The James Park House is a historic house located at 422 West Cumberland Avenue in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. The house's foundation was built by Governor John Sevier in the 1790s, and the house itself was built by Knoxville merchant and mayor, James Park (1770–1853), in 1812, making it the second-oldest building in Downtown Knoxville after Blount Mansion. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and currently serves as the headquarters for the Gulf and Ohio Railways.
James Park House, pictured in 2007, after restoration
The Rev. James Park (1822–1912)
The James Park House, as it appeared circa 1918
John Sevier was an American soldier, frontiersman, and politician, and one of the founding fathers of the State of Tennessee. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, he played a leading role in Tennessee's pre-statehood period, both militarily and politically, and he was elected the state's first governor in 1796. He served as a colonel of the Washington District Regiment in the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780, and he commanded the frontier militia in dozens of battles against the Cherokee in the 1780s and 1790s.
John Sevier
Sketch in Goodpasture's History of Tennessee (1903), showing Sevier pulling Catherine Sherrill to safety during the Cherokee assault on Fort Watauga
Howard Pyle drawing in an 1885 edition of Harper's Magazine, showing a romanticized account of Sevier's 1788 escape from North Carolina (he was never tried by the state)
Portrait of Sevier by Washington B. Cooper
