Just outside Knoxville, Tennessee, in the town of Alcoa there is a very unusual stone house called Millennium Manor. The house was built over a nine-year period from June 1937 to December 1946, by William Andrew Nicholson and his wife Fair.

The Manor was built using Roman architecture. This was important because it was built to last a thousand years--thus the name Millennium Manor. The Nicholsons did all the work on the house themselves, without the aid of machines, a remarkable feat, since both were small. How the Nicholsons had the strength to carry and lay all that marble remains a mystery. The thinnest inside wall of this 14room home is 19 inches, and the thinnest outside wall is 25 inches. The roof is more than three feet thick, and the floor is more than four feet thick. The roof al…