John Tollison Shumate House

This 2 story house had 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and 2 kitchens with 4,384 sq. ft. of living space.

John Tollison Shumate built the house about 1896. He also owned and lived in the large white house that was on State Street. That house was moved to face Morgan Street to make room for the 3rd Athens Bank Building. John Shumate, at first, rented the house to various families then eventually sold it.

Fannie Hoke and her family ran a boarding house and rented the property in the 1910s. John Stewart Hall, great uncle of Margaret Ann Scott, rented the house in the 1920s before moving his family to a house on Broadway Street. Carl H. Miser, a coal miner, and his family rented the property in the 1930s. 

Eugene Sterling Neely bought the house in 1944. He and his wife Ruby Allen Neely raised two sons, Ernest Eugene and Edward Robert, in the house. They built a 4 unit block apartment building on land behind the house. The Neelys sold the house to John Irvin Scott, Jr., and his sister Margaret Ann Scott in 1978. John Irvin Scott, Jr. died in 2003. Margaret Scott owned it until her death in 2018. Her estate sold the house to S & A Leasing, LLC, address Athens Volunteer Fire Department. The house was demolished in 2023.

New Horizons Church of the Nazarene is the only building left on the block of North State Street and Caldwell Street. The new Athens Volunteer Fire Department building may build on this block when funds are secured.

Source: Most of this information was obtained from census records and tax records from the Mercer County Courthouse.