Completed in 1913 as the headquarters for the Holston National Bank, the 14-story building was the tallest in Knoxville until the construction in the late 1920s of the Andrew Johnson Hotel, located a few blocks away.

The Holston was designed by architect John Kevan Peebles and today represents the city's only Neoclassical Revival-style high rise.

[1] In 1979, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places for its architecture and its prominent position in the Knoxville skyline.

Most of the building is built with buff yellow brick, with the exception of the first three stories of the Gay Street and Clinch Avenue facades, which are sheathed in Tennessee marble.

[1] The building's Clinch Avenue facade contains a row of Ionic pilasters which support an entablature adorned with triglyphs and metopes.

A sculptured frieze spans the building's Gay Street and Clinch Avenue facades between the eleventh and twelfth floors.

The Holston building was designed by Norfolk, Virginia, architect John Kevan Peebles, and was built by the George A. Fuller Company of New York.

That same year, Holston's long-time president, Joseph Gaut, stepped down, and was replaced by former Union National cashier J.