1422 STRATTON AVENUE
S
itting at the corner of Stratton Avenue and 15th Street, this Folk Victorian-style house was originally occupied from 1898 through the 1910s by Albert Bushrod “A. Bush” Spain (18451925), his wife, Mary Louise “Lulu” (1849-1931), and their son Bernett “Bernie.” A Nashville native, Spain served as a bookkeeper and locally elected Justice of the Peace with an office at 310 Union Street on the Public Square. Serving a six-year term, a Justice of the Peace presided over local courts for common law and misdemeanor cases involving such issues as small debts, property damage, landlord and tenant disputes, vagrancy and petty criminal infractions, as well as performing civil marriages. In 1937, Nashville replaced the Justice of the Peace courts with the current General Sessions courts. Spain’s son-in-law Edmund Jackson Booker (1864-1932) and his wife, Nellie Spain Booker (1870-1944) lived in the house as well. A native of Memphis, Booker was employed by the city sheriff ’s office, first as a bookkeeper and later as the chief deputy. Between the 1920s and the 1940s the occupants were Wiley Jones Porter (1872-1943), his wife, Frances, two children, a nephew, a sister-in-law and grandchildren. The household also included African-American cooks and house servants, including Georgia Bean and Clarence Shaw. A native of Cowan, Tenn., in Franklin County, Porter worked as a civil and fuel conservation engineer with the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. His son, John Lipscomb, was as a chemist at DuPont. A survivor of the 1998 tornado, this well-preserved one-story home features a steeply pitched hipped roof, interior brick chimneys, rear wings, leaded glass windows and molded trim. The home’s most distinctive architectural element is the wraparound front porch supported by circular wooden columns on brick posts. An elliptical attic window with decorative
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THEEASTNASHVILLIAN.COM
November | December 2013
trim is located in the front gable. The 2,560-square-foot home has three bedrooms and two baths. A metal fence surrounds the yard, and the sewer grate at the sidewalk is inscribed, “S.E. Jones Sons, Nashville, 1891, Tenn.” Longtime homeowners Bob Wilkins and Ann Hammond have lived in East Nashville for 13 years. They relocated here from North Carolina, moving into the Victorian cottage on a snowy Christmas day at the turn of the millennium. Hammond had accepted a job offer with the Metro Nashville Planning Commission, which precipitated the move. They are both now retired, and, even though the children and grandchildren are in North Carolina, they intend to stay put. “We had a limited amount of time to find a house and didn’t have time to make multiple trips from North Carolina, so we had a punch list,” Hammond says. Their “must haves” included living in an older neighborhood that is pedestrian friendly, close to work and historic. “Because we had to make the move so quickly it needed to be move-in ready.” This was the second house they considered, and they knew it fit the bill. “We fell in love with it; first because it has a huge wrap around front porch, which is great for visiting, and secondly because it has a larger-than-typical yard for our large dogs.” (They currently have four.) Since Hammond has a keen interest in architecture and urban design, the 12-foot ceiling, trim work and hardwood floors captivated her. “We made an offer while were here; I was so afraid we would lose it. I didn’t want to take that chance,” she says. They have done a significant renovation on the kitchen and updated the electrical and plumbing systems. “I’ll put up with the little problems of living in an old house to have this kind of ambiance and character,” Hammond says.