The house on Laramie Circle

Drag the slider to watch the same spot across ninety years. The yellow ring marks Lot 10. The first three frames are government survey maps; the rest are aerial photographs.

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The 1935, 1958 and 1969 maps all show open, unwooded land here, crossed by a farm lane, with a farmhouse a short block to the east. That farmhouse spot is inside the subdivision today. By 2002 the field had gone to scrub.

The creek just west is Friar Branch, which rises south of Interstate 75 and runs into South Chickamauga Creek. When the city dug a sewer lift station on Friar Branch, workers turned up plant fossils from the last ice age, written up by University of Tennessee botanists. East Brainerd was still "largely farmland" in 1967, and it came into the City of Chattanooga in 1972.

Noah Reid Road

The townhomes' land is described in the recorded papers the old way: "Beginning in the center of Noah Reed Road," running along land that Noah Reid sold to O. P. Worley in December 1923, back to "the middle of Spring Creek." A Noah R. Reid of Chattanooga died in March 1935; he is very likely the man the road is named for, though no record found so far says so.

The family who sold the farm

On July 21, 2004 the land passed to the builder. The county's sale record names the sellers as "McKelvey, Barbara Faye Askew" and others (Book 7216, Page 846). A Barbara Askew McKelvey of Chattanooga died January 3, 2016, at 79. She is very likely the same woman, born an Askew, which would make this Askew family land. The tract also took in Lot 1 of a small earlier subdivision called McKelvey Gardens. The 2004 deed itself, which would name every seller and where the land came from, sits behind the Register of Deeds' paid search.

S.E.W. Construction, Inc. was the developer and builder of Friar Branch Townhomes. It was a Chattanooga company formed on April 21, 2003, and its president was Sherrill E. White, who signed its deeds and the neighborhood's rules. The letters S.E.W. match his initials, which is very likely where the name came from. He had been building in Chattanooga since at least 1977, when he formed an earlier company, Sherrill White Construction, Inc. The state licensed S.E.W. as a building contractor (license 50690) from June 11, 2003; the license expired on June 30, 2008.

1. June 2004S.E.W. Construction asks the city to rezone 7229, 7231 and 7233 Noah Reid Road from single-family to townhouse and zero-lot-line (case 2004-105). The City Council takes it up in July.
2. July 21, 2004The company buys the land from the Askew-McKelvey family.
3. 2005It records the neighborhood rules as the "Developer": no house without its written approval of the plans, at least 1,700 square feet each, no fences without permission.
4. 2006The lots are recorded (Plat Books 80 and 81), the city issues a grading permit for "Friar Branch Townhomes," and the first homes go up. Lots 1 to 8 are built and sold new in 2006-07 for $183,000 to $218,000.
5. January 2007The local home builders' association names SEW Construction one of the top five building companies by permits and gives it a plaque.
6. 2008The housing market turns. Lot 9 sells new in February. On June 23, S.E.W. deeds Lot 10, and Lot 11 next door, to James C. Rogers Jr. A week later, on June 30, the company's contractor license expires, and that December the state closes the company for not filing its annual report.
7. 2008-09The townhome on Lot 10 goes up. RE/MAX lists it as new on November 24, 2008, and the county taxes it as a finished house for the first time in 2010.

Who finished Lot 10

The builder's company was planned to build every unit itself: the rules say the "Developer proposes to construct a townhouse on each of the remaining lots." But Lot 10 changed hands before its house was done. The tax record shows bare land worth $5,000 through 2008, a partly built house in 2009, and a note on the 2010 bill: "*PU NEW TOWNHOME FOR 2010," the county's way of saying it picked up a new finished townhome. So the house was built between mid-2008 and the end of 2009, while James C. Rogers Jr held the lot. Because S.E.W.'s contractor license ran out on June 30, 2008, the finishing work had to be done under someone else's license or by the owner himself. Who that was has not been found, and no Tennessee company in Rogers's name turned up.

Who else worked on it

The city's open permit records go back to 2006 but do not name contractors for these years, and they show no permits at all on Laramie Circle from 2008 to 2010. A 2006 building permit for a "new townhouse" filed under the street's first, temporary house numbers (B-06-825, old number 2308 Laramie Circle) is likely this lot's first start, but only one old number has been matched to a lot so far.

One trade is on record for the subdivision: a federal court opinion about the builder's insurance names G. Robert's Company, Inc. (Greg Roberts) as the contractor who put in the plumbing and sewer lines on a 2006 Friar Branch unit. The state's records show that company was formed in August 2005, just as Friar Branch got under way, and closed in 2009. It is likely the same plumber worked on other S.E.W. units, but that is not proven for Lot 10. Other trades have not been found yet. Neighbor permits from 2007 show the kind of equipment the builder used: Tappan 4-ton split heat pumps, 200-amp electric service and gas fireplaces.

Built

2008-09; first taxed as a finished house for 2010

Living space

1,924 sq ft, all on one floor

Rooms

Three bedrooms, two baths, family room, separate dining room, laundry, sunroom

Garage

Two-car attached, 504 sq ft

Outside

Brick and stone front, covered back patio, small fenced yard

Inside

Corner gas fireplace, granite counters, jetted tub, trey ceilings, crown molding

The same rooms in 2008, 2012 and 2023

The builder's 2008 ad promised "stainless steel appliances, jetted tubs, granite counter tops, lots of crown molding, tile and hardwood, trey ceilings in master bedroom, sunroom, landscaped yards." The 2012 photos show the rooms new and empty. By 2023 the dark wood floors had been replaced with lighter plank flooring, but the kitchen, the fireplace and the tub are the originals.

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The county tax bill shows where each owner wanted the bill mailed. No owner before Gary and Gloria ever had it sent to the house, so none of them lived here. That tells us who owned it, not who lived in it. The empty years were 2008 to 2015; from 2015 to 2023 someone almost certainly did live here, as renters.

1. 2004-2008S.E.W. Construction, Inc., the builder. Bare lot. Bills to the company's post office box.
2. 2008-2012James C. Rogers Jr. took Lots 10 and 11 from the builder in June 2008, and the townhome was finished on his watch. RE/MAX listed it new at $239,900 in November 2008; Bridge City Realty listed it again at $219,900 in April 2012, and the photos show it empty and never lived in. It did not sell. Bills went to his address in Ooltewah, not the house.
3. 2012-2014David E. Graham, who took Lots 10, 11 and 69 in June 2012. Bills went to a business address in Ooltewah.
4. 2014-2015Southeast Bank, which took a group of Friar Branch lots in one deed in August 2014. Google's June 2014 Street View shows the unit kept up but empty-looking: no cars, no signs.
5. 2015-2023Deborah Evans bought Lot 10 and Lot 11 next door from the bank on the same day, September 25, 2015, for $150,000 each, without an ordinary public listing. Her bills went to a post office box in Cleveland, Tennessee. She still owns Lot 11. She lived elsewhere and bought two units at once, the usual pattern of a landlord, and Gary and Gloria still get mail and visitors looking for an earlier resident, so the house was almost certainly rented in these years. It was never advertised on the big rental sites. The renters' names are left off this page.
6. 2023Listed for sale empty and freshened up on February 8, 2023, at $349,000 by Sue Sievers of Crye-Leike. Sold April 13.
7. 2023-todayGary and Gloria Scott. First owners to make it their home and have the bill sent to the house.

• Who actually built the Lot 10 house. James C. Rogers Jr held the lot while it went up. The city's 2006-2009 permit files at the Land Development Office would name the contractor and each trade.
• Who rented the house from 2015 to 2023. The landlord, the Friar Branch Towne Homes Owners' Association or the utility's service records would show it. Kept off this page on purpose.
• The Askew family farm. The 2004 deed (Book 7216, Page 846) names every seller and where the land came from. It is at the Hamilton County Register of Deeds (625 Georgia Ave, Room 400), behind a paid online search.
• Whether Noah Reid Road is named for the Noah R. Reid who died in 1935. His obituary in the March 30, 1935 Chattanooga Times, on microfilm at the public library, would settle it.
• What the 2008 deed to James C. Rogers Jr says (Book 8697, Page 792): the price and any loan behind it.