The Blount Mansion in Downtown Knoxville was the home of one the areas earliest leaders and the house is one of the oldest in the state.
Blount was a signer of the United States Constitution, the only governor of the Southwest Territory, the olny US Senator expelled from the senate for treason (excluding the Civil War) and an early important politician in Tennessee.
Blount moved to the area now known as Knoxville in 1792 and built his house overlooking the Tennessee River. When the house was completed in 1796 it became the de facto capitol of the Southwest Territory. The mansion was built at a time when all the other homes in the area were essentially log cabins. Then as a new state was ready to form, the Tennessee Constitution was drafted in the house.
By the 1920's, the house had deteriorated, and there were plans to demolish the house and turn this land into a parking lot. This was despite well-known Tennessee historian John Trotwood Moore calling the house the most important historical spot in Tennessee. By 1930, D.A.R. and the East Tennessee Historical Society had enough money raised to purchase and restore the house.
Today, the Blount Mansion operates as a museum. It was one of the state's first properties to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is also designated a National Historic Landmark. For more info: www.blountmansion.org/
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