Pencil Sketches by Ruth Andrews  

311 Indiana Avenue - Residence of Peggy and Barry Adkins

The house with a colorful past has a fresh start with new owners at 311 Indiana Avenue. Built in 1902 as a home for his family, G. W. Huffstetler passed the home to his daughter, Zena Prater, who sold it in 1939 to L. M. and Nellie Ross, who maintained it as a home. In 1971, the house became the Turner Boarding House with 12-14 sleeping rooms including four in the basement This then became Yates Rooming House in 1983. News articles and police reports support neighbors' painful memories of 41 police calls in one year. (One of the tenants earned his living by hacking into county and state computers to delete records so felons could buy firearms!) Drug deals, garbage and failure to comply with numerous city ordinances made 311 the blight of Indiana Avenue. Finally, a fire in the basement meant eviction of all tenants, and the fire department condemned the building and rezoned 311 into a "single-family residence."

Major repairs were made my John Weber and Gail Lisabeth in 1998, giving the current owners, Peggy and Barry Adkins, the courage to buy the house in January, 2001. After being homesick for 25 years while living in Atlanta, the new owners have "come home" to East Tennessee.