From 1876 until 1949, Chamberlain House stood at 1637 West Cumberland Avenue. Ohioans William Chamberlain and his brother Hiram had been to Knoxville during the Civil War as officers in the Union army. Hiram returned to Knoxville in 1867 and founded the Knoxville Iron Works. He moved to Chattanooga in 1872, the year that his brother, William, moved to Knoxville with his new bride. William Chamberlain entered the retail drug business on Gay Street with A. J. Albers. That business was combined with one owned by Edward Sanford, and the two firms were combined into Sanford, Chamberlain, and Albers wholesale druggists. In March 1875 Chamberlain bought a 2½-acre lot on the corner of Cumberland Avenue and Temple Avenue (Volunteer Boulevard) from Oliver P. Temple for $2,141.38 and built a house, which he and his family occupied in 1876.
Chamberlain died in 1917, and his wife, Catherine, died in 1921. Their son, Fred, sold the house and property to UT in 1926. Chamberlain House was used as a girl’s dormitory and then as housing for military on campus during World War II. It was then used as storage for a time, having been condemned as unsafe because of wall cracks and a leaking roof. It was razed in June 1949. The Howard Baker Center for Public Policy now occupies the site.