Mabry-Hazen House

Joseph Alexander Mabry, Jr. House
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	1711 Dandridge Ave. Knoxville, Tennessee
Coordinates	35°58′16″N 83°54′11″W / 35.97111°N 83.90306°W / 35.97111; -83.90306Coordinates: 35°58′16″N 83°54′11″W / 35.97111°N 83.90306°W / 35.97111; -83.90306
Built	1858
Architectural style	Greek Revival
NRHP Reference #	89001974
Added to NRHP	November 13, 1989

The Mabry-Hazen House is an historic home located on a 5-acre (2.0 ha) site at 1711 Dandridge Avenue in Knoxville, Tennessee. Also known as the Evelyn Hazen House or the Joseph Alexander Mabry, Jr. House, when constructed in 1858 for Joseph Alexander Mabry, Jr. it was named Pine Hill Cottage. The house was in what was then the separate town of East Knoxville. Stylistically, the house exhibits both Italianate and Greek Revival elements. Having operated as a museum since the death of Evelyn Hazen, it has the good fortune of containing its original furniture, as well as a collection of antique china and crystal. The present site consists of 8 acres (32,000 m²) on top of Mabry Hill. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

At the outset of the American Civil War, Joseph Mabry, Jr., a wealthy Knoxville merchant and importer, outfitted an entire regiment of Confederate soldiers at an estimated personal cost of $100,000.00. He was given the honorary title of General in the Confederate army due to this philanthropic assistance. During the course of the war, both Union and Confederate forces occupied the strategic site adjacent to Fort Hill. Confederate General Felix Zollicoffer set up his headquarters in the house in 1861, but it was Union forces who had the greatest impact when they fortified the grounds as part of their Knoxville defenses after later taking control of Mabry Hill.

After Mabry's death in 1882, his daughter Alice Evelyn Mabry and her husband Rush Strong Hazen resided in the house.^[1] Their daughter, Evelyn Hazen, a granddaughter of the builder, later occupied the house alone (except for many pet dogs and cats) for many years before her death in 1987. Her will stipulated that the house had either to become a museum or be razed to the ground. The house opened as a museum in 1992.^[2]

Cemetery

Knoxville's Confederate Cemetery, also known as Bethel Cemetery, located at 1917 Bethel Avenue, occupies 2.4 acres (0.97 ha) near the house. It contains the graves of approximately 1,600 Confederate soldiers, 50-60 Union men (prisoners) and 20 veterans. The cemetery also contains a 48-foot (15 m) high monument, consisting of a granite base topped by a Confederate soldier facing north. The cemetery property includes a white frame house, built in 1886, known as the Winstead Mansion.

In literature

Three generations of the occupants of Mabry-Hazen House have been referenced in literary works. In Life on the Mississippi, Mark Twain wrote about the gunfight that killed the home's builder Joseph Mabry, Jr., and his son, Joseph III. Mabry's daughter married Rush Hazen, a benefactor to Leonora Whitaker Wood, whose life was fictionalized in the novel, Christy. More recently, Jane Van Ryan wrote The Seduction of Miss Evelyn Hazen, a book chronicling the sensational lawsuit between Knoxville socialite Evelyn Hazen, granddaughter of General Mabry, and Ralph Scharringhaus, to whom she was once engaged.

References

• Knoxville: Fifty Landmarks. (Knoxville: The Knoxville Heritage Committee of the Junior League of Knoxville, 1976), page 19.
• Marshall, Catherine. Christy. (Chosen Books, 1967).
• The Future of Knoxville's Past: Historic and Architectural Resources in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Knoxville Historic Zoning Commission, October, 2006), page 19.
• Twain, Mark. Life on the Mississippi. (Oxford Press, 1996), Chapter 40.
• Van Ryan, Jane. The Seduction of Miss Evelyn Hazen. (Glen Echo Publishers, 2006)

Notes

External links

• Mabry-Hazen House & Museum
• City of Knoxville History
• Knoxville Civil War Sites
• State of Tennessee: East Tennessee Civil War Sites