4. Eugenia Williams House - 4848 Lyons View Pike

Eugenia Williams was born to Dr. David H. Williams and Ella Cornick Williams in January 1900. Dr. Williams was a prominent physician and one of the original financial backers who introduced Coca-Cola to East Tennessee.  In 1940, Eugenia commissioned her childhood friend, John Fanz Staub, to design her new residence. Staub, a native Knoxvillian from one of the city’s prominent families, is best known for designing homes for many of the wealthiest and most influential Texans, with a little over half of his design work located in Houston. He was also the architect for the well-loved Hopecote on the UT Knoxville campus.

Miss Williams’ Regency-style home sits on 24 acres bordering the Tennessee River and Lyons View Pike and features a three-car garage with automatic garage door openers, which was a novelty in 1940. In 1998, the house was willed to the University of Tennessee as a memorial to Eugenia’s father.

Since Miss Williams’ death the house has been plagued by vandals and a lack of the most basic maintenance, but its character-defining details remain and the house is still solid. We strongly encourage UT to move forward with plans for this signature property and maximize its benefit to the University and the Knoxville area before it is too late. Specifically, Knox Heritage stands ready to assist the University in navigating the legal means available to sell the property to a private buyer interested in fulfilling Miss Williams’ wishes that the house and property be preserved.

UPDATE: An offer from Knox Heritage in February 2010 to provide technical and financial assistance for the Williams house was rejected by UT. UT officials stated they wanted to evaluate "all options." KH sent a follow-up letter in June 2010, and UT responded shortly thereafter.  The KH letter and UT response can be found below.