Gilgal House · 410 Jessamine St
A sober house three blocks from the firehouse for men leaving treatment, detox or the Knox County jail. Gilgal is where Israel set up the twelve stones.
Week six, 6:40 AM
Travis on his way to his first day with a framing crew in Fountain City.
Daily life
The house runs on a routine because early recovery needs one. Devotion on the porch at six, work or a job search by day, supper together at six, a meeting most nights.
Nobody lives here for free forever, and nobody is put out on the street for one bad day. Reggie has lived in the downstairs room since 2016. He knows the difference.
Applying
There is usually a wait of two to four weeks. We'll keep in touch with you every week while you wait.
Step 1 of 4
A ten-minute call about where you are and what you need. Treatment centers and probation officers can call for you.
Call (555) 014-1219
Step 2 of 4
Come eat with the men on a Wednesday. You'll see the rooms and ask anything you like.
Step 3 of 4
Bring two weeks of clothes and any medication in its bottle. We provide sheets, towels and a Bible if you want one.
Step 4 of 4
No overnights away and a mentor checks in daily. After that, the house gets a little bigger every month.
Visiting hours
Visitors sign in at the kitchen door. Kids are welcome with a parent.
Visiting nowNo visiting right now
Visiting ends at Next visiting
todaytomorrowNeed to drop off something outside these hours? Call Reggie on (555) 014-1219 and leave it on the porch.
| MondayToday | No visits |
|---|---|
| TuesdayToday | No visits |
| WednesdayToday | 6:00 PM – 8:00 PMFamily supper with the men |
| ThursdayToday | No visits |
| FridayToday | No visits |
| SaturdayToday | 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM |
| SundayToday | 1:00 PM – 5:00 PMBring lunch if you like |
Holidays at the house
The staff
Three of us are paid; the other three give about twenty hours a week. Five of the six are in recovery themselves, and all six answer their own messages.
Gilgal House manager
Reggie came to Gilgal House in 2014 with a bag of clothes and a court date. He moved into the downstairs room two years later and has cooked Wednesday supper ever since. Ask him about his cornbread at your own risk.
About the house
Yes. About half the men do. We can meet you at the release door if we know the date.
Tell us. A slip means a conversation and a new plan, often a week of extra check-ins. Using in the house, or bringing anything in, means you'll need to move out, and we'll help you find somewhere safe that night.
Yes, at move-in and at random. It isn't a trap. It's how the other eleven men can trust the house.
Both, after the first thirty days. Until then the phone stays in the office overnight and your car stays parked.
Design notes
A site for a Knoxville recovery ministry whose whole job is getting a frightened person on the phone with someone who has been where they are. Everything else (meetings, the sober house, the family group) sits one click behind that call.
Schibsted Grotesk was drawn for a Scandinavian news group, and it carries that plain newsroom voice: heavy, short, no flourish. Set at 800 with tight tracking, the headlines sound like someone talking straight to you. Piazzolla, a sturdy serif built for small text, carries the long stories so they read like letters rather than marketing.
The palette comes from the riverbed in Joshua 4: limestone gray for the page, wet slate blue for the brand, and the peach of first light for the accent. It is calm on purpose. Nothing flashes or shouts, because many visitors arrive anxious, ashamed or still using. The dark theme is a deep slate night, with the peach warmed so it still reads at 3 AM.
A classic top bar, because nobody in crisis should have to learn a menu. Six plain page names and one button that never moves: Talk to someone tonight. On a phone the button stays beside the menu icon.
The first screen is a call-back form beside a tall photograph of men praying over a friend. Calling a stranger is the hardest step, so we made asking for a call even easier: a first name and a number. The reassurance list answers the fears people actually tell us about: cost, police, family finding out, and whether the person calling back really understands.
Each action names the next real step: Talk to someone tonight, Find Tuesday's meeting, Ask about a bed, Come to Family Circle, Sponsor a bed. There is no Learn more anywhere, and giving is kept off the main bar so a person looking for help never sees a donation ask first.
Circles of chairs, men holding each other up, a woman laughing on a bench, coffee on a table. Ordinary adults in ordinary rooms, never a staged sad face or a needle. Every testimony uses a first name and last initial, the way recovery rooms protect anonymity.
Body text is 18px with generous spacing, and every color pair passes 4.5:1. Forms label every field, mark what is optional and never require an email. The 24-hour number is a tappable link on every page, and the crisis line and 988 appear wherever someone might be in danger.
Every text pairing is checked against WCAG 2.2 in both themes.
| Pairing | Sample | Ratio | WCAG |
|---|---|---|---|
| Body text on page | Aa | 13.23:1 | AAA |
| Body text on cards | Aa | 15.02:1 | AAA |
| Secondary text | Aa | 5.8:1 | AA |
| Links | Aa | 8.07:1 | AAA |
| Button text | Aa | 9.99:1 | AAA |
| Accent label text | Aa | 7.18:1 | AAA |
| Text on dark bands | Aa | 13.23:1 | AAA |
| Muted text on dark bands | Aa | 7.12:1 | AAA |
| Text on brand bands | Aa | 9.99:1 | AAA |
| Muted text on brand bands | Aa | 6.43:1 | AA |
| Pairing | Sample | Ratio | WCAG |
|---|---|---|---|
| Body text on page | Aa | 14.72:1 | AAA |
| Body text on cards | Aa | 13.18:1 | AAA |
| Secondary text | Aa | 6.58:1 | AA |
| Links | Aa | 8.86:1 | AAA |
| Button text | Aa | 9.12:1 | AAA |
| Accent label text | Aa | 9.14:1 | AAA |
| Text on dark bands | Aa | 15.62:1 | AAA |
| Muted text on dark bands | Aa | 7.9:1 | AAA |
| Text on brand bands | Aa | 9.12:1 | AAA |
| Muted text on brand bands | Aa | 5.49:1 | AA |
Designed by Greater Purpose Web. Names, people and events are sample content.