, this stone has been used in the construction of numerous notable...
. The first two stories of the Gay Street facade are slightly recessed, with four Ionic column
Ionic order
The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian...
s spanning the recess, and a central entrance topped by a pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
and the Roman numerals
Roman numerals
The numeral system of ancient Rome, or Roman numerals, uses combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet to signify values. The numbers 1 to 10 can be expressed in Roman numerals as:...
MDCCCCXII ("1912"). The entrance and the first-floor windows are decorated with rosette
Rosette (design)
A rosette is a round, stylized flower design, used extensively in sculptural objects from antiquity. Appearing in Mesopotamia and used to decorate the funeral stele in Ancient Greece...
s.
The building's Clinch Avenue facade contains a row of Ionic pilaster
Pilaster
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....
s which support an entablature
Entablature
An entablature refers to the superstructure of moldings and bands which lie horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and are commonly divided into the architrave , the frieze ,...
adorned with triglyph
Triglyph
Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze, so called because of the angular channels in them, two perfect and one divided, the two chamfered angles or hemiglyphs being reckoned as one. The square recessed spaces between the triglyphs on a Doric...
s and metope
Metope (architecture)
In classical architecture, a metope is a rectangular architectural element that fills the space between two triglyphs in a Doric frieze, which is a decorative band of alternating triglyphs and metopes above the architrave of a building of the Doric order...
s. The roof of the building is surrounded by an overhanging heavy metal cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
, which was part of the building's 1913 design, and was raised to its present position in 1928 when the thirteenth and fourteenth stories were added. The edges of the cornice were originally decorated with acroterion
Acroterion
An acroterion or acroterium is an architectural ornament placed on a flat base called the acroter or plinth, and mounted at the apex of the pediment of a building in the Classical style. It may also be placed at the outer angles of the pediment; such acroteria are referred to as acroteria angularia...
s, but these were later removed. A sculptured frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
spans the building's Gay Street and Clinch Avenue facades between the eleventh and twelfth floors.
The interior of the Holston, although heavily renovated in 1977, still contains several original elements. The entrance foyer
Foyer
A foyer or lobby is a large, vast room or complex of rooms adjacent to the auditorium...
has a vaulted ceiling with plaster rosettes, and a frieze decorated with triglyphs and metopes. The lobby originally contained Greek and Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
motifs, but these were removed during the 1977 renovation.
History
The Holston National Bank was initially founded as a state-chartered bank, the Holston Banking and Trust Company, on January 17, 1890. The following year, after accumulating $100,000 of paid-in capital, the bank acquired a national charter, and reorganized as the Holston National Bank. H. M. Aiken served as the bank's first president, and was replaced by Hugh McClung in 1897. In 1900, the bank reported $100,000 in capital, $20,000 in surplus, and $250,000 in deposits, while maintaining $260,000 in loans.In 1912, Holston National initiated construction of its new headquarters at 531 South Gay. The Holston building was designed by Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
, architect John Kevan Peebles, and was built by the George A. Fuller Company
George A. Fuller
George A. Fuller was an architect often credited as being the "inventor" of modern skyscrapers and the modern contracting system.-Early life and career:Fuller was born in Templeton, Massachusetts, near Worcester...
of New York. The Knoxville-based Fenton Construction Company was responsible for the building's marblework, and the Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
-based Edgefield and Nashville Manufacturing Company did the interior woodwork. The building, which opened on June 16, 1913, surpassed the Burwell Building
Tennessee Theatre
The Tennessee Theatre is a 1920s-era movie palace, located within the Burwell Building in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, at 604 South Gay Street.-History:...
(located on the opposite corner of Gay and Clinch) as Knoxville's tallest building.
In 1928, Holston National Bank merged with Union National Bank to form Holston-Union National. The new bank's $16 million in assets made it by far Knoxville's largest bank. That same year, Holston's long-time president, Joseph Gaut, stepped down, and was replaced by former Union National cashier
Comptroller
A comptroller is a management level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization.In British government, the Comptroller General or Comptroller and Auditor General is in most countries the external auditor of the budget execution of the...
J. Basil Ramsey. Ramsey's tenure was brief, however, due largely to the Wall Street Crash of 1929
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 , also known as the Great Crash, and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout...
and the subsequent large-scale bank failures. On November 10, 1930, a bank run
Bank run
A bank run occurs when a large number of bank customers withdraw their deposits because they believe the bank is, or might become, insolvent...
at the Holston-Union generated $750,000 in withdrawal requests, and the bank was forced to close.
In 1931, the Hamilton National Bank of Knoxville opened in the Holston building as a replacement for Holston-Union. Led by president Charles Preston (whose brother, president of the Hamilton National Bank of Chattanooga
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Chattanooga is the fourth-largest city in the US state of Tennessee , with a population of 169,887. It is the seat of Hamilton County...
, had helped organize the bank), the new bank worked hard to regain the trust of Knoxvillians, many of whom had grown suspicious of banks, by ensuring that its reserves were greater than its outstanding loans. In 1940, Hamilton National controlled over half of Knoxville's banking reserves, and remained the city's largest bank into the 1970s.
In late 1974, Dean Moses, president of the Memphis-based Transcom and Financial, Ltd., and Jake Butcher, president of United American Bank, both tried to seize majority control of Hamilton National Bank, igniting a bid war that caused the bank's stock price to skyrocket. In February 1975, Moses refused to match Butcher's offer of $307 per share, and on February 19, Hamilton and United American merged. The new bank built the 27-story Plaza Tower a few blocks away for its new headquarters, but continued to operate a branch in the Holston. Butcher's banking empire collapsed in 1983 after he was charged with bank fraud.
During the twenty-first century, developer Dewhirst Properties converted the Holston into a luxury condominium high-rise. In 2008, a condo in the Holston became the first in Knoxville to sell for over one million dollars.
See also
- General BuildingGeneral BuildingThe General Building, also called the Tennessee General Building or the First Bank Building, is an office high-rise located in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. Constructed in the mid-1920s, the 15-story building is the only high-rise designed by Charles I...
- Medical Arts BuildingMedical Arts Building (Knoxville, Tennessee)The Medical Arts Building is an office high-rise located at 603 Main Street in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. Completed in 1930, the 10-story structure originally provided office space for physicians and dentists, and at the time was considered the "best equipped" medical building in the South...
External links
- The Holston — official site
- Holston National Bank and Gay Street — 1920s-era photograph of the Holston (Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection)