Blount's office, from which he governed and conducted his business affairs, was built along with the house and is a one-story, free-standing building and had a modest front porch.

Sprankle, intended to demolish it and replace it with a parking lot to serve the new Andrew Johnson Hotel, then under construction.

President George Washington appointed North Carolina businessman and land speculator William Blount as the territory's first governor.

Blount initially governed from Rocky Mount (in the Tri-Cities area), but began searching for a permanent capital for the territory.

After Blount selected White's Fort for the site of the capital, James White, the owner of the fort and adjacent lands, and his son-in-law Charles McClung drew up a grid of 64 half-acre lots that would eventually become the city of Knoxville, and in 1791 held a lottery for parties interested in purchasing a lot.

Andrew Jackson and John Sevier were frequent visitors to the mansion, and early guests included botanist André Michaux and various Cherokee and Chickasaw chiefs.

Sprankle made plans to level the site and demolish the mansion and outbuildings to make room for a parking lot for the Andrew Johnson Hotel.

In response, Mary Boyce Temple of the Bonnie Kate Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution purchased an option on the property, and the following year the Blount Mansion Association was chartered.

The Association immediately initiated efforts to restore the house to its 18th-century condition, removing the Victorian additions and adding period furniture.

[3] An architectural analysis in the 1990s identified six phases of construction, and suggested that the mansion didn't acquire its full form until around 1815.

[5] Blount Mansion is a frame and clapboard structure consisting of a two-story central block and one-story wings on the east and west ends.

The frame was probably built using locally cut timber, but the house's finished woodwork, paneling, flooring and weatherboarding materials were shipped from North Carolina.

The office is a one-story frame-and-clapboard structure with a brick chimney on its south side, and a pair of sash windows with louvered blinds along the east and west walls.