Kingsport Spirit

I bet many people don’t associate the name “Ridgefields” with “antebellum”. It’s best known as the Olmsted-designed mid-century golf community. That’s right, Olmsted, the same firm that designed Central Park in NYC, Biltmore Estate in Asheville, the grounds of the U.S. Capitol and White House, and the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, among many others. In fact, I found the original Olmsted plan in the Library of Congress of all places! The early design was centered around the ferry landing, which was the primary access. There was a dry weather road (Riverport), but it was off the beaten path and required 5.8 miles to reach what was otherwise half that distance to downtown Kingsport (and literally across the river from Old Kingsport).

For those who may be reading this from out-of-state, it may be difficult to visualize why the neighborhood is so isolated. It’s located in one of the sweeping bends of the Holston River. It contains roughly 1200 acres of beautifully rolling land. But here’s the catch. It abuts the Bays Mountain escarpment, which forms a 1,222-foot-high wall that limits vehicular access. Imagine a linear wall taller than the Empire State Building! The escarpment extends some 35 miles to Bulls Gap with very few places to cross.

Long before the mid-century neighborhood was planned, it was a working farm. You can see the ferry landing in the photo below. All of these buildings were in the general vicinity of the current Country Club, which is located at the terminus of Pendragon Road. But in those days, it wasn’t the terminus it was the main entrance to the neighborhood. Makes more sense now. The bridge was added later (and upstream). I always thought it seemed counterintuitive to locate the hub of activity at a dead-end. Now I know why.

I came across a 1953 Times-News article advertising a tour of homes by the Tennessee Society for the Preservation of Antiquities featuring “Ridgefields”, the home of Mr. & Mrs. C.P. Edwards. Antiquities? Ridgefields? What? My friend Julie Bingham Taylor seemed to know all about the house, although I had never heard of it. She said it was still standing when we were younger. She lived in the neighborhood. I did not.

The Ridgefields House (pictured below) was originally built in 1850 by Martin Roller, 11 years before the American Civil War. That makes it antebellum (which means ‘before war’). Later it was added to by his son, William Roller, upon his marriage to Miss Nellie Sevier (a distant niece of John Sevier, Tennessee’s first governor). The Roller family is one of the most famous early names in Kingsport. They owned much of the land in what is now the modern City of Kingsport, including tracts from the Roller-Pettyjohn Mill in Fall Creek to Fort Henry Mall to Ridgefields Country Club.

So where is the antebellum home today? Best I can tell it’s the location of the Ridgefields Golf Pro Shop (pictured below). As always, I love the collaborative crowdsourcing of the community, so fill me in if you know more.