A little bedraggled and somewhat muddled by renovations, the former Hill-Top Branch Young Men’s Christian Association is still a grand building. Old Pa Pitt has not been able to determine the architect, but according to the city’s Hilltop architectural inventory it was built in 1911. The same document says elsewhere that the land for it was donated in 1912, and Father Pitt is imagining an amusing scene in which the projectors of the YMCA are trying to explain to the landowner why they thought it was easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. Above, the Zara Street front of the building.
One of the ornate “modern Ionic” capitals on the front porch.
The Grimes Street side.
2 responses to “Hill-Top YMCA, Knoxville”
Is there a chance that the same firm was responsible for the very-similar Greensburg YMCA (1913), or was this just the style preferred by the organization? I haven’t seen an architect for it in a cursory google, but your knowledge of where to look may turn up an architect and possibly a connection.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/josepha/12796168955
According to the Trib, the architect of the one in Greensburg was a local man (local to Greensburg, that is) named Paul Bartholomew. The architect of the Hill-Top Branch remains a mystery to old Pa Pitt, and to the city architectural inventory as well. It might be possible to find an old newspaper or architectural magazine that would just happen to mention the contract being awarded to a certain architect, but it would require a lot of digging.