Avent, Mayna Treanor, Studio - Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

To find the trail to the cabin look for a narrow set of log steps descnding to the right approximately 1.1 mile up the Jake's Creek Trail from the gate. Follow the side trail down and across the log bridge over the creek then up the hill about 100 yards.

The cabin was built in 1845 or earlier by Humphrey Ownby. As a wedding present, Sam Cook (who lived nearby) bought the cabin for his daughter, Eva, when she married Steve Ownby. Sam paid $500 for the cabin and 50 acres. In 1918 Frank and Mayna Avent bought the cabin and 18.5 acres for $200. Mayna Treanor Avent (1868 – 1959) began using the cabin as an art studio in 1919 and continued to do so for over 20 years.

In 1926, Frank and Mayna Avent gave the cabin to their son Jim Avent (who was on the original board of the Appalachian Club). In an effort to improve the cabin for his mother’s use, Jim made several alterations to the building. Windows were cut to see the apple orchard. There was no electricity, although they had permission.

Ownership of the cabin and its 18.5 acres was transferred to the National Park Service in 1932. A lifetime lease was given to James Avent and his wife Jeannette. He subsequently transferred the lease to his children, Jacqueline and James Avent, Jr.

Mayna Treanor Avent was the daughter of Thomas O. and Mary Andrews Treanor. She was born Sept. 17. 1868 at Tulip Grove Mansion, across the Lebanon Pike in Nashville from Andrew Jackson's Hermitage. Study at Cincinnati was followed by two years at the Academie Julien in Paris. In 1891 she married Frank Avent, a Murfreesboro attorney who later served as State Railroad Commissioner for many years.

Avent taught painting in Nashville for many years and exhibited throughout the US. She painted in Mass. and SC, as well as TN. She produced oil and watercolor paintings, occasional drawings, and wood block prints in the Japanese manner. She was a member of the Nashville Studio Club, the Nashville Artists Guild, and the Centennial club, which in 1951 held a retrospective of her 68 year artistic career. She spent her last 3 years with her son in Sewanee, TN, where she died on Jan. 2, 1959.

Mayna Treanor Avent, the nationally known Tennessee artist whose work is in the collection of the Smithsonian Institute's National Portrait Gallery, used Avent Cabin as her summer studio retreat.

County / Borough / Parish: Sevier County Year listed: 1994 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Architecture/Engineering, Person Periods of significance: 1925-1949, 1900-1924, 1850-1874 Historic function: Domestic, Other, Recreation And Culture Current function: Preserved cabin in national park. Privately owned?: no Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] National Historic Landmark Link: [Web Link] Street address: Not listed Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed

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