I. Historical Overview

William R. Rankin was born in Tennessee on July 11, 1804. His first wife, Margaret, was born in 1806, but she seems to have died quite young. Rankin married Eleanor Minerva Pope (1812-1897) on September 7, 1830. They both appear on the 1840 census of Marion County but have no children. In 1850, William Rankin, a merchant with $3,000 in property, and his wife were living in the first district in Marion County, raising two young female relatives, Lean and Delila

The 1860 census of the newly-formed Sequatchie County also lists Rankin as a merchant but by this time his assets had increased considerably to well over $50,000, including seven valuable slaves. His wife was a housekeeper, raising the two adolescent girls. The younger one was enrolled in school the previous year. The summer of 1870 found the girls gone and the couple by themselves. Rankin was now categorized as both farmer and merchant and had almost $34,000 in personal and real property. By 1880, William Rankin, listed as a farmer, was ailing. At that time, he and his wife lived at home in the village of Dunlap attended by a mulatto servant, Jane Hixon. Rankin died on January 10, 1886; his wife survived him by some eleven years.

William Rankin had been a leading citizen who made important contributions to the establishment of both Sequatchie County and Dunlap. He helped select the location of, sold the land for, and superintended the layout of the county seat near his home along the “big road” that ran the length of the Sequatchie Valley. Since there was no courthouse for a while; the county commissioners and other official bodies (such as the group that equalized the tax lists) met at his home at various times from January 1858 onward. His residence also served as the polling place for the Fourth District.

Rankin served as the first sheriff of the county from January 1858 until October 1859, was a member of the committee to oversee the erection of the public buildings, and helped design the jail. He was instrumental in establishing Rankin Academy by donating the land on which it stood and served as a trustee for the school both before and after the Civil War. He was a juror at regular intervals during the 1860s and 1870s, and the county court elected him trustee in 1867. The facts that Rankin held local office during and immediately following the war and kept much of his property intact imply that he was a Unionist (or at least a not an active Confederate supporter) during the conflict. William Rankin truly has earned his place in local history and his house stands as testimony to his many significant accomplishments.

II. Architectural Overview

The Rankin House is situated on a large corner lot near the center of the town of Dunlap facing east. This weather boarded frame dwelling takes the form of a typical Middle Tennessee I-house. It was constructed in 1852 and consists of two large rooms separated by a central hall on the first floor, with the same arrangement upstairs. A brick fireplace is centered on each of the end walls on both floors. The central stairway rises along the south side wall toward the rear of the hall to a landing and continues up along the north side wall to the second floor. A plain square newel post and square balusters support the handrail and a simple machine-carved molding was applied to the stair carriage.

The house presents a symmetrical five-bay appearance and remains aligned parallel to the old highway in front. A restrained Greek revival styled classical portico is the dominating feature of the front facade. The second floor and the roof structure of this portico are supported by a pair of square tapered wooden columns at each front corner with plain square trim at both top and bottom. Painted galvanized sheet metal panels cover the roof of the dwelling. The entire house has only a minimal amount of very plain decoration both inside and out.

The front entrance on both floors originally consisted of double two-panel doors flanked by sidelights and surmounted by a multi-light transom. There are two 6/6 double-hung windows on each side of the entry unit on each floor aligned vertically. Both physical and documentary evidence suggest that the openings originally contained smaller paned 9/9 sashes and that the ones extant are twentieth century replacements. No windows are found on the end walls at the present time, although this wasn’t always the case. The windows on the north end wall were covered over when a single-story late Victorian gable-front addition was built adjoining it c.1900. This annex, which featured a three-sided bay window that projected toward the street, was tarn away in the late 1900s. The four windows on the south end wall were covered over with vinyl siding at the end of the twentieth century.

A single-story frame kitchen/dining room addition divided into three interior spaces forms an ell-wing on the back of the house. The two rooms closest to the main house are separated by an interior brick fireplace. Natural light comes in from 12/12 double hung windows centered on the wall of each room. A modern three-light paneled door on the south elevation provides outside access to the room farthest from the main house. This weather boarded addition probably replaced an original detached kitchen and dates from the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

In the early 1900s, two small rooms and a recessed porch were added along the north wall of the rear addition. On the new north wall, one of these little rooms utilizes a 16-light fixed picture window for illumination; the other has a small modern 1/1 double hung window. An old-style four-paneled door leads from the porch into the middle room of the wing. The slope of the ell’s roof was altered at the time of the new construction to accommodate the expansion and is fully engaged on the north side of the house. No original outbuildings remain on the property.

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