Amid the newer suburban development of west Knox County not far from Fort Loudoun Lake sits a reminder of yesteryear.
The Federal-style Boyd-Harvey House and adjoining two acres, which has recently been converted into a bed and breakfast-style guest and vacation home, was constructed in 1835 by Thomas Boyd.
It was built near the current intersection of Choto and Harvey roads in the Concord area long before automobiles began frequenting the area or the Tennessee River there was converted into a lake by TVA.
But now the home’s early history and current use are being even better connected through an upcoming Boyd family reunion.
Katherine Boyd Nungesser of New York said she and her four surviving siblings – Bill from Georgia, David from North Carolina, James from Florida, and Melanie B. Fanelli from Georgia – will have their second annual gathering there.
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“I don’t see my brothers and sister that often, so I think it is going to be fun this year,” she said over the phone, adding that she was unable to attend last year. “I am looking forward to it.”
The first gathering was initiated after David and his wife, Cathy, pulled into the gravel driveway and began conversing with some house guests, who in turn told owner Anne Tillotson White. Some communication started that resulted in the reunion.
Fellow sibling Fanelli, who is considered the family historian, said that a Thomas Boyd had fought in the Revolutionary War from Pennsylvania, mostly as a POW, and was given the land for his service. He built a now-removed cabin on the property and his son, also Thomas, built the brick home.
The younger Thomas, the reunion gatherers’ great-great-grandfather, was a teacher and his family was involved with the railroad, but the family had no accumulated wealth passed down through the years, she said. Her great-grandfather, Edwin Templeton Boyd, and his uncle, James, also lived in the home, but the family sold the property to the Harvey family in the early 1900s, she added.
Fanelli, who had also been to a Christmas gathering there in the 1980s when the Howe family owned the property, enjoyed last year’s gathering.
“We had at least 20 people,” she said. “We just sat around and talked and ate together and went to the (family) cemeteries.”
Katherine Nungesser, who is now in her 70s, said that over the years they had visited family sites, including a Winfrey family home on Loop Road. She said she was surprised how suburban the area started looking in recent decades.
“It had been very secluded and very woodsy,” she said.
Current owner White said she was inspired to buy the home in 2018 after living in nearby Montgomery Cove.
“I had never been up on the property,” she said. “But I got inspired about the potential. Nobody saw what I saw in the house when I first purchased the property. I have always been drawn to old homes and old towns, but I never thought I would own an old house.”
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A business meeting there related to her work as a medical sales representative made her want to follow through with converting it into a guest facility. After being slowed by the pandemic and the governmental approval process, she opened it.
“I have never owned my own business,” she said, adding she was inspired from such historic places at Biltmore Village in her former hometown of Asheville and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where she went to college at UNC. “No one in my family has. I am stepping out.”
Besides the two-story home, the National Register of Historic Places-listed property also has a carriage house, a small vintage style stable that can be used for social events, and a small floral and shrub garden maintained by friend Melissa Simmons. It also has a pool put in when Robert Bedwell, one of the developers of Turkey Creek, lived there.
Perhaps the most eye-catching features are natural – a giant oak tree standing near the front of the house like an arboreal greeter, and numerous old boxwood bushes.
Because she has a full-time job and lives in a second-floor space accessible by its own stairway, White lets guests fix their own breakfasts and other meals through a full kitchen. She also helps them get groceries if needed and can provide a list of chefs.
She has enjoyed meeting all the guests, she said, including those connected to the property’s beginning, and has also enjoyed getting to know the home.
“The home to me is sort of like an older person,” she said, adding that she loves the architecture and all the greenery around it. “If we spend the time to sit down and talk with them and listen to them, there’s so many things that we can learn about it.”
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