1842-1916
Collections
- Lyda Collection, UNCA
- Related Oral Interviews, UNCA
- E.M. Ball Photo Collection, UNCA
- Correspondence, AAM
- Watercolors, Drawings and Blueprints, AAM, ABLS
Biographical Information
James Albert Tennant (1842-1916) was originally a native of Charleston South Carolina. A scion of a prominent Southern family in that city he graduated from the South Carolina Military Academy and received an officers commission in the Confederate army in 1861. His life and career in architecture largely was an attempt to get a fresh start after the war. He married in 1869 and moved to Asheville with his wife and several other family members in 1871-72. In the 1880 census his occupation is given as a farmer with residence in Asheville. He comes progressively closer to his final architectural career in each successive census, listed as a house builder in 1900 and a formal architect in 1910. Tennant's first major structure was the Buncombe County Courthouse completed in 1876.
Tennant was fortunate to select Asheville as his new base of operations during the 1870's as this was a time of increasing prosperity in the area. This had largely to do with the completion of the Western North Carolina Railroad to Asheville in 1880 which created a building boom that would last on and off until the 1929 depression. Tennant's projects are often eclectically decorated but in many ways follows the major norms of late19th century architecture. He specialized in commercial, residential, and public building types. Major design styles this architect often used were the Queen Anne, Romanesque Revival, Second Empire, and Shingle Styles. His projects of note included several important public buildings and a number of striking private residences for wealthy customers. In 1912 Tennant was mentioned as the dean of Asheville architects and the oldest most prestigious practitioner of this discipline in the city. He died at 76 after a long illness. While not well remembered by later generations of western North Carolina architects he had a lasting influence in the areas structural environment.
http://ncarchitects.lib.ncsu.edu/people/P000220
Related Oral Interviews
The Buildings
Asheville City Hall (1892)
Blue Ridge Bank (Ca. 1890)
Buncombe County Courthouse (1876-1877)
Dr. E. W. Grove House (Ca. 1912)
Hendry Block (1890s)
Kent House (1907)
Maitland School (Ca. 1890)
Tennent-Pritchard House (Ca. 1895)
The Klondyke (1899)
The Manor and Cottages (1898)
Inventory of Architecture
Selected Correspondence
Typological Motifs in Tennant's Work
Bibliography
Catherine W. Bishir, Michael T. Southern, and Jennifer F. Martin, A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Western North Carolina (1999)David R. Black, Historic Architectural Resources of Downtown Asheville, North Carolina (1979).
Charlotte Vestal Brown Papers, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, North Carolina.
Michelle Ann Michael, "The Rise of the Regional Architect in North Carolina as Seen Through the Manufacturers' Record, 1890-1910," M. A. Thesis, University of Georgia (1994).
Douglas Swaim, ed., Cabins and Castles: The History and Architecture of Buncombe County, North Carolina (1981).
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