Legacy

Barber McMurry is founded by Charles Irving Barber and Benjamin Franklin McMurry Sr., with staff including Charlie's cousin, David West Barber.

The firm rapidly built a reputation for residential design, completing design for the J. Allen Smith House along Lyons View Pike in 1916. James Allen Smith founded White Lily Flour. Barber McMurry designed at least 15 homes along Lyons View between 1915 and 1940, establishing the style that homes along Lyons View still embody to this day.

In October 1924, Charlie, with his friends and family, organized a hike of Mount LeConte to raise awareness for preservation of their beloved Appalachian mountains. The group that summited established themselves as the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club, and continued to advocate for stewardship and preservation of the beautiful Smoky Mountains in Knoxville and Washington, D.C.

The fourteen-story General Building was the first steel high-rise in Knoxville, with exterior stonework inspired by the Florentine renaissance style and, inside, highly detailed marble floors and bronze-plated elevator doors. Barber McMurry operated out of the building until 1934.

The Italianate Lindsay-Young YMCA is completed. Charlie's older brother, George, was the YMCA's Physical Director. The brothers continued to volunteer with the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club, organizing hiking groups that met at the Y after it was completed.

Church Street United Methodist is completed, a Barber McMurry neo-Gothic Revival design in partnership with John Russell Pope of New York. Charlie was a longtime member of Church Street, and is depicted in one of the stained-glass windows in the sanctuary as the architect of the building.

The Smoky Mountain Hiking Club builds, by hand, a mountain cabin as a base of operations. Barber McMurry designed the Greenbrier Cabin in traditional Appalachian style.

SMHC’s first leaflet, published in 1926, proclaimed, “Plans have been made for erecting a club house at some central point in the Great Smokies. The building is being designed by Charles I. Barber, one of Knoxville’s leading architects, and will be built by the club during vacation season.”

It still stands on the Greenbrier Trail outside Gatlinburg.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is dedicated by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who travels through Knoxville to reach Gatlinburg. Barber McMurry, long involved in the grassroots efforts to establish the National Park, designed the National Park headquarters in Gatlinburg.

When Roosevelt passed Church Street United Methodist in his motorcade, he reportedly said, “That’s the most beautiful church I’ve ever seen.”

Rich’s Department Store is completed, in collaboration with Stevens & Wilkinson, a notable example of mid-century modern architecture in Knoxville — with iconic glazed brick, large glass expanses, and an undulating entry canopy. The building is now UT’s Conference Center.

The Frank H. McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Tennessee is completed in a modernist style, but with extensive detailing typical of Barber McMurry work.

Barber McMurry designs the award-winning Fountain City Library in a distinctly post-modern style.

Ben McMurry Sr. dies on November 27.

Barber McMurry designs the avant-garde Rokeby Condominiums in Nashville, winning an AIA Gulf States Award.

Robert Parrott, FAIA, became President and Chairman of Barber McMurry, the first time in history no Barber or McMurry led the firm. He had worked at the firm since 1959. He is joined in the third generation of Barber McMurry partners by Ron Bomers, AIA, and David Wooley, FAIA.

Barber McMurry completes a new headquarters for Whittle Communications, covering two entire city blocks, in a post-modern rendition of stately Georgian architecture.

A Baptist Hospital campus in West Knoxville is completed — a cutting-edge hospital and medical office complex with a progressive design and holistic wellness elements, including a central courtyard garden.

Barber McMurry created a Visiting Professorship in Design at the University of Tennessee College of Architecture + Design, in conjunction with a previous gift by the estate of Charlie's wife, Blanche, in 1977. The combined gifts created a $1 million endowment for the College, which is used to bring renowned architects to UT to teach interdisciplinary studios.

Barber McMurry celebrates its 100th anniversary.