Experience candlelight Christmas at Blount Mansion
Even though it’s not yet Thanksgiving, here’s a heads-up for one of the city’s most charming Christmas events − back for the first time since the coronavirus came to town.
On the first two Saturdays in December, you and your loved ones can step back in time and experience the magic of Christmas during A Home for the Holidays, a candlelit Christmas experience at Blount Mansion.
The historic house will be adorned with hundreds of twinkling candles and festive decorations provided by the members of the Knoxville Garden Club. Docents will lead guests through the beautifully decorated rooms, sharing stories about the house’s history and holiday traditions.
“I think that it ties straight back to the spirit of what Christmas is,” says Jennifer Lee, director of development and public relations. “Christmas is the time that you come together with your family and slow down. Blount Mansion is a place to come out and really just take in the Christmas atmosphere.
“We have three centuries − 18th, 19th and 20th − of Christmas decorations and practices. And as much as we’ve changed over the past three centuries it’s nice to see the ways we haven’t changed − to really take a moment, have a breath, and appreciate who we are and what we have. And it’s built off centuries of doing the same thing.”
The circa-1792 Blount Mansion was home to William Blount, territorial governor and a signer of the United States Constitution in addition to the original state constitution of Tennessee.
Blount’s wife, Mary, wanted “a proper wooden house” so sawn lumber was used − not rough or hand-hewn logs or timbers, as was the case with most homes in the area at the time. The mansion was originally constructed as a hall and parlor house with two rooms downstairs and half-story loft. The hall was the main room for family activity and for guests, and the parlor was private space for the family. Upstairs there was a single sleeping chamber, which was roughly finished.
By 1925, the house was seriously run down and surrounded by slums. Efforts were underway to purchase the Blount Mansion property and raze the historic home for a parking lot, but local figures such as Mrs. B.B. Cates; Dr. James Hoskins, a dean at the University of Tennessee and president of the East Tennessee Historical Society; and Miss Mary Boyce Temple, a regent of the Bonny Kate Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, spearheaded the effort to save Blount Mansion. The Blount Mansion Association Inc., was established the following year to preserve the property.
Today the Blount Mansion National Historic Landmark − so designated by the National Park Service in 1965 − also features beautiful period gardens and the circa-1818 Craighead-Jackson House directly across State Street.
A Home for the Holidays at Blount Mansion happens on Dec. 2 and Dec. 9. Thirty-minute tours will be conducted at 5, 5:30, 6, 6:30, 7 and 7:30 p.m. at 200 W. Hill Avenue.
Tickets are available via Facebook and Instagram or online at: https://knoxnews.evvnt.events/events/a-home-for-the-holidays-blount-mansion-christmas-tours
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Candlelight Christmas at Blount Mansion in Knoxville
