Celebrated Montgomery, Ala.-based architect Robert McAlpine and partner Hal Cato are working together to restore one of Nashville’s most desired and architecturally significant homes. The pair purchased

NashvillePost article by Brian A. Courtney

Celebrated Montgomery, Ala.-based architect Robert McAlpine and partner Hal Cato are working together to restore one of Nashville’s most desired and architecturally significant homes.

The pair purchased the former Jarman family homestead last November for $2.2 million and have subdivided the 5.24-acre property to accommodate several more homes. Parts of the overall property front Bowling and Woodlawn avenues, as well as Brighton Road.

Deed records show U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander paid $450,000 for two of the six developable lots, and informed sources confirmed he is preparing to build a new home there. NashvillePost.com understands the former Tennessee Governor has arranged to sell his existing Nashville residence at 208 Craighead Avenue, but will remain there until sometime this coming summer. The property is not listed in the multiple listing service.

Cathie Cato Renken, a Realtor with French Christianson Patterson & Associates and the sister of Hal Cato, is co-listing the undeveloped parcels along with Susanne Cato. She says McAlpine and Cato, who plan to live in the former Jarman house post renovation, decided to “hold back” one of the six sub-divided lots to preserve the overall integrity of property. The remaining three lots front Woodlawn or Bowling avenues and are priced from $260,000 to $315,000.

According to Renken, McAlpine will maintain a close watch over newly constructed homes, approving all designs so that they are architecturally compatible with the 6,500-square-foot Jarman house, a stone structure built in 1929. “No one ever thought [the Jarman family] would ever sell this house,” Renken says, adding “[Robert] has always dreamed of creating a smallcommunity with control over every home built.”

Renken notes that there are numerous development restrictions in place to protect the property’s overall look, feel and character. For instance, so that new homes don’t overshadow the original Jarman house, the first floor of new homes must be less than3,500 square feet. Additionally, no structure can exceed two and one half stories in height. “The restrictions are many, but for really good reason,” Renken says.

A nationally known architect, McAlpine divides his time between McAlpine Tankersley Architecture and McAlpine Booth & Ferrier Interiors, an interior design firm he began in 1997. He also has a furniture line, McAlpine Home.

Cato is executive director of the Oasis Center, a youth service agency.

Founded by James Franklin Jarman in 1924, Jarman Shoe Co. was the predecessor to Nashville-based shoe wholesaler and retailer, Genesco Inc. His grandson, Franklin Maxey Jarman, a former head of Genesco, and wife Julia Lipscomb Jarman lived in the family home until last year.