Comment on this story 343 Hiawassee Ave. 2 bedrooms, 1 bath 850 sq. ft. $69,900 Contact: Jennifer Montgomery Coldwell Banker: 693-1111

Think Lincoln Park, not the “Party of...”

by Matt Edens

Has the election got you down? Are you eyeing the online real estate ads in Ottawa? Well, before you do anything drastic, why not exercise the local option? Tennessee may technically be a “Red State”, but center-city Knoxville offers plenty of options for would-be refugees looking for a blue bunker to hunker down in for the next four years. And not only are all of them a damn sight warmer than spending Christmas in Canada, they’re a good bit more affordable than a brownstone in Brooklyn.

Relatively speaking, that is. While they’re a far cry from Manhattan or Martha’s Vineyard, some of Knoxville’s bluer bits include some of the fastest appreciating real estate in town (I wonder, is the “housing bubble” largely a blue phenomenon?). First off there’s downtown, whose loft denizens voted Democratic in the same ratio that Farragut voted Republican. Fashionable historic ’hoods like Fourth and Gill and Old North Knoxville are another option. Or if you’d prefer something a little more suburban, then you have a pick of inner-burbs like Bearden’s Westwood and Forest Heights, the Emoriland/Fairmont Boulevard area to the north or Holston and Chilhowee Hills on the east side, whose blue-blood & country club beginnings didn’t preclude 56 percent of residents from voting like yellow-dog Democrats. If diversity is what you’re looking for, you could move to Mechanicsville or possibly Parkridge.

Or if you’re a progressive who wants to keep in touch with the proletariat, you might pick a blue-collar bastion like Oakwood or Lincoln Park. If you pick now, at least.

Lincoln Park in particular is a neighborhood where the trend seems to be becoming a little less blue collar and a little more blue state in the “Sunday mornings are for NPR and the NY Times” sense. It’s easy to see why. Not only close and convenient to downtown, the neighborhood offers some incredible bargains for the homebuyer. Plus if you’re environmentally minded (and you are, aren’t you?) many houses, like this one on Hiawassee Avenue, back up to one of the largest tracts of undeveloped land in the center city: Sharps Ridge.

Perched on the lower slopes of Sharps Ridge, not only does this house have wooded slopes out its back door, it has a lovely little backyard with oaks and maples and views of downtown and the Sunsphere from the front porch. There’s even, TVA willing, a nice view of the Smokies on a clear day.

And what’s not to love about the cultural diversity of the home’s Spanish-eclectic styling, complete with stucco walls and barrel-tile roof details? Inside, the modest sized, two-bedroom, one bath house is a fine example of the mantra “quality not quantity.” Recently remodeled with a new kitchen, central heat and air and updated plumbing and electrical, the house has oak and pine floors, doors with original crystal knobs, trim in natural wood finishes and original crown molding in the living and dining rooms (plate rail in the dining room, too). The house is luxurious without being conspicuous.

Other features include a nice Arts and Crafts-style fireplace in the living room, an original clawfoot tub in the bath and a clever little foldaway ironing board in the kitchen (such “modern conveniences” were all the rage in the ’20s when this house was built). And the best part is that it all comes at a price that, in some parts of Blue America, will barely buy a parking space (speaking of which, it’s got off-street parking, too).

November 18, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 47 © 2004 Metro Pulse