I personally do not recognize the symbol (and my PhD is on the KKK), so I doubt that is. Would be very interested if anyone else has a different answer. Then again, east Tennessee was always an area of strong Klan influence, particularly during the Reconstruction era, so perhaps.

Have a look at Allen Trelease, White Terror: The Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy and Southern Reconstruction (1971). Its an old book, but has individual chapters on the Reconstruction Klan and is still considered one of the best book on the subject.

The shape is more reminiscent of a small rooftop clock similar to this: http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4107/5042152785_af3eabc923_o.jpg

I don't think so. If it is, it's an extremely generic one.

The main thing that leads me to believe this is that it is on the outside of the building. Nowhere in any Klansman Handbook, Constitution, or Kloran does it say anything about adorning the outside of a Klavern. There are extremely specific instructions on how to set up the inside of the Klavern (the symbols that should be displayed, where they should be displayed, where the alter should be, where everyone should stand, etc.) as well as detailed instructions on how to enter the Klavern, from the number of knocks to the back and forth of gaining admittance, but nothing about identifying the building itself. It even says that robes, hoods, and other identifiers should be stored before leaving the Klavern, so it doesn't make sense to me that the building itself (if the implication here was that it was a Klavern or that the Klan had some influence on the property) would have some kind of identifier that would draw attention to it.

Now, could this particular Klan chapter have had something in their Kloran that dictated their Klavern had some odd, one-off symbol on the building? I guess. But if it is, it's a very odd and, from my view, not a major Klan marking.

The only stretch of the imagination I could give it would be that its a stone version of the Imperial Seal, but the Seal would have the cross in the middle and it doesn't look like anything has been removed or destroyed from what I can see in your pictures (it would have been in the center).

So, unless you could:

A) Identify the building as a former Klavern B) Find the chapter's Kloran or minutes detailing the addition of an outside identifier

I would say it's safe to say that probably isn't a Klan symbol.

The London Hardware Company is listed in the Archives of Appalachia and there is a collection of advertising and photos from 1923-1969. The building was built in 1920, so apparently it was always a hardware store.

Robert Patterson London was born in Keith, Georgia near the Tennessee/Georgia line. London came to Mountain City, Tennessee in 1900 and opened a hardware store. In 1904, he married Addie Boyd Wagner from Mountain City. London sold the store in Mountain City and went to a hardware store in Bristol. He came to Johnson City in 1912 and opened London’s-Kirkpatrick Hardware Store with Nathaniel D. Kirkpatrick. He bought Kirkpatrick out after the Great Depression. He died in 1951. Bob London ran the hardware store. William “Bill” Mills Dyer, Sr. was vice president and ran sporting goods, toy and paint departments. Dyer married Marjorie London, Robert London’s daughter. LINK

Nothing about being a Klavern or Klan meetings I could find.

sorry for rotated pictures, I thought imgur fixed that.

That seems very unlikely. You see ornament like this on pre-1930 buildings all over the country. Probably just ordered from a catalog.

Could it be from one of the old lodges or fraternal orders that used to be popular?

Thank you all so much for your help! Reddit is awesome