Thomas Hope (December 25, 1757 – October 4, 1820) was an English-born American

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and house

joiner Joinery is a part of woodworking that involves joining pieces of wood, engineered lumber, or synthetic substitutes (such as laminate), to produce more complex items. Some woodworking joints employ mechanical fasteners, bindings, or adhesives, ...

, active primarily in

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...

. Trained in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, Hope moved to Knoxville in 1795 where he designed and built several of the city's earliest houses. At least two houses built by Hope—the Ramsey House (1797) in east Knoxville and Statesview (ca. 1806) in

West Knoxville West Knoxville is a section of Knoxville, Tennessee, US. It is west of the city's Downtown Knoxville, downtown area. It stretches from Sequoyah Hills, Tennessee, Sequoyah Hills on the east to the city's border with Farragut, Tennessee, Farragut on ...

— are still standing and have been listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

.Lisa Oakley
Thomas Hope
''Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture'', 2002. Retrieved: 6 August 2010.

Biography

Hope was born in

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, England, in 1757 and learned the house construction trade in London. During the 1780s, he moved to

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...

, where he had been hired to build a house for South Carolina planter

Ralph Izard Ralph Izard (January 23, 1741/1742May 30, 1804) was an American politician who served as president pro tempore of the United States Senate in 1794. Early life Izard was born at "The Elms" near Charleston, South Carolina. He was the son of H ...

. This house stood on Broad Street in Charleston for several decades. During the early 1790s, Hope lived in

Cheraw, South Carolina Cheraw ( , ) is a town on the Pee Dee River in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, Chesterfield County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 5,040 at the 2020 census. The greater Cheraw area in the zip code 29520 has a populatio ...

, where he married his wife, Elizabeth Large, in 1793. Hope then moved to Knoxville, which at the time was the capital of the

Southwest Territory The Territory South of the River Ohio, more commonly known as the Southwest Territory or the old Southwest Territory, was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1790, until June 1, 1796, when it was ...

, in 1795.East Tennessee Historical Society, Mary Rothrock (ed.), ''The French Broad-Holston Country: A History of Knox County, Tennessee'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: The Society, 1972), pp. 428-429. Hope's first project in Knoxville was the Ramsey House, or Swan Pond, a two-story Georgian-style house completed in 1797. Hope found ample work in Knoxville, a burgeoning frontier town in need of professional builders. In the decade after completing the Ramsey House, Hope built a residence known as "Trafalgar" for planter John Kain, overlooking the

Holston River The Holston River is a river that flows from Kingsport, Tennessee, to Knoxville, Tennessee. Along with its three major forks (North Fork, Middle Fork and South Fork), it comprises a major river system that drains much of northeastern Tennessee ...

in Knox County. Around 1806, Hope completed the Federal-style Statesview for surveyor

Charles McClung Charles McClung (May 13, 1761August 9, 1835) was an American pioneer, politician, and surveyor best known for drawing up the original plat of Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1791. While Knoxville has since expanded to many times its original size, the ...

in what is now West Knoxville. In 1812, Hope built a house, later known as "Maison de Sante," for Knoxville physician Joseph C. Strong, which stood at the corner of State Street and Cumberland Avenue. In addition to house construction, Hope co-founded a carpenters' guild in Knoxville in 1801. The original design of the James Park House in Knoxville, built in approximately 1812, is sometimes attributed to Hope.William MacArthur, Jr., ''Knoxville: Crossroads of the New South'' (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Continental Heritage Press, 1982), p. 23. In 1816, Hope received several payments from Thomas Humes, builder of the Lamar House Hotel, suggesting that Hope may have played a role in the hotel's original design (although there is little else to support this). Hope's last project was the Rotherwood Mansion, built for Presbyterian clergyman Frederick Augustus Ross near

Kingsport, Tennessee Kingsport is a city in Sullivan and Hawkins counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It lies along the Holston River and had a population of 55,442 at the 2020 census. It is the largest city in the Kingsport–Bristol metropolitan area, ...

. After Hope's death in 1820, his son oversaw Rotherwood's completion.

Style

Hope's influences included English architect

Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren FRS (; – ) was an English architect, astronomer, mathematician and physicist who was one of the most highly acclaimed architects in the history of England. Known for his work in the English Baroque style, he was ac ...

and contemporary American architect

Charles Bulfinch Charles Bulfinch (August 8, 1763 – April 15, 1844) was an early American architect, and has been regarded by many as the first American-born professional architect to practice.Baltzell, Edward Digby. ''Puritan Boston & Quaker Philadelphia''. Tra ...

. Many of Hope's designs were inspired by William Pain's 1781 book, ''The Builder's Golden Rule'', which Hope carried with him on his various projects. Hope typically used a mix of Georgian and Federal architectural styles, depending on his clients' needs.

Buildings

Hope is known to have built the following: *The Ralph Izard House, c.1788, on Broad Street in Charleston, South Carolina; no longer standing. *The Ramsey House, or Swan Pond, in East Knoxville, completed 1797. Built of locally quarried

Tennessee marble Tennessee marble is a type of crystalline limestone found only in East Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. Long esteemed by architects and builders for its pinkish-gray color and the ease with which it is polished, the stone has been use ...

and limestone around a central hall floor plan; contains hand-carved

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

s. The house is now a museum. * Statesview, c.1806 in the Ebenezer community (now part of West Knoxville). Designed in the Federal style, this house's original layout was altered somewhat after it was damaged by fire in 1823. The house is now a private residence. *Trafalgar, c.1806 along the Holston River in Knox County; no longer standing. *Joseph Strong House, c.1812 in Knoxville; demolished in 1971 to make way for highway construction. *Rotherwood, 1820 in Boatyard, Tennessee (now Kingsport). This mansion burned in 1865 and was replaced shortly thereafter by the current Rotherwood Mansion.

Furniture

Hope supplied furniture for many of the houses he constructed. A ledger owned by War Department agent David Henley shows that Hope also supplied furniture for Tellico agent Silas Dinsmore in the mid-1790s.Ann McPherson,
Adaptation and Reinterpretation: The Transfer of Furniture Styles from Philadelphia to Winchester to Tennessee
" Chipstone Foundation website. Retrieved: 6 August 2010. In his ''Autobiography'', historian J. G. M. Ramsey, the son of Francis Alexander Ramsey for whom the Ramsey House was built, states that Hope designed a bookcase and desk for the house's library. Since then, several furniture pieces have been attributed to Hope, including a desk and bookcase once owned by early Knox County settler David Campbell. While Hope supplied furniture for some of his patrons, whether he made the furniture pieces or merely acquired them is disputed. Furniture historian Ann McPherson states that certain pieces attributed to Hope contain

rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...

elements unlikely to be used by Hope, and points out the pieces' resemblance to a cabinet-making style that originated in the

Winchester, Virginia Winchester is the northwesternmost Administrative divisions of Virginia#Independent cities, independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It is the county seat of Frederick County, Virginia, Frederi ...

, area in the late 18th century.

Legacy

The Ramsey House and Statesview are the only two surviving structures known to have been built by Thomas Hope. The James Park House, which still stands in downtown Knoxville, is sometimes attributed to Hope, although its original design has been modified numerous times. The destruction of the Joseph Strong House in 1971 sparked an outcry from preservationists and was one of the events that led to the establishment of the Knoxville-area preservation group Knox Heritage. In 1868 Hope's great-grandsons, David James Hope and John W. Hope, opened Hope Brothers Jewelry which operated out of a shop on Gay Street into the 20th century. In 1897 the Hope brothers erected a street clock in front of their store that remained a landmark in downtown Knoxville for over a century. The Hope Brothers Jewelry Store became Kimball's Jewelry in 1933, and in 2004 Kimball's relocated to West Knoxville and took the Hope clock with them. The city of Knoxville erected a new street clock to replace the Hope clock in 2007. In 1924, Hope's great-great-grandson, Albert Guinn Hope (1869–1955), built a house, "Hopecote," on what is now part of the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (or The University of Tennessee; UT; UT Knoxville; or colloquially UTK or Tennessee) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee, United St ...

campus in Knoxville. The house includes a cupboard attributed to Thomas Hope. In 2012, Hopecote was added to the

.Gail Guymon
National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form for Hopecote
, 9 November 2011. Retrieved: 22 May 2012.

References

External links

Ramsey House Plantation
— official site

—Ramsey House news article

— Adaptation and Reinterpretation: The Transfer of Furniture Styles from Philadelphia to Winchester to Tennessee {{DEFAULTSORT:Hope, Thomas Architects from Tennessee People from Knoxville, Tennessee Architects from Kent English emigrants to the United States 1757 births 1820 deaths