Savage House and Garden, historic house in Tennessee, United States
The Savage House and Garden is a residential property in Knoxville built in 1917 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The site features a modest house with wooden siding and a front porch, surrounded by a naturalistic garden containing rocks, water basins, and a variety of plantings.
Arthur Savage, an English immigrant, built the house and garden starting in 1917 following Japanese garden principles. A tornado in 1934 caused severe damage to the grounds, and after Savage's death in 1946, the property fell into disrepair until new owners purchased and restored it in 1986.
The name refers to Arthur Savage, an English immigrant who designed the grounds following Japanese garden traditions popular in his time. Visitors can still observe how the arrangement of rocks, water features, and plantings reflects the design values that mattered during the early 20th century.
The property is easily accessible by local roads and offers a quiet setting to explore history at your own pace. Visitors should allow time to observe both the house's architecture and the garden's layout with its rocks and water features.
The garden was designed by an English stonemason and machinery manufacturer who created multiple rock gardens throughout East Tennessee, making this one part of a larger body of work. Its connection to the Art Nouveau movement and Japanese garden traditions makes it an unusual example of early 20th-century garden design in the region.
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