Andrew Johnson Building facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Andrew Johnson Hotel
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South facade of the Andrew Johnson Building, viewed from the Gay Street Bridge
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| Location | 912 S. Gay St. Knoxville, Tennessee |
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| Area | .35 acres (0.14 ha) |
| Built | 1918–1929 |
| Architect | Baumann & Baumann |
| Architectural style | Second Renaissance Revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 80003840 |
| Added to NRHP | July 9, 1980 |
The Andrew Johnson Building is a tall office building in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. It was finished in 1929 and stands 203-foot (62 m) tall. For almost 50 years, it was Knoxville's tallest building. This building was first known as the Andrew Johnson Hotel. Now, Knox County uses it for office space. In 1980, the Andrew Johnson Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places, which means it's a special historic site.
The Andrew Johnson Hotel was named after President Andrew Johnson. It was Knoxville's best hotel from when it opened until the 1960s. In its early years, important visitors from other countries stayed here. They came to learn about the new Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Tourists on their way to the new Great Smoky Mountains National Park also liked to stay at the hotel. Famous Country music singer Hank Williams spent his last night here in 1952. The radio station WNOX had its studios in the Andrew Johnson Building in the late 1930s. Musicians like Roy Acuff became famous by broadcasting from this building.
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Discover the Andrew Johnson Building
The Andrew Johnson Building is on the southwest corner of Gay Street. It shares a central yard with the Riverview Tower next door. The building has eighteen levels in total. These include fifteen regular floors, a mezzanine (a half-floor), and a two-story penthouse at the very top. The building is shaped like a rectangle. It has a dip in the middle of its west side. The first floor sticks out more than the rest of the building. This creates a base for the unique second story, which has an open-air area. Most of the outside of the building is made of brick. But the first floor's Gay Street side is covered in concrete. This concrete is made to look like rough, old stone.
The second story of the Andrew Johnson was designed to be the main floor. It used to hold the hotel's lobby and front desk. It also had a ballroom and an open-air pavilion. The pavilion has a row of five arches, called an arcade. These arches have flat columns next to them, called Ionic pilasters, which have swirly tops. Terraces and railings used to be on each side of the pavilion. These were changed when the ballroom was made bigger in the 1960s. The second story is taller than the other floors. This is to make space for the mezzanine, which looks down over the lobby.
Most of the windows on floors four through fifteen are simple rectangles. However, the windows on the fourteenth floor have small arched tops, called pediments. At the very top of the building is the penthouse. It is seven sections wide. It is decorated with brick Ionic pilasters. The second story of the penthouse used to have oval windows. These have been changed to simple rectangular windows. From the mid-1930s to the late-1970s, a big neon sign that said "Hotel Andrew Johnson" was on top of the building.
A Look Back: History of the Hotel
The Adair Corporation from Atlanta started planning a big hotel in 1918. It was first going to be called the "Tennessee Terrace." But they kept running out of money, which stopped the project. The hotel was designed by Baumann & Baumann. This architecture company designed many important buildings in Knoxville. These include the Knoxville Post Office and the Church of the Immaculate Conception. By 1927, only seven floors of the hotel were done. Construction stopped again because of money problems. But J. Basil Ramsey, who was the president of the Holston Union Bank, found the money needed. The hotel was finished soon after.
The Andrew Johnson Hotel got more business when the Great Smoky Mountains National Park opened in 1932. It also got a boost from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) starting in 1933. The hotel was only a few blocks from U.S. Route 441. This road connects Knoxville to the main entrance of the national park. The TVA's main offices were also close to the hotel. This brought many curious foreign visitors to Knoxville in the 1930s and 1940s. One of them was the French writer Jean-Paul Sartre, who stayed at the hotel in 1945. More people started traveling by car in the late 1920s. Many came to Knoxville on the Dixie Highway. Lots of them chose the Andrew Johnson over the less fancy motels along Kingston Pike.
Famous Guests and Fun Facts
For much of its early history, the Andrew Johnson was the hotel of choice for famous people visiting Knoxville. In 1936, aviator Amelia Earhart stayed at the hotel. She told a reporter that she didn't expect to live to be old. This was a year before she disappeared. Swiss travel writer Annemarie Schwarzenbach likely stayed at the hotel. She was writing her story, "Auf der Schattenseite von Knoxville" ("The Shadow Side of Knoxville"). In February 1943, Russian pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff stayed at the Andrew Johnson. This was after he gave the last concert of his career at the nearby University of Tennessee.
Perhaps the most famous guest at the Andrew Johnson Hotel was country music singer Hank Williams. He spent the last night of his life at the hotel. His time there is part of many local stories in Knoxville. Williams and his driver, Charles Carr, checked into the hotel on the evening of December 31, 1952. During the night, Williams became unwell. A doctor was called to the hotel. At 10:45 P.M., Williams and Carr left the hotel. They headed north for Canton, Ohio, where Williams was supposed to perform. By the time their car reached Oak Hill, West Virginia, the next morning, Williams had passed away.
Radio Days: WNOX at the Hotel
Through much of the 1930s, radio station WNOX broadcast from the 17th floor of the Andrew Johnson. The station had a popular show called Mid-Day Merry-Go-Round. This show featured performers like Roy Acuff and Homer and Jethro. Listeners in downtown Knoxville often came to the hotel to watch the show live. By the late 1930s, the station was bringing about 1,000 fans to the hotel every day. This made the hotel's elevators very busy. After guests started to complain, the hotel's managers asked the station to move.
In the 1940s, R. J. Reynolds, Jr., bought the Andrew Johnson. He was the son of the famous tobacco businessman. After he passed away, his wife owned the hotel until 1973. By this time, Knoxville's Hyatt Regency (now the Knoxville Marriott) had become the city's top hotel. The Andrew Johnson started to become less popular. The hotel changed owners several times in the 1970s. During this time, it sometimes housed students from the nearby University of Tennessee when their dorms were full. In the 1980s, the building was made into an office building by the Aetna Casualty & Surety Company.
Today's Use: County Offices
The Andrew Johnson Building has 140,000 square feet (13,000 m2) of office space. It is currently used for offices by Knox County. The main user is Knox County Schools. Their offices use fourteen of the building's eighteen floors. The building also holds offices for the county's Public Building Authority, like Finance and Property Development. It also has human resources offices for the Knox County Sheriff's Department. And it houses the county's Probation and Pre-Trial services.
