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James Lee House
690 Adams Ave., Memphis,
TN ,
USA
Telephone:
(901) 359-6750
URL: http://jamesleehouse.com
Latitude & Longitude:
35° 8' 40.7184",
-90° 2' 14.8488"
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Listed in the National Register of Historic Places |
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The James Lee House, also known as the Harsson-Goyer-Lee House, is a historic house at 690 Adams Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, together with the adjacent Woodruff-Fontaine House. The two houses also are included in the Victorian Village historic district.
The 8,100-square-foot home was constructed by William Harsson in 1848. Harsson's daughter, Laura, married Charles Wesley Goyer, who bought the house in 1852. Goyer had it expanded by the architecture firm of Edward Culliatt Jones and Matthias H. Baldwin in 1871, after seeing their work in designing the neighboring Woodruff-Fontaine House.
James Lee, a riverboat captain and founder of the Lee Line Steamers company, who had been educated at Princeton University, bought the house in 1890. In 1925 it became the James Lee Memorial Art Academy, a predecessor of the Memphis Academy of Art. The city of Memphis took ownership in 1929. After the art school moved to a new location in 1959, the house was vacant for many years. It was used by Canadian indie rock group Tokyo Police Club in a music video for their 2008 song In a Cave.
In 2012, the empty house was purchased by new private owners. The following year, a $2 million construction and renovation project began, converting the house into a luxury bed and breakfast. The city of Memphis provided a property tax abatement to encourage its renovation. The bed and breakfast opened for business in April 2014.
James Lee House was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on October 02, 1978.
| StoppingPoints.com Editorial on James Lee House: | The bed and breakfast features The Lee Suite, their flagship room, described as: The Lee Suite is our most luxurious accommodation, named after James Lee, Jr., owner and captain of the Lee Line Steamboats. The Lees were the most recent family to own the James Lee House, having purchased it in 1890 from the Goyer heirs. In the early 20th century, James Lee's daughter, Rosa, turned the house into the James Lee Memorial Academy of Art, which later became the Memphis College of Arts now located in Overton Park.
Two rooms were combined to make this a grand, spacious, elegantly furnished suite with two formerly coal-burning fireplaces. You will be sure to sleep comfortably on the king-sized Tempur-Choice Luxe bed made with fine linens. A Victoria+Albert tub surrounded by tower windows, a state of the art steam shower with multiple shower heads, and beautiful marble tile and floors work together to provide a spa-like experience in the tower bathroom.
The room also features a portrait on the wall of James Lee, and when I stayed there, a photo of Lee in an envelope in the roll-top desk, along with a poem written in memoriam of him after his death. ~ Editor-in-Chief, StoppingPoints.com |
Last updated: 2/14/2015 15:17:00 |
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Image Gallery
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James Lee House Historical Marker Location Map, Memphis, Tennessee Map
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