Aquone (pronounced uh-KWAN-nee) is the home in

Johnson City, Tennessee Johnson City is a city in Washington, Carter, and Sullivan counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee, mostly in Washington County. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 71,046, making it Tennessee's eighth-most populous cit ...

, where

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

jurist and historian

Samuel Cole Williams Samuel Cole Williams (January 15, 1864 – December 14, 1947) was an American jurist, historian, educator, and businessman. He was born and raised in the state of Tennessee, where he primarily had his career in Johnson City in East Tennessee. ...

lived in retirement. The home is 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 ...

. Aquone was built in 1925. It is a -story

brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...

structure in the

Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the arch ...

style. Leland Cardwell, a Johnson City

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 ...

, designed the house, modeling it after the design of an unidentified Colonial mansion built in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

in 1748. The house is on a lot between Roan Street and U.S. Highway 11E, it is screened from those roads by trees and a

terrace Terrace may refer to: Landforms and construction * Fluvial terrace, a natural, flat surface that borders and lies above the floodplain of a stream or river * Terrace, a street suffix * Terrace, the portion of a lot between the public sidewalk a ...

d lawn. At the time of its construction, the site was north of the city limits of Johnson City. The interior of Aquone is laid out according to the center hall plan, with an entrance hall, and stairway flanked by a large formal living room on one side and a large formal dining room on the other side. An unusual feature of the house is a one-and-one-half-story library that is said to have been modeled after

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...

studied in his home at

Abbotsford House Abbotsford is a historic country house in the Scottish Borders, near Galashiels, on the south bank of the River Tweed. Now open to the public, it was built as the residence of historical novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott between 1817 and 1825 ...

. The living room and dining room both have fireplaces with Georgian-influenced mantels. The library fireplace also has a Georgian design. The name "Aquone" is reported to be a

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

word for "resting place."

References

{{reflist Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee Johnson City, Tennessee Houses completed in 1925 Colonial Revival architecture in Tennessee Houses in Washington County, Tennessee National Register of Historic Places in Washington County, Tennessee