# Maxwelton

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For the place in Scotland, see [Maxwelltown](/source/Maxwelltown). For the town in Australia, see [Maxwelton, Queensland](/source/Maxwelton,_Queensland).

**Maxwelton** is a historic single-story house in [Memphis, Tennessee](/source/Memphis,_Tennessee), that is listed on the [National Register of Historic Places](/source/National_Register_of_Historic_Places). It is the only extant example in Memphis of a Victorian [piano box house](/source/American_historic_carpentry#Box_house).[2] It is currently a private residence.

The piano box house is a [vernacular architectural style](/source/Vernacular_architecture) found in houses built in [Middle](/source/Middle_Tennessee) and [West Tennessee](/source/West_Tennessee), from the mid-19th century into the early part of the 20th century. These one-story houses acquired the name "piano box" from their shape, which was seen to resemble that of a rectangular [grand piano](/source/Grand_piano).[2]

Maxwelton was built around 1860 from Tennessee native Poplar and Cypress woods. It features a long recessed central porch between two flanking parlors. The interior of the home has 14-foot (4.3-metre) ceilings. Its floors are made from 4-inch (100-millimetre) pine boards. There are five fireplaces with wooden mantels and some have ornately tiled hearths. It is named after a famed estate [Maxwelton House](/source/Glencairn,_Dumfries_and_Galloway) home of [Annie Laurie](/source/Annie_Laurie) in Dumfriesshire, [Scotland](/source/Scotland).

Judge John Louis Taylor Sneed purchased the home in 1874.[3] The home has been in the Sneed - Ewell family for four generations. Upon Judge Sneed's death, his wife inherited Maxwelton. Since the couple had no children, after her death the home was passed to her nephew, John Sneed Webb and then to Webb's daughter, Kathleen. In 1918 Kathleen was married in the home to Arthur Peyton Ewell and they had two sons, Arthur Webb Ewell and John Sneed Ewell, both of whom were born in Maxwelton's west bedroom.

Maxwelton was placed on the [National Register of Historic Places](/source/National_Register_of_Historic_Places) in 1980.[1]

## References

1. Bennett, Ann K. (1992). ["Piano-Box Victorian Houses"](https://books.google.com/books?id=rrHb5T9HhXYC&pg=PT1). *Old House Journal*. '***(Mar-Apr 1992)***

1. Griffin, John (April 7, 2008). ["Memphis Memento"](http://www.memphisflyer.com/memphis/memphis-memento/Content?oid=1143579). *Memphis Flyer*

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