The Ongoing Saga of the DeArmand House

March 24, 2001
By Kim Davis, Old North Knoxville webmaster

The DeArmand House in its original configuration at the 1400 block of Clinch Avenue

For the past couple of months, work has been ongoing by the M&M Moving Company in its quest to move the DeArmand House, located in the Historic Fort Sanders neighborhood, across the street.  This house is considered by many to be the most ornate example of a wood frame house left in the Fort Sanders neighborhood.  Residents of Old North Knoxville have been watching this case closely, not only because of their interest in the preservation of historic homes, but also because of the fact that this action took place within "NC-1" zoning.  Old North Knoxville has been discussing the possibility of getting an NC-1 overlay for the areas of the neighborhood not covered by the H-1 overlay.  The area that would be eligible for NC-1 include streets such as Stewart, Pearl, Bearden, Hazel, Cornell, and Alexander, that deserve and need the opportunity to continue to serve as homes for Knoxvillians as they have for generations (click here to see the June 2000 newsletter story on this issue).  

NC-1 status was recently applied to the Fort Sanders historic neighborhood, in order to ensure that demolitions and new construction be approved by the Historic Zoning Commission.  This zoning also sets design guidelines that can contain requirements for the general physical design of new construction, allow reductions in required lot area, setbacks and parking if necessary, and to permit development which conforms to the size, orientation and setting of the building in the neighborhood.  

Despite the supposed protection of NC-1, Knoxville citizens were alarmed to note the removal of all trees, chimneys and portions of the foundation of the vacant, open house in late December 2000, coincidentally around the time that several key City employees and neighborhood "watchdogs" were away for the holidays.  Assuming the worst - that the house was being demolished illegally (just within view of the DeArmand house, over a dozen historic houses have been torn down by the same owner and remain muddy, unimproved lots) -  a lawsuit was filed, TV crews were called, and a stop work order was issued on December 29 by Doug Berry (who has since resigned from his position as head of Development Services, which enforces the city's zoning ordinance).  When the smoke finally cleared, it turned out that because a building permit to construct a foundation at 1415 Clinch Avenue to "receive a moved house" had been filed by the owner prior to City Council's approval of NC-1, the Historic Zoning Commission had no say in the matter.  The diagram below shows a map of how the house was to be moved (click on image to see larger version):

Channel 10 (NBC) ran a piece on the destruction of the DeArmand house on January 2, and information also had been given to the neighborhood by Doug Berry.  Channel 10 reported that a permit was issued to the house owner for construction of a foundation across the street.  According to Mr. Berry, a stop work order was issued on December 29 for the "prep" work taking place to "relocate the house."  He verified that the foundation permit had been filed for a site across the street for the DeArmand House, but because no work on the new foundation had occurred, the work was considered to be carried out of sequence to be considered a legitimate relocation project.  Namely, a footer should have first been poured at the new site, then power and utilities pulled at the current site, then KUB should have been contacted to relocate the overhead lines.  None of this was done before removal of the attachments that would not relocate (e.g., chimneys), thus leaving the house open to the elements.  Also, no moving permit had been obtained yet.  So there was plenty of reason for everyone to wonder what the owner's intentions really were at that point.

About a week ago, activity was once again noted at the DeArmand House.  The pictures below, taken by Dave Kenny, show the house being moved across the street.

The DeArmand House on the move

The DeArmand House's new home across the street.

The question that begs to be asked is: If loopholes such as these are allowed to remain in NC-1, what is there to prevent future parking lot/motel/student housing/drugstore speculators from buying up other houses that are supposedly "protected" by NC-1, with the sole intent of moving them (after stripping them of all important unmovable architectural features) to a site of their choosing?  The manipulation of NC-1 in the DeArmand house case should not be allowed to set a precedent for the encouragement of this practice.  Although the DeArmand house was ultimately saved from total destruction, its continued existence in an extensively altered state (shoehorned between two houses across the street ) is not an ideal model to be followed for preserving historic Knoxville neighborhoods.