ONK Home rising from the ashes to a new life
"Reconstructed House" to be featured on Mayor's Tour

		Joe Smith, owner of Cup-A-Joe coffee houses, has reconstructed this house on Leonard Place. When he started, about 10% of the original structure was usable.

"Historic Reconstructed House" is the term Joe Smith uses to describe his house at 231 Leonard Place, corner of Leonard Place and Fourth Avenue, in the part of Old North Knoxville on the East side of Broadway. 

When Joe bought the house almost two years ago, it was a condemned, twice burned out wreck of a shell. He discovered that the house was even worse than he or anyone else imagined once he began to do the restoration. There was less than 10% of the original structure usable or sound enough to restore the house.

With the help of the Historic Zoning Commission, Ann Bennett of MPC, and Tom Reynolds (Building Rehabilitation Chief for the City of Knoxville), Joe set out to rebuild the house from the ground up. First he had to remove all the fire damaged materials, including the roof structure, walls and flooring materials. What he had left was basically some decorative features, the chimneys and the foundation, and the latter was in deteriorated condition. Not to be out done, Joe took down the foundation, one brick at a time, cleaned each brick of old mortar, and then relaid the foundation in its original location reusing the original old bricks. 

After the new "old" foundation was laid, Joe began rebuilding the exterior of the structure to match what had been the original house, circa 1900. The new "old" house fits perfectly into the streetscape of its Victorian neighborhood, follows the Old North Knoxville Design Guidelines, and shows as an example of what can be done when a person is willing to go to the extra effort to "save" a historic house. Of course, the house isn't really historic any longer, but when it is again eligible for the "historic" designation in 50 years, I'll bet most people will be hard pressed to tell the difference between it and its older neighbors.

For Joe Smith, who owns Cup-A-Joe coffee houses, the rebuilding is almost complete, and he is looking forward to being a part of the neighborhood. "I'm just ready to move in." he says. We'll be glad to welcome him.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This home will be one of the stops on the trolley tour with Mayor Ashe. This tour is part of the Annual Ice Cream Social. For details on the Social and to read a related article, click here.

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