3408 and 3412 Timberlake

Shivers (Rental Houses)

submitted by Dan Reiff, September 2009

Following is a compilation of information gathered about the two homes at the end of the first right-of-way lane at the top of the hill approaching from Montlake. These two homes have been rental properties since they were built. I had never ventured up the lane to see the two houses until September, 2009. I assume few other have been up that lane, so included with this write-up are photos of the homes. It’s a peaceful setting, albeit with a bit of traffic noise from Alcoa Highway down the hill below.  —Dan R.

The original owners of lots 35 and 36, Bays and Anderson, actually switched their lots in 1948. It is unclear exactly when the houses were built--they were not listed as completed, under construction, or planned yet in Dec. 1949 in Barber’s letter to the postmaster, so they were probably constructed in late 1950 to early 1951). There are occupants listed for both #35 and #36 in the 1951 directory  (E. A. Soucy and Dr. Clifford Walton, respectively).

Kermit and Viriginia Duckett lived adjacent to the Bays/Anderson properties since 1966.  Names of renters they recall include Tom/Jennie Lester (now live on Maloney Rd.), Gerald/Diane Burns; Michael Jaffee; Howard/Kay Condren; Jenny Rogers (Dr. Rogers’ widow who sold her mansion to Alex Shivers); Tim/Linda Scroggins; and many UT students.

Alice Bays and the Andersons never lived in the houses. According to the Historical Sketch, Bays came up with the "Timberlake" street name and was involved early on in the development, as was Anderson. Both were listed as additional shareholders at one point, although neither is listed on the purchase agreement when the land was bought from Dorothy Chapman. Anderson's original address was in Washington, D.C., and it was in Arlington, VA, when the property was eventually sold. Her address was listed in Johnson City, TN, on a 1948 shareholder list, and Alice Bays’s address on the shareholder list had the same Johnson City address.

Mark Evans thought he’d heard that the two original owners were widowed sisters who planned eventually to move to the homes and next to each other. That theory makes some sense.

3412 Timberlake at Lot 36 – highest point in the Timberlake neighbohood

3408 Timberlake at Lot 35

Shivers
Alex and Sarah Shivers bought both properties at 3408 and 3412 (lots 35 and 36) on May 6, 1971. Kermit Duckett said the Shivers lived in the house next to theirs (3408) for a while as they were planning the construction of a home down the ridge from the two houses. Britt and Irene Shivers are listed on the 1985 TCC directory.  When Alex and Sarah divorced, Sarah got sole ownership of those two properties on 3/23/1992.

The home Shivers had planned to build at the location is something many Timberlake residents might not know about. A story available online by Doug McDaniel about Peter Blow (a story interesting in itself), includes a little tidbit at the end about Dr. Shivers’ plan to build a “Georgian mansion” on Timberlake (presumably on lots 35 and 36). A link to the website and excerpt about the Shivers is included below. 

“The River Secrets of Peter Blow: A Curious Murder Trial Reveals
Layers of Family Intrigue”

A Tale of Two Mansions

Around 1950, Dr. Frank Rogers and five other investors purchased the 400 acre Blow estate. They drew straws to see who would get the Blow mansion — described at the time as a “haunted, rundown farmhouse,” according to current owners Alex and Pat Shivers.

Around the same time, Dr. Rogers had heard that Castle Rock, a Georgian mansion built in 1830 by Hugh Graham in Tazewell, Tenn. was to be demolished for the construction of Highway 33. Rogers, a radiologist at UT whose family had lived in nearby Speedwell since the early 1800s, acted quickly. He demolished the Blow mansion, saving the original columns and front porch. Brick by brick, he then disassembled Castle Rock, transported it to Knoxville, and reconstructed it on the same spot as Blow’s mansion, adding Blow’s columns and porch to the south face of the home. Dr. Rogers renamed the home Speedwell Manor, and today, the beautiful home rests on nearly 20 acres of the original 400-acre Riverbend Farm. 

Dr. Rogers and his wife, Virginia, opened the home as a public house museum in the 1960s, making the home familiar to many older Knoxvillians. Dr. Rogers passed away in 1977, but his wife continued to operate the museum until around 1985. Like many house museums, especially one on the remote, south side of the Tennessee River, having enough traffic to support and maintain the home was becoming more and more difficult.

Dr. Alex Shivers, then a professor of biochemistry at UT, was working with an architect to design his own Georgian home on nearby Timberlake Drive around 1987.

“It was difficult to explain to my architect exactly what I wanted with the staircase. We went back and forth, and then I remembered that I knew exactly the staircase I wanted. I went to see Mrs. Rogers and asked to make drawings and photograph her staircase. She followed me around, and finally asked the question,” he said.

“Rather than build a new Georgian home, why don’t you buy this one?” Mrs. Rogers offered. She had, according to Shivers, been approached several times by developers who wanted to tear down Speedwell Manor and build condos, similar to the fate of the Westcliff mansion on Lyons View, where Cherokee at Westcliff condos were built on the site of that old mansion.

Now retired from UT, Dr. Shivers and his wife, Pat, who also retired from UT as faculty in endocrinology, have lovingly maintained the home and furnished it with some Rogers family items they were able to purchase at auction, along with other antiques they have collected over the years.

(Doug McDaniel, originally printed in the Knoxville Voice)