These two sites are the only sites where I found any history of the Property. I will continue to do research ... Our investigation results will be posted shortly .
Physician Harvey Baker moved to Knoxville in 1840 and built a 2-story, brick house at the corner of Kingston Pike and Baker’s Creek on the west side of town. During the Civil War, his son, Abner, joined the Confederacy, and his father turned his home into a hospital to treat wounded soldiers. In 1863, the Union Army took the town, and Baker locked himself in his second-floor bedroom. Legend has it that a Union soldier shot him through the door. His son swore vengeance, and in doing so, met with an untimely death. But, no one seems to agree on how exactly he died. One story says that he got into a fight with William Hall at the Knox County Courthouse after he was slapped in the face with a cane. The crowd went wild and hanged him from a tree on Hill Street. Another story says that a saloon patron shot him to death out front of the Courthouse, and yet another story says that on September of 1865, he went to shoot the postmaster whom had shot his father. The friends of the postmaster dragged him around down from the back of a horse until he finally died. Regardless of how Abner actually died, both he and his father are said to haunt the old house to this day. A yellow light seems to drift from room to room, as if a lantern is moving through the house, and footsteps can be heard; the home is now Baker Peters Jazz Club
The Bakers-Peters house is located on Kingston Pike in Knoxville, TN. It was built in 1840 by Dr. Harvey Baker, who became highly respected in the community. Respected, that is, in all areas except one. By the time of the Civil War, Knoxville, like most of East Tennessee, was overwhelmingly pro-Union. When Tennessee voted to succeed, there was even a movement to emulate the western counties of Virginia, and form their own state and rejoin the Union. Despite this, Dr. Baker was devoutly pro-Confederate, and he told anyone he met this fact. Dr. Bakers was predictably ostracized by many Knoxvillians. The Confederates knew that East Tennessee was very important, strategically, to their cause, so they quickly occupied the area. During this time, Dr. Baker opened his home to the Confederate soldiers, doing everything he could to make their stay a pleasant one. Eventually, however, the Union forces, with far superior numbers, began to wear down on the Confederates. Eventually Union forces found their way to Dr. Baker's house, where they shot him to death. "The apple never falls far from the tree," or so the old saying goes. This was very true of Dr. Baker's son, Abner, who fought in the Confederate army. After the war, we was very bitter about the South's defeat, and decided to take revenge on the "dirty Yankees." There is some controversy on how he died, but the most common story is that he murdered a Union sympathizer who was a very popular figure in Knoxville. An angry mob, who viewed him as a rebel, then killed him. Today, it is said, the ghosts of both men now haunt the Bakers-Peters House. They have never been seen, but have been known to cause mischief, mostly harmless pranks. Perhaps they just want to be remembered.
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