Metro Pulse/Urban Renewal

729 Gratz St.
2,310 sq. ft.
2/3 bedroom
2 bath
$99,900
Contact: Steve Hill
Elite Realty: 687-1311

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by Matt Edens

I got an email the other day from a friend in 4th and Gill. The editor of the neighborhood newsletter, she'd stumbled across some old photographs from the neighborhood and was looking for some help identifying them. Now when I say "old photographs" it's a bit of an exaggeration. They were about 25 years old, late '70s vintage to judge by the clothes and cars. But the neighborhood they showed was virtually unrecognizable—weed-choked yards that were a couple feet high and tumbledown houses with peeling paint and broken windows that, in some cases, were literally being swallowed by kudzu. It was weird. I've seen hundred-year-old photographs from the neighborhood that were easier to place. Which makes sense when you think about it. Because 4th and Gill today is probably closer to what it was a hundred years ago—reasonably affluent and well-cared for by its young middle-class families—than what it was 25 years ago when it was neglected and nearly abandoned.

It's been a slow transformation—one that was still in its infancy when I first came to Knoxville 16 years ago (yikes!). Ten years ago, when I started writing this column (yet another yikes...), living in 4th and Gill still had a slightly radical air. And though some busybodies talked of "gentrification" even then, real estate prices were still at Bohemian levels.

The very first house I ever wrote about for Metro Pulse—a 3,000 square-foot restored Victorian on Lutrell Street—sold for less than $100 grand. A little more than a year ago that same house—in essentially the same shape—sold for over two-hundred, without a realtor, in a matter of weeks. And, in the past month, the neighborhood broke another price threshold when a house on Luttrell sold for $300,000.

However, just because houses in 4th and Gill are commanding those kinds of prices doesn't mean there aren't a few fixer-uppers left. And it doesn't mean there aren't some good deals to be found there too.

Take this house at 729 Gratz St. Look past the cheesy enclosed front porch (I did say a fixer-upper didn't I?), and underneath you'll find a great first house for a young couple or small family. Because other than that porch enclosure and vinyl siding, this place is an extremely well-preserved circa-1886 Victorian. Once you get past the shrink-wrapped exterior, on the inside the house is in excellent condition: oak floors throughout; an original built-in china cabinet in the dining room; original wainscoting in the kitchen; clawfoot tub in the upstairs bath; and brass dust-catchers on the staircase. All the doors and hardware are in great shape too, including the original front door. Behind those ridiculous French doors on the porch, the old front door still has its original beveled glass and one of the coolest old friction doorbells I've seen (still works, even). Resurrect that front porch and crack open the vinyl and you've got yourself a great old house in a great old neighborhood at for less than 50 bucks a square foot.

Oh, and there is at least one recent addition that you might actually appreciate—a one-car attached garage out back.