York State Park Receives Grant To Restore House

The state awarded Sergeant Alvin C. York State Park a $6,000 grant Thursday to restore the honeymoon house within the park.

Park Interpretive Ranger Cassie Kazmark said the plan is to restore the house back to the way it looked when it was first built in 1922 and use it as a Ranger Station. Kazmark said the honeymoon house got its nickname through family.

“We refer to it as the honeymoon house because Alvin C. York’s son, Alvin C. York Jr., they built it for him to be able to stay here and help his father with the farm not long after he was married,” Kazmark said. “So he and his wife a few months after they got married had moved into it and so the joke has always been that it’s the honeymoon house.”

The grant from the Tennessee Historical Commission and the State Historic Preservation Office. Kasmark said the money will not finish the project but it will be a good start.

Kazmark said restoring the house would be a nice addition to the park.

“It’s a beautiful house that has some historical significance,” Kazmark said. “And being able to actually showcase what it looked like when it was first built is going to be a great thing for the public to enjoy when they come out here and visit us.”

Kazmark said the grant will have to be used to restore the house within the next year. Kazmark said she estimates that restoring the house completely could take anywhere from two to three years.

“It’s going to be a slow progress,” Kazmark said. “But we are hoping to at least get started as soon as we can get some of those funds to fix up those minor things to at least stabilize the home.”