19-05-2025
50 years ago, Beck bought Dandridge house that already had a place in Knoxville's Black history
Before it became the Beck Cultural Exchange Center, the century-old house on Dandridge Avenue was already entwined with Knoxville's Black history.
The Black families who lived there during the 1940s, '50s and '60s led with resiliency while facing racism in the form of threats and vandalism. In the 1970s, it was a gathering place for the Black community when Knoxville's Community Development Corporation used the house as a field office during urban removal, which displaced more than 2,500 Black families in Knoxville between 1959-74.
Today, it's a place where those stories, and many more, are shared as part of Beck's mission to steward Black history and celebrate Black culture in East Tennessee.
When it was chosen to become Beck, however, the house's own history wasn't necessarily a driving factor, said the Rev. Reneé Kesler, Beck executive director. Beck's founders were focused on preserving the history of Knoxville's Black community from the destruction of urban removal, but initially the house was picked for the center more because of the space and location.
"And then I think as you began to look at the sacredness of the place, you realize, wait a minute, this was a transformative space. This was a space with its own history," Kesler told Knox News. "And I think over the years, that's what we've really brought to life, so it's almost divine."
The house at 1927 Dandridge Ave. was built in 1912 by James Cowan as a wedding gift for his wife, Alice Saxton Cowan, Kesler said. At the time, the area was primarily occupied by affluent white folks.
It was still that way when physician Edgar Lennon purchased the house in 1946, Kesler said. Lennon was one of the first Black residents of the neighborhood, and many neighbors were unhappy. The Ku Klux Klan soon acted, Kesler said. Before Lennon could move in, the hate group poured gasoline on a 10 to 12-foot cross outside the house and lit it on fire, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported in May 1947. An explosion went off at the house that night, too.
A note was left at the cross burning site demanding Lennon not move into the house he had bought. "Money might move you in, but money can't change your color," it read. "If you insist on living in our community, please know that you will be the most unwelcome individual that lives there."
The next day, Knoxville police announced there would be no further investigation, but Lennon stayed. "He was wasn't afraid of anything," Kesler said. In fact, the account of the night passed down in oral histories says that Lennon's first comment to emergency responders was, "I don't know who did this, but they need to come clean it up."
"I wonder what would have happened, and how would the story be different if Dr. Lennon had reacted differently," Kesler said. "But he didn't. He went on living, staying resilient and doing it in love."
James and Ethel Beck, prominent members of Knoxville's Black community, purchased the house in 1965, Kesler said, although they didn't live there for long. James Beck died in 1969, and Ethel Beck in 1970.
In 1971, the Knoxville Housing Authority was authorized to contract with architects to fix up the Beck house for use as the Morningside site office for urban removal's Morningside Project, the News Sentinel reported July 20, 1971. The organization purchased the house from the Beck estate for $17,500 and spent $14,500 on updates and repairs, according to a 1974 News Sentinel article.
As the field office, the house became a place "for the people to come, and to meet in, to talk about urban renewal, talk about their community, you know, kind of what what would you like to see in your community now as a result of urban renewal having happened," Kesler said. "So it became this place and space of meetings, and dialogues, and discussions."
By 1974, the Knoxville Housing Authority had become Knoxville's Community Development Corporation. Its Board of Commissioners approved a price of $22,500 for the house's sale to a planned "Black cultural center" that year. That was a lot of money for the not-yet-chartered organization, but a woman named Bessie Brice ensured Beck received the funds.
Brice was the treasurer of the Ethel Beck Home for Orphans, which Ethel Beck ran until it closed in the 1950s. Brice gave $20,000 from the orphanage account to help buy the home and asked it be named after the Becks. That funding was supplemented with $2,500 from Knoxville Mayor Kyle Testerman's administration, according to Beck's website.
The Beck Cultural Exchange Center purchased the house from Knoxville's Community Development Corporation 50 years ago on May 15, 1975.
Beck's space has been added onto since then, but although it's been converted into a cultural center, the house itself remains largely the same. Its floors, doors and windows are original, Kesler said. The historic house portion of Beck includes the Ethel Beck Hall, the Heritage Room, the Village Market Room, the Pioneer Stairway, the William Hastie Room and the Ether Rice Research Lab.
"It truly is a space and place of unity and bringing community together," Kesler said. "The branches that we have on this beautiful tree are because of the solid root ... that was built by the people 50 years ago when they envisioned this."
Hayden Dunbar is the storyteller reporter. Email
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Beck house became repository for Knoxville Black history 50 years ago
