Editor’s note: Third in a series of stories about historic homes.
In 1925, my grandparents, Judge and Mrs. Joe V. Williams, built their grand colonial home on a hill above Dallas Road in North Chattanooga and named it Oakmont. In addition to being a gathering place for family and friends, the 40 acres served as a working farm.
The front of the house had tall Corinthian columns topped by acanthus leaves adorning a yellow brick facade. The entry hall had a two-story-high ceiling and led beyond to a spacious living room, seven to eight bedrooms, various other nooks and crannies, and an attic full of old books, tanning chemicals and much bric-a-brac.
Several rows of roses and large boxwoods stood close by as did apple, peach and cherry trees. The hill was covered with daffodils in the spring. Further down the hill was a kitchen garden with vegetables and herbs as well as more flowers. Willard Williams, my grandmother’s long-time employee, would help tend the garden and care for the ever-present chickens. Willard would wring the chicken’s neck when chicken was on the dinner menu.
A barn at the base of the hill held two cows, Daisy and Buttercup. Willard taught my brothers, Joe, Jim and Bob, and me how to milk them. Fanny, my grandmother’s cook, would pour some of the rich milk into the electric churn to make buttermilk, butter and cottage cheese. Apple cider was pressed by hand on the family cider press.