Jones, Robbie D.

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Tennessee State University Digital Scholarship @ Tennessee State University Nashville Conference on African American History and Culture University Archives 1998 African-American Builders of Sevier County, Tennessee Robbie D. Jones Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.tnstate.edu/conference-on-african-american-history-and-culture Recommended Citation Jones, Robbie D., "African-American Builders of Sevier County, Tennessee" (1998). Nashville Conference on African American History and Culture. 28. https://digitalscholarship.tnstate.edu/conference-on-african-american-history-and-culture/28 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University Archives at Digital Scholarship @ Tennessee State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Nashville Conference on African American History and Culture by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship @ Tennessee State University. For more information, please contact XGE@Tnstate.edu. nAfrican-American Builders of Sevier County, TennesseeThe architectural landscape of Tennessee’s ruralareas, small towns, and large cities is comprised ofhundreds of historic buildings designed and built byAfrican Americans. One rural county in East Tennesseehas an extraordinary history of African-Americanbuilders. Established in 1794 along the North Carolinaborder, Sevier County has never featured a large blackpopulation; however, black builders constructed nearlyevery important late nineteenth and early twentiethcentury private and public building in the county. Thecounty’s African-American population never exceeded700 people, but its tight-knit black community producedat least a dozen black brick masons, prolific all-blackconstruction companies, and an exceptional blackcarpenter and furniture maker. Until recently, theiramazing story had remained untold.In the late 1860s,  Isaac Dockery (1832-1910) builta brick kiln near Sevierville and established a brickmasonry business. Dockery, who was born a free Black,moved to Sevierville to work as a merchant clerk for awhite businessman, Henry M. Thomas, before the CivilWar. After the war, Dockery became instrumental inestablishing the brick masonry tradition within theAfrican-American culture of Sevier County. Often, heinscribed his initials, “I D,” and sometimes a date on hisbricks as a trademark. Dockery taught his brick masonrycraft to his sons, his sons-in-law, and his grandsons.Dockery constructed brick foundations and chimneys formany dwellings throughout the county, but his mostnotable buildings were located in Sevierville.Recognized as Sevier County landmarks, these buildingsinclude the New Salem Baptist Church (1886),  theoriginal Murphy College building (1891), the SeviervilleMasonic Lodge (1893), and the elaborate Sevier CountyCourthouse (1896). Dockery moved to Newport inadjoining Cocke County in 1898 and died at his son’shome in Knoxville in 1910. He was buried in the publiccemetery for African Americans near Sevierville.Several members of Dockery’s family alsobecame well-known brick masons in Sevier County,including Paris Witt McMahan (1852-1929),  a formerslave who established the Riverside Steam BrickCompany that operated nearSevierville until the 1930s; Georgeand Stewart Burden (1890-1988),who established a  highly-productive collection company inthe early twentieth century; BillColeman, who m o v e d  t oneighboring Jefferson County;and Joe Leak McMahan, Sr. (1881-1964). Fred McMahan (1895-1980), perhaps the most notableof Dockery’s descendants,attended Knoxville College in thelate 1910s and earned his master’sdegree in ArchitecturalEngineering at the University ofIllinois at Champaign-Urbana.Around 1920, he returned toFirst Bnpfist Church of  Sevierville (1926), built by J.F.&N. McMahan Construction  Co. (under consfruction).Photo Courtesy: In the Fork of the Little Pigeon River: A History of Sevierville’s Business andResidential Districts. (continud)This publication is a project of the 1998 Nashville Conference on Afro-American Culture and History. Informationwas compiled by the Department of History, Tennessee State University. The Metropolitan Historical Commissionassisted with editing and design.Sevierville and established the J. F & N McMahanConstruction Company with his brothers, Jamesand Newt McMahan.One of the most prolific black builders andbrick masons in the state, McMahan and hisconstruction company were responsible for scoresof Sevier County buildings, beginning with thePleasant View Rosenwald School in 1921-22. Thecompany built landmark buildings throughout thecounty and in adjoining counties between 1920and 1960, including dwellings, churches, schoolsand college campus buildings, automobileshowrooms and service stations, a WPA-fundedpost office, and commercial buildings. One of themost important buildings that Fred McMahanconstructed may be the Dwight and Kate WadeHouse, which was finished in 1940 at SevierviIle.This house was designed by Verna CookSalomonsky, a leading female architect from NewYork City, and is a replica of an avant-gardeexhibition dwelling at the 1939-40 New YorkWorld Fair’s “Town of Tomorrow” exhibit.McMahan’s  own home still stands outsideSevierville.Perhaps the most significant African-American builder in Sevier County’s history wasnot a brick mason, but a highly-skilled carpenter,cabinetmaker, and house builder. Lewis C.Buckner (18561924),  who was born a slave, had awhite father and an African-American mother.During the years following the Civil War, Bucknermost likely learned his trade in Sevierville as anapprentice to Christian H. Stump, a whitefurniture and cabinetmaker originally fromMichigan. It was in SevierviIIe  that he began hiscabinetmaking business in the 1870s. By the latenineteenth century, the African-American artisanwas building houses throughout Sevier Countythat featured robust Italianate  and Queen Anne-style architectural elements. Using his uniqueinterpretation of national architectural stylesacquired from patternbooks and publishedjournals, Buckner’s original work is extremelycreative. Rarely were two pieces rendered exactlyalike. The country artisan’s well-craftedarchitectural detailing features vernacularrenditions of Victorian patterns that includenaturalistic elements such as a unique flower motifthat became his signature trademark.Nearly twenty examples of dwellingsexhibiting Buckner’s extraordinary craftsmanshipstiIl exist in the county. Buckner built these housesbetween 1880 and 1921, and he embellished  themwith the flamboyant architectural elementsindicative of Victorian-era ebullience. Bucknerusually built an entire dwelling and lived at thebuilding site during its construction; however, healso traveled the countryside in order to constructdecorative details, such as porches, staircases, andmantels for otherwise ordinary farmhouses.Buckner also crafted elaborate and ornatefurniture, such as bedroom suites, cupboards,bureaus, washstands, cabinets, and even pictureframes. Many of his works are prized familyheirlooms. Buckner’s own house, which he builtin 1894 outside Sevierville, still stands. He wasburied in an unmarked grave at the Union HillCemetery nearby.The dozens of examples of well-craftedbuildings and the extraordinary furniture, craftedby talented black brick masons and carpentersserve as historic reminders of the exceptionalimpact that African Americans had on the ruralcommunities of East Tennessee, especially Seviercounty.-Robbie D. Jones

African-American Builders of Sevier County, Tennessee

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African-American Builders of Sevier County, Tennessee

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