One of the grandest homes in Chattanooga in terms of architectural detail and setting, as well as history, is on the market for one of the few times in its nearly 100 years.

All the positives related to its aesthetics and interesting stories do come with a large price tag, though, as the landmark home resided in by former U.S. Sen. and former Mayor Bob Corker in recent decades is for sale for $11.895 million.

The home, which is being listed by Realtor Jay Robinson of The Robinson Team at Keller Williams Realty, had been built by Coca-Cola bottler and businessman Frank Harrison Sr. about 1927. His son’s family and then North American Royalties/Wheland Foundry executive Gordon Street Jr. lived there until Mr. Corker bought it a little more than 25 years ago.

Mr. Corker had shared through spokesman Todd Womack that he is transitioning into another residence locally and has decided to put the home at 1649 Minnekahda Road up for sale.

Mr. Robinson said in a phone interview that the 13,003-square-foot home with six bedrooms and nine baths on a 6.3-acre lot is definitely special.

“It’s an iconic, generational opportunity for somebody,” he said. “It’s a piece of art. There is nothing like it.”

He added that all the owners have taken good care of it to enhance it and update it only in appropriate ways. “They have kept the historical spirit of it,” he said, calling the past owners curators as much as good stewards.

When asked if the home has received a lot of interest amid its high-end price tag since it went on the market a little more than a month ago, he said that it has. “Everybody would dream of being able to own and take care of a house like this,” he added with a laugh.

He believes this might be the first time the home has been publicly listed for sale, with previous owners inheriting it or purchasing it through private negotiations and conversations.

Mr. Robinson added that this is not the highest-listed home to be for sale in the Chattanooga market, with a couple of homes along Lake Chickamauga and the Tennessee River going for higher prices in recent years. The historic Caldwell farm off Highway 41 was also sold at just below the current listing price of this Riverview home, he added.

Although not directly alongside the Tennessee River like a small handful of other Riverview homes, this Minnekahda Road home still features a large and rolling front yard and English estate-like architectural adornments representing Jacobethan and Tudor Revival styles.

The writeup at the realty listing site, Zillow, describes it in lush language. “With attention to detail and amazing craftsmanship rarely seen today, this truly impressive home offers a glimpse into the remarkable design and finishes of a bygone era, seamlessly blended with modern amenities desired by today's buyers,” it says.

Besides the numerous bedrooms, the home also features seven full baths, a library, a sunroom, a dining room, a living room, a kitchen and a laundry room.

Outside are a one-bedroom guest house and a carriage house with four automobile bays and an upstairs apartment. It also has informal and formal outdoor living spaces ideal for entertaining, the writeup says, and has a heated Gunite pool with a fountain and high-end landscaping designed by a professional architect.

An architectural survey of the home done in the 1970s and on file at the library says a pool and one wing were added after World War II, and the guest house was originally a playhouse. The third-floor room was originally a domestic helper’s room.

The home had been designed by the noted Atlanta firm of Pringle and Smith. That firm was headed up by chief designer Francis Palmer Smith, who had also been a Georgia Tech architecture professor, and Robert Smith Pringle.

Other Riverview homes they or Mr. Smith designed about the same time included the home at 1513 Riverview Oaks Drive (first lived in by Cartter Lupton), 1712 Minnekahda Road (first resided in by the Manker Patten family), 1609 Edgewood Circle (first lived in by Scott Probasco Sr.) and a razed home at 1615 Woodland Road (first lived in by Fred Lupton and where another home has since been built). The firm also designed residences on Lookout Mountain at 203 E. Brow Road (first resided in by Hugh O. Maclellan) and 523 Fleetwood Drive (first lived in by Hardwick Caldwell).

The firm, which also designed numerous structures in Atlanta and other places in the South, also drew plans for the original chapel and original dining hall at Baylor School, as well as the now-razed Trustee Hall there.

Original owner Frank Harrison Sr. had been president of Chattanooga Glass, which provided bottles for Coca-Cola, as well as being an investor in other businesses. His wife, Anne, was also related to the J.T. Lupton family and had Coke bottling interests.

Mr. Harrison died in 1933 at a young age after complications related to influenza, and his funeral was held at the home, which was referred to as Annehaven during this time. Anne Harrison, who had previously lost another husband, remarried Mr. Harrison’s friend, Paul B. Carter, and lived there until her death in 1967. Her service was also held at the spacious home.

Mr. Carter, who lived until 1979 and had a book written about him and published by the old Chattanooga News-Free Press, continued to live there until about 1970, at which time his stepson J. Frank Harrison Jr., and his family, moved there.

A divorce resulted, and Ms. S.R. Harrison and her family resided there for a short period before Gordon Street Jr. and his family purchased the home. The city directories on file at the Chattanooga Public Library first list the Streets as the residents in 1974.

Mr. Street’s wife at the time, the former Judy Eller of the Nashville area, had been one of the most decorated Tennessee women amateur golfers in her younger years.

Mr. Street’s parents, Gordon and Ruth Street Sr., lived for a number of years at another Riverview showplace at 1406 Winding Way.

The first year the city directory lists Mr. Corker as the resident is 2000. On the day that AT&T Field officially opened with an exhibition game between the Orioles and the Reds on April 1, 2000, game attendees George and Barbara Bush also attended later that day a fund-raiser at the Minnekahda Road home for son George W. Bush’s presidential campaign.

Just a few feet down the hill at the then-residence of Scott Probasco Jr. at 1635 Edgewood Circle, then-Vice President and future President Gerald Ford attended a reception after speaking in Chattanooga in February 1974.

Mr. Corker also served as mayor from 2001-05 and U.S. senator from 2007-19 while residing in the home.

A Chattanooga High graduate and Tennessee baseball player, he had enjoyed a successful construction and development career before entering politics. He had also been an active civic volunteer.

And now the stately Minnekahda Road home admired for years by passersby is waiting for another interesting historical chapter to be written.

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Jcshearer2@comcast.net