Continuing our tour of the Fourth and Gill Tour of Homes and Secret Gardens, the first home up was simply a highlight. The home is gorgeous, as is the case for many in the neighborhood. What made this home sparkle was the attention to lighting, accessories, and decor the current owners have brought to bear. At once modern and historic, they’ve performed a miracle. Quite simply a delight, I struggled to dutifully wear my plastic booties, but my actual boots refused and they continually fell off.
The home, built in 1886 by John W,. Ward (not the Vols announcer by a century, give or take) was “off the grid.” That is to say, it skipped ahead a couple of blocks and wasn’t exactly on Luttrell at the time. The directory, confounded to assign an address, simply delineated it as being on “a corner along Gill Avenue.” Newer homes eventually filled in around it, making it stand out as notably older.
I featured the home as a part of the tour in 2017 and at the time, it was vacant and on the market for $415,000. As I noted at the time, “As recently as 2005, the home was still sub-divided into three apartments . . . The biggest surprise is a Hammond organ from (probably) the 1960s sitting in an upstairs room.” It’s a far cry from that vacant home today.
The entryway features a modernized staircase and the unique lighting and decor ranging from gothic to mid-mod and beyond immediately makes its tangled up, yet well integrated presence known. Ultra modern light fixtures mingle with cow skulls, a beautifully modern kitchen and 1880s tiled fire places. And somehow it works…