Description
Built by a family who had returned from France, this house was known for its elegant appearance and gilded chairs. Unfortunately, the name of this original family is unknown. In 1909, Benjamin L. Coulson purchased the home. Following the death of the next owner, Mrs. Emma Scott Dewey, the house passed to her children, Chauncey Dewey and Emma Dewey (later Mrs.Emma Dewey Lockwood). In 1923 the house was bought by George Washington Ely Atkins for his son, Rev. John Norton Atkins, and his family. The elder Atkins kept a suite with two south bedrooms, bath, and connecting closet for himself. Reverend Atkins was the superintendent and chaplain at Emerald-Hodgson Hospital. He had four children. Sometime prior to April 1932, Maj. Gen. William Ruthven Smith, the superintendent of the US Military Academy at West Point, visited the Atkins’ to inquire about the house. He wanted to retire there as Superintendent of the Sewanee Military Academy. Depite the Atkins’ disapproval, incoming Vice-Chancellor Guerry granted Smith’s wish when Reverend Atkins resigned from Emerald-Hodgson in 1938. General Smith supposedly lived there until his death in 1941.
Allen Tate was another notable renter. Mr. Tate was editor of the Sewanee Review when he lived here with his then-wife, Caroline Gordon and their daughter Nancy TateWood. After the Tate years, many more families stayed in the home, but for no longer than two years. The arrival of the Camps broke this spell. They ended up living there for 25 years. In the mid-90s the Bordleys bought the house. Mr. Bordley had his eye on the property the very day the Camps bought it. Mrs. Camp thought of it as a happy house and wanted the Bordleys to have it once she and her husband moved out. Virginia and Chip Craighill are the current residents of the house, buying it from the Thonis in 2002.
