Structure: Joseph Goodstein Residence Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Architect: Joseph S. Goodstein Date: 1964 Tidbit: The Sequoyah Hills neighborhood of Knoxville, Tennessee is known for large traditional style houses. But peppered in among them are a handful of interesting mid-century modern style residences. This, is one of those houses. The strikingly modern home was designed by architect Joseph S. Goodstein as his personal residence. Joseph’s father (Ben) was a local kosher grocer (say that five times fast) in Knoxville, so after Joseph finished his architectural studies at the University of Cincinnati he came back to town, got married, and started his own architectural firm with Sam Good. The firm was called Good & Goodstein, although if you ask me, they could have called it Good+Stein.
In any event, Joseph lived in this house for 42 years until the current owners purchased it. The exterior (which is in excellent shape) features a slight butterfly roof reminiscent of Mario Bianculli’s modernist home in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It’s wonderful to see this house still proudly sitting in stark contrast to the more traditional style homes surrounding it.
Structure: Fountain City Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Architect: Ralph Donaldson Date: March, 1960 Tidbit: This is one ambitious congregation! Not only did they design + build the church themselves, they put a hyperparaboloid roof on it.
Editor’s note: This post only features very tiny photos, and for that I apologize. Just imagine they were taken with a little flip phone, that’ll give them a nostalgic quality.
Long ago, weather was forecasted out of weather stations. These weather stations were run by the federal government. The U.S. had a weather station located at McGhee Tyson Airport, which was run from 1941-1960 by a man named William “Ted” Kleinsasser Sr. Ted was well-liked, partially because he was a good weatherman, but also because he introduced and taught Western-style square dancing to East Tennessee.
In 1960, Ted’s car slammed headfirst into the railing of a bridge. Shortly thereafter, he was let go from his weatherman job. In an effort to improve his condition, Ted checked himself into a psychiatric treatment center up in Asheville, North Carolina. Upon finishing his treatment, the doctors told him to get interested in something that would keep him physically fit and also keep him interested.
Ted & Mabel outside their house (1972)
Ted went back home to Alcoa, Tennessee, and became an enthusiastic gardener. Now Ted owned four lots, two had regular houses on them, and on the other two, he gardened. Let’s pause Ted’s story and talk about his son Bill.
William “Bill” Kleinsasser Jr was raised in Alcoa by Ted and his wife Mabel. Bill was an athletic fellow, and ended up going to Princeton (and getting an All-American mention despite being there on an academic scholarship). He took a break from Princeton to serve in the Korean War, but returned to get his MFA in architecture.
It is during this point (around 1956) that Bill did two awesome things. First, he met-and-married Ann Biester. Secondly, he designed a house for Knoxville businessman Oliver Wright Sr., the owner of a local hardware + appliance store. The house is a marvelous post and beam house that sits high atop a hill. Its views are spectacular.
Structure: Oliver Wright Sr House Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Architect: Bill Kleinsasser Date: 1956
Man, what a house. Ok let’s finish up Bill’s bio. During his time at Princeton, Bill crossed paths with many notable architects including Charles Moore, Donlyn Lyndon, Hugh Hardy, and William Turnbull. After he graduated Princeton, he was a busy man. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in France, had a private practice (in Doylestown, Pennsylvania), worked with Marc-Joseph Saugey (in Geneva, Switzerland), and did a stint in the office of Louis Kahn (in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). In 1965 he became professor of architecture at the University of Oregon where he would teach for 34 years.
Ok, back to Ted! In the late 1960s, Bill was on sabbatical from UO, and he was in Alcoa, Tennessee, visiting home. Bill took a look at the large limestone ledge that ran through his dad’s property and said “Pop, why don’t you build a house here?”
The limestone ledge that ran through Ted’s property
Ted thought it over, then said “If you design it, I’ll build it.”
The house was made out of Western red cedar, stained and weathered until it was gray. The interior was mostly made out of pecan paneling. The ceiling was made of Douglas fir, topped with insulation, over which a tar roof was poured, capped by a layer of limestone chips.
Interestingly, none of the stones on the rocky property were moved to make way for the house, the house was engineered around the stones. This was in keeping with one of Bill’s architectural tenants: that architecture should respond to place.
Structure: Ted Kleinsasser House Location: Alcoa, Tennessee Architect: Bill Kleinsasser Date: 1969
As I finish writing, it occurs to me that I should have called this blog entry Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (in modernism)
Structure: Glass House // Bill Shell Residence Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Architect: William “Bill” Starke Shell Date: 2002 Story: Although we rarely venture this far outside of the mid-century era, this house deserves an honorable mention. Inspired by his time spent working with Mies van der Rohe in Chicago, University of Tennessee Professor Bill Shell bought a wooded parcel of land in 1978. Then, over the next 22 years, he designed and built this house, paying cash as he went. It’s ability to sit in both an old paradigm while being built recently is a testament to its timeless (if sterile) shape.
Structure: Robert Gentry Residence I Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Architect: James C. Freer, Dr. Robert Gentry (designer) Date: 1965
The Story:
There are very few Renaissance men in this world. Dr. Robert H. Gentry Jr, however, was one of them. Born in Denton, Texas, Dr. Gentry spent his undergrad studying physics at the University of Texas. While there, he taught basic architectural classes focused around the mathematical side of architecture.
It was here that his deep passion for architecture began to develop.
After a brief stint working as a physicist for Monsanto, Dr. Gentry changed his career path and went to University of Texas at Galveston Medical School, earning his M.D. in psychiatry. After graduation, in the late 1950s, he did 2 years of residency in Galveston, TX, 1 year of residency in Washington D.C., finally landing at the Fort Sanders Presbyterian Hospital (now the Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center) in Knoxville, Tennessee. Dr. Gentry quickly took to the marvelous climate of East Tennessee, becoming a prolific hiker. Of interest, Dr. Gentry’s father (Robert Gentry Sr) was a very skilled woodworker, a skill he passed along to Dr. Gentry. A wood worker working and walking in the woods? How about that.
The pull of the mountains proved too much to resist. Dr. Gentry and his wife decided to settle + build a house in Knoxville..
It took them all of 1964 to design their home’s floorpan. Why so long? Dr. Gentry was quite taken with an idea Frank Lloyd Wright had pioneered: designing a house with no right angles (no Wright angles? Ok I’ll stop). Following in the FLLW footsteps, Dr. Gentry created a hexagonal floor plan for his house that primarily used 60º or 120º angles.
Dr. Gentry’s handcrafted wooden model (right), a satellite of the house (left
The next six months were spent working with Knoxville architect James C. Freer, a Cornell-educated architect who’d just opened his own shop (in 1963). Although the ideas for the house all came from Dr. Gentry, Freer helped turn them into reality.
The 4,800 sq ft house was a marvel. It featured a two-story entryway (replete with floor-to-ceiling glass windows) which was separated from the living room by a stream. The stream had goldfish living in it, and the stream was fed by a small waterfall bubbling out of a 10-foot rock formation. A little bridge allowed you to cross from one room to the other.
Dr. Gentry’s woodworking skills were on full display: the Wurlitzer piano in the living room had custom (contemporary) legs he’d made, the dining room table was a 9-foot hexagonal creation, and the hallways featured handmade walnut fixtures. No molding was used in the house, all of the wood was mitered by hand.
The name of the Gentry House I? “Appalachia”.
Wait, did I say Gentry House I? As in there’s another? You bet there is. And there are pictures, too.
Structure: Robert Gentry Residence II Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Architect: Dr. Robert Gentry (designer) Date: 1978
The Story: The Gentry’s built their first house in 1965. But roughly 10 years later, the couple got divorced. So in 1975, Dr. Gentry bought a forested parcel of land in the Sequoyah Hills area of Knoxville, Tennessee. Architect James C. Freer had already passed away (in 1971), so although he wasn’t actively involved in the design of Gentry House II, it’s clear that his earlier collaboration on Gentry House I was the basis for Gentry House II: the unique wall angels, the two-story entryway, the stream running through the living room. Ok, we’ve spent enough time talking about Gentry House II, let’s get to the pictures!
