Oak Ridger Online Friday, January 12, 2001

Couple takes on massive restoration project

by Jocelyn Woods Griffo
for The Oak Ridger

They purchased the 120-year-old mansion back in 1995, but didn't even move in until about 18 months ago. Edward and Linda Coker have already invested five years of their lives in a massive restoration effort that likely will go on for years.

As they see it, their effort is preserving history of and for their hometown, Oliver Springs. The house was built by one of Oliver Springs' most historic surnames -- Wiley -- and passed on to its most dynamic, notable native son and statesman to date -- Harvey Horatio Hannah.

Construction of the 4,600-square-foot residence was commissioned by William Boyd H. Wiley, a son of Henry H. Wiley of Kingston.

In his heyday, Henry Wiley formed a partnership with a Kingston lawyer for the purpose of acquiring and clearing titles to coal lands nearby. Their venture was eventually expanded to become the Coal Creek Mining and Manufacturing Co., and, by their heirs, to the Poplar Creek Coal and Iron Co. Thousands of acres of Anderson and Morgan County land came under their control and formed the economic platform for the coal mining boom that created Oliver Springs.

Wiley's son, William Boyd, born Jan. 25, 1843, married in 1869 as his father's career recovered following a slowdown during the Civil War. It was the post-war era when an alliance of railroads and coal mining portended unfathomable changes for "Olivers," as the U.S. post office named the area in 1826. (The name was not officially changed to Oliver Springs until March 22, 1882.)

Wiley first came to "Olivers" in his boyhood and, as a youth, often tended to his father's interests here, but it was about 1880, after 10 years of marriage, that William Boyd selected the site that now sits in the V formed by Harvey Hannah Highway and Hen Valley Road. (Wiley Street, the official street address of the home, is a very short lane between the two.)

There were 10 fireplaces; a fish pond at the front entrance fed by spring water piped from the mountain above the house; stables for saddle horses and carriages; and a barn and other outbuildings on about 15 acres of land.

When he reached his middle years, Wiley from his front door could easily see the new, 150-room grand Oliver Springs Resort Hotel, stroll leisurely to its spacious croquet lawns for a game or two, or mount one of his own saddle horses and join in the resort's fox hunts.

Instead of the Colonial style you see today, Boyd built the house in Federal style architecture. At least Edward Coker believes it was Federal.

And he ought to know. He's crawled into, under, over, and poked into every nook and cranny of the three-story house with cellar. He's jacked one side of the badly settled house up six inches and reset the foundation of native rocks. He was careful to use the same joint and mortar method used in the 1880s.

He's taken every door down and put them back; removed every window, and put them back; removed 100 years of plaster and countless 1- by three-eighths-inch lath strips right down to the two­by-fours, and rebuilt the walls; taken up original floor planks and put them back; re-bricked, re-designed, and above all, restored.

"It's been one major project," he said, emphasizing "major." The house had not seen significant updating since 1928. His objective, he said, is to restore the house to reflect its identity with the railroads.

Coker believes that when the house passed from W.B. Wiley to Harvey H. Hannah in 1910, Hannah, who had previously lived in Colonial Hall -- an antebellum mansion across town -- remodeled the then-36-year-old house in Colonial style, altering the roof pitch, adding four 18-foot-high, round concrete columns 24 inches in diameter, a balcony, 60 graceful, three-piece wooden scrolls on the cornice under the roof eaves, and may have added the bay windows in front rooms on both sides of the house.

Hannah, a lawyer, U.S. commissioner and private secretary to a Tennessee governor, served in the Spanish-American war in Cuba with the rank of colonel. He was a staunch Democrat, served as adjutant general in the cabinets of two governors, and was elected as Railroad commissioner (30 years), and later, chairman of the Railroad and Utilities Commission (14 years).

Upon his death in 1936, the house passed to the Hannahs' only son, James Taylor Hannah, whom many residents still remember. Coker said "Jimmy" Hannah was well-known for his photography and had a studio in the house.

The late Snyder E. Roberts wrote in one of his volumes of Oliver Springs' history that James Hannah was a singer of note and a long-time employee at [one of the plants in] Oak Ridge. After his death, his widow, Sarah, continued to occupy the house until 1995.

Coker, who grew up in Oliver Springs, had often visited in the house as a youngster and admired it (as well as the Smith Finishing School/Bradford mansion that he also seriously considered purchasing).

An admitted amateur history buff, especially when it comes to his hometown, Coker says he has amassed a sizable collection of items from the estates of original families as they were disbursed by younger generations. He speaks with the ease of familiarity earned from a lifetime of observation and study about the people who shaped events there.

But when he and his wife, Linda, entered the attic of the Hannah house, which had always been used for storage, they found a small bonanza of Oliver Springs' history left behind.

Countless boxes of rare photographs of prominent people from the 1880s, including Tennessee governors, senators, and other politicians; a completely intact The Morning Tribune (Knoxville) newspaper dated May 24, 1896, with news from Oliver Springs that the new resort hotel would open in June; a Civil War manual; Spanish-American War artifacts and letters written by Hannah to his wife from Cuba; a photograph from the deck of the sunken USS Maine (her sinking started the Spanish-American War); a heretofore unknown photograph of the Oliver Springs resort hotel under construction (Coker thinks it was taken the day of dedication because Freemasons are standing in the foreground in Masonic aprons); original oil paintings of Hannah and two-time Tennessee Gov. Bob Taylor; a photograph of Hannah's grandfather, George Frederick Gerding, colonizer of Wartburg -- these were just a few of many discarded things the Cokers immediately appreciated, and packed away for safekeeping.

The Cokers said they also purchased crystal, fine china, clocks, and several pieces of furniture from the Hannah estate in 1995.

Additionally, Ed Coker said he has unearthed boxes of Native American arrowheads, handmade marbles, pottery, and countless old medicine bottles -- bottles produced at the former Oliver Springs Bottle Works factory, a unique "soda pop" business founded by Paul De Blieux, originally from France by way of New Orleans.

Although it is stored now, the Cokers plan to organize and make the material available to future generations in a manner not yet determined. "It's been a historic thing for Oliver Springs," Coker said of the experience.

But before that happens, the Cokers plan to finish the house, with no particular deadline in mind. "I make some of it up as I go," he laughed.

There is still a lot to do. First-level front rooms are currently serving as workshops for the restoration, housing machinery and tools, projects-in-the-works, and piles of lumber and sawdust. Coker has removed every inch of trim and molding throughout the house, stripping and refinishing all that could be salvaged -- which is most of it -- and reinstalling.

To replace pieces discarded and to account for alterations he has incorporated, Coker buys the same kind and size of lumber and creates identical trim by using a triple flute bit attached to a joiner to score a matching design into the wood. Then he stains and varnishes exactly as the original. The eye sees no difference.

Nearly all the 37 doors, interior and exterior, are original. The substantial doors are pegged (no nails), weigh 70 pounds each, and are mounted with highly detailed cast-iron hardware. Coker has removed all the door locks, cleaned, repaired where needed, painted, oiled and remounted them.

Also, he carefully removed every window, took out every glass pane -- most of which are original -- stripped and refinished the frames, reinstalled the glass, and rehung the windows.

He took up every hardwood pine floor plank, stripped layers of paint, varnished and relaid the floor -- although some planks wound up in different rooms.

The entire cellar (Coker estimates it as 500 square feet) and staircasing is now bricked using bricks salvaged from the chimneys that had to be replaced. The chimney bricks came from the old Oliver Springs Brick Plant, which also produced bricks used for some buildings at the University of Tennessee.

Fireplaces have been reduced to four with gas inserts, but the chimney fronts and mantles are originals.

The house has been rewired (it had 60-amp service), insulated and reinsulated. Three units provide central heating and air conditioning.

Gathering rocks from old sites around Oliver Springs, he built a 2-foot-high rock wall that extends 90 feet across the lawn to support the pad on which he built a large two-story garage about where an old barn formerly stood. He knows the locations of outbuildings based on vintage photographs. The fishpond under the magnolia tree could not be salvaged. Coker said roots of the handsome old tree, which he estimates is 150 years old -- making it 30 years older than the house -- took their toll on the fishpond.

On the exterior, Coker removed aluminum siding and replaced it with same-size lap siding. But before exterior work began, even the gardens surrounding the house were carefully diagrammed on paper, and plants were removed and replanted in another area. When the work was finished, every plant was replanted in its original location. (Linda Coker makes homemade jelly from a grapevine growing beside the house. Not for sale, each jar is a gift to friends and acquaintances.)

When working on the balcony railing, Coker found the date 1923 carved under the wood balcony support. The same date is inscribed in the concrete porch beneath the balcony, which Coker believes is the date Hannah changed the architectural facade.

The four giant concrete pillars across the front, Coker said, may be hollow. "I haven't been able to peek down inside one ... yet," he joked.

Three side porches (two downstairs and one upstairs) have been enclosed with glass windows. One downstairs porch houses the original rocked well which Coker said is 31 feet deep, and still contains 10 feet of water. "The water's not dead. I've drunk it," he said, and added the same goes for water from the artesian spring nearby that originally belonged to the estate.

Jimmy Hannah constructed the current kitchen in 1949, which now is thoroughly modernized. The 1880 kitchen has been converted into a back foyer area with knotty pine beaded board wainscoting.

Another side porch can be accessed from the kitchen and/or through double glass French doors and is attractively furnished for comfort. The three areas flow together to make interesting space for entertaining guests.

The front parlor -- once two rooms -- is now 14.5 feet wide by 30 feet long. The music room and its mate, the parlor (on opposite sides of the front foyer and staircase), have generous bay window extensions featuring triple double-hung windows. One bedroom on the first level has both a private full bath with freestanding tub and a second shower room.

Climb the grand old staircase in the front foyer -- still undergoing restoration -- to the second floor which is largely complete, furnished, and serves as the main retreat for the family. A gathering room is cozily furnished and features a mantled fireplace.

Linda Coker pointed out the antique Sessions mantle clock that belonged to Col. Hannah. It still chimes and keeps perfect time. Also in this room are two Hannah solid mahogany occasional tables with marble tops, lute style pedestals, and drawers with roses for handles carved in relief.

A dressing room complete with claw-footed tub (all bathrooms contain the original claw-footed freestanding tubs) also has a down staircase with an intriguing twist -- it stops about three feet before it reaches the floor below, a mystery the Cokers haven't solved.

Bedrooms on the second floor are mostly furnished with treasured family heirlooms. One is Edward's grandmother's pineapple post bed. Another handsome antique bed once belonged to Linda's grandmother.

A glass-enclosed side porch and the front balcony are fully accessible on this floor. Two missing transom windows above doors now have stained glass replacements, gifts the Cokers gave each other for Christmas. Several empty transoms await theirs.

The attic, which had never before been finished, is accessed by a staircase and trapdoor operated by weights. Two-thirds of the attic has been converted to living space with bedroom, full-size bath and a lounging room -- a space occupied by their 10-year-old grandson, Rodney. The balance of the attic was reserved for its original purpose: storage.

The Cokers videotaped, photographed before-and-after scenes, and saved wallpaper samples they removed in layers from the walls to document their restoration effort. Eventually the walls of some rooms may be wallpapered using reproductions in some of the styles Linda prefers.

Another project looming is the creation of 53 matching spindles for staircase renovation, and a couple of newel posts. Outside, eaves, cornices and scrolls have been scraped in preparation for fresh paint when the weather permits.

Although there are years of work ahead yet to be done, the Cokers are toying with the idea of opening the house for a limited public viewing by, say, Christmas 2001, with the front parlor presented as a kind of museum reflecting Oliver Springs' railroad era memorabilia.