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Structure: Harry Daniel House
Location: Bristol, Tennessee
Architect: A.L. Aydelott & Associates
Associate architect: Chia-Yi (Charles) Jen
Date: 1953
Tidbit: As best as I can tell, Harry Daniel’s parents were East Tennessee royalty. They owned a massive historical residence called “Almathea” which they used to hold their vast collection of art and regularly host dinners and events. At some point, Harry became the owner of the property, sold it, and commissioned the firm A.L. Aydelott & Associates (out of Memphis) to design him a new, contemporary residence.

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The principle architect for the house was an architect named Chia-Yi (Charles) Jen. Jen was born in Tianjin, China in 1925. He graduated with a BA there and then immigrated to the US in 1948 to study at Yale. He received his MArch in 1951 and promptly began working in AL Aydelott’s Memphis office. You can see Jen’s keen eye for modernism all throughout this house.

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The house’s central living area was specially divided up into 10 areas, each designed for a particular purpose. The house is ~10,900 sq ft, and features 5 bedrooms, 7.5 baths, and sits on 7 acres. The house was arranged on a long, in-line plane in order to give everybody in the house maximum views with maximum privacy.

The house made a huge splash, getting a feature in House & Home (July 1954). Its exterior still seems to be in pretty decent condition (judging by the 2015 listing photos), but there aren’t any interior pictures of the place and interiors are often a casualty of modernity.

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