311 Indiana Avenue
Residence of Peggy and Barry Adkins
The house with a colorful past has a fresh start with new owners at 311
Indiana Avenue. Built in 1902 as a home for his family, G. W. Huffstetler passed the home to his daughter, Zena
Prater, who sold it in 1939 to L. M. and Nellie Ross, who maintained it as a home. in 1971,
the house became the Turner Boarding House with 12-14 sleeping rooms including four in the
basement This then became Yates Rooming House in 1983. News articles and police reports support neighbors' painful memories of 41 police calls in one
year. (One of the tenants earned his living by hacking into county and state computers to delete records so felons could buy firearms!) Drug deals,
garbage and failure to comply with numerous city ordinances made 311 the blight of Indiana Avenue. Finally, a fire in the basement meant eviction of
all tenants, and the fire department condemned the building and rezoned 311 into a "single-family residence."
Major repairs were made my John Weber and Gail Lisabeth in 1998, giving the current owners, Peggy and Barry Adkins, the courage to buy the house in
January, 2001. After being homesick for 25 years while living in Atlanta,
the new owners have "come home" to East Tennessee.
The house with a colorful past has a fresh start with new owners at 311
Indiana Avenue. Built in 1902 as a home for his family, G. W. Huffstetler passed the home to his daughter, Zena
Prater, who sold it in 1939 to L. M. and Nellie Ross, who maintained it as a home. in 1971,
the house became the Turner Boarding House with 12-14 sleeping rooms including four in the
basement This then became Yates Rooming House in 1983. News articles and police reports support neighbors' painful memories of 41 police calls in one
year. (One of the tenants earned his living by hacking into county and state computers to delete records so felons could buy firearms!) Drug deals,
garbage and failure to comply with numerous city ordinances made 311 the blight of Indiana Avenue. Finally, a fire in the basement meant eviction of
all tenants, and the fire department condemned the building and rezoned 311 into a "single-family residence."