Fountain City is a
neighborhood
A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...
in northern
Knoxville
Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state's ...
,
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
, in the southeastern United States. Although not a
census-designated place
A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only.
CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...
(it is grouped with Knoxville for census-purposes), the populations of the two ZIP codes that serve Fountain City— 37918 and 37912— were 36,815 and 18,695, respectively, as of the 2000 U.S. census. At the time of its
annexation
Annexation (Latin ''ad'', to, and ''nexus'', joining), in international law, is the forcible acquisition of one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory. It is generally held to be an illegal act ...
by the city of Knoxville in 1962, Fountain City was the largest
unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...
in the United States.
[Jim Tumblin,]
Fountain City's Funeral
" Retrieved: 3 January 2009.
Geography
Fountain City is located in the
Appalachian Ridge-and-Valley region, which is characterized by long, narrow ridges that run in a northeast-southwest direction. The community is "hemmed in" by several such ridges, namely Blackoak Ridge and Beaver Ridge, which divide Fountain City from
Halls Crossroads to the north, and
Sharp's Ridge
Sharp's Ridge is a steep ridge in Knoxville, Tennessee, north of the city's downtown. A area of the ridge is maintained as Sharp's Ridge Memorial Park, a city park dedicated to the honor of the area's war veterans. The ridge also is the site o ...
, which separates Fountain City from North Knoxville proper to the south. Along with Halls, adjacent communities include
Powell, which is opposite Beaver Ridge to the west,
Gibbs to the northeast, Beverly to the east, and Whittle Springs to the southeast. Fountain City is drained primarily by First Creek, which rises near the base of Blackoak Ridge and proceeds southward through downtown Knoxville, where it empties into the
Tennessee River
The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names, ...
.
The main road in Fountain City is Broadway, a section of
U.S. Highway 441 that connects Fountain City to Halls (where it becomes Maynardville Highway) to the north and downtown Knoxville to the south.
Interstate 640
Interstate 640 (I-640) is an east–west auxiliary Interstate Highway in Knoxville, Tennessee. It serves as a bypass for I-40 around Downtown Knoxville and is also an alternative route for traffic passing between I-40 and I-75. All trucks ...
passes along Fountain City's southern boundary, and
Interstate 75
Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end in 5, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, traveling from S ...
passes through the western part of the community. Other important roads include Merchants Drive/Cedar Lane, which connects Broadway to I-75, and Tazewell Pike (part of State Highway 331), which connects Fountain City with Gibbs to the northeast.
History
European-American settlement in what is now Fountain City began with the completion of
Fort Adair
Fort Adair (sometimes called Adair's Station) was a stockade fortification that served as a supply depot for early settlers Human migration, migrating west. The structure was constructed in 1788 or around 1791 at Grassy Valley, an early European s ...
(sometimes called Adair's Station), a supply depot built by Captain John Adair (1732–1827) around 1791 to protect westward-bound settlers from the indigenous
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...
whose land the settlers were invading in the waning years of the
Cherokee–American wars
The Cherokee–American wars, also known as the Chickamauga Wars, were a series of raids, campaigns, ambushes, minor skirmishes, and several full-scale frontier battles in the Old Southwest from 1776 to 1794 between the Cherokee and American se ...
. The fort's exact location is unknown, but it was likely located in the vicinity of the modern Lynnhurst Cemetery, near the confluence of Adair Creek and First Creek. Adair and his wife are buried atop a hill overlooking the cemetery.
[Jim Tumblin,]
John Adair
" Retrieved: 3 January 2009.
The community that developed around Fort Adair, originally called "Grassy Valley," eventually became known as "Fountain Head." In the mid-1820s, a
circuit rider named E.F. Sevier (a grandson of
John Sevier
John Sevier (September 23, 1745 September 24, 1815) was an American soldier, frontiersman, and politician, and one of the founding fathers of the State of Tennessee. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, he played a leading role in Tennes ...
) helped establish the Fountain Head Methodist Church (the predecessor of the present Fountain City United Methodist Church), a meeting house which was completed just north of the Adair holdings in 1828. Within a few years, the Fountain Head Campground had developed on land adjacent to the meeting house, which was fed by a large spring. The campground was a popular place for religious revivals, some of which hosted as many as 2,000 people, until it was moved to the Inskip area (which was closer to the railroad) in the 1880s. Today, the old campground is home to Fountain City Park.
[Nannie Lee Hicks, Jeanne Morris Jones (ed.), Jim Tumblin (ed.),]
A Brief History of Fountain City
" Originally presented 27 May 1974. Retrieved: 3 January 2009.
![Fountain-city-spring-and-hotel-tn1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Fountain-city-spring-and-hotel-tn1.jpg)
The Fountain Head Campground property was sold to land developers in 1885, and the following year the three-story, fifty-room Fountain Head Hotel was completed, overlooking the campground's spring. With the completion of the hotel, the community began expanding. In 1890, a post office was established, and since the name "Fountain Head" had already been claimed by another town in Tennessee, the community settled on the name "Fountain City." That same year, the heart-shaped Fountain City Lake was completed, and a railroad known as the "Dummy Line" was constructed to connect the community to Knoxville (its southern terminus was at
Emory Place). The Dummy Line remained in operation until 1905, when it was replaced by a
trolley.
The 20th century
In 1893, Holbrook Normal College was established on lands adjacent to the Fountain Head Hotel.
Knox County purchased the school (which had come into the possession of the Tennessee Baptist Association) in 1906 for the establishment of
Central High School.
In 1919, Hassie K. Gresham (1877–1970), a graduate of Holbrook, was named principal of Central High, making her the first female high school principal in the state of Tennessee. She served as Central's principal until 1947, overseeing a nearly tenfold expansion of the size of the school's student body. When Central moved to its new location in 1971,
Gresham Middle School that replaced it was named for her.
[Jim Tumblin,]
Hassie Kate Gresham
" Retrieved: 3 January 2009.
By the 1950s, Fountain City was home to over 30,000 residents. Knoxville, seeking to expand its tax base and form a metropolitan government, attempted to annex Fountain City in 1959. A mail poll showed that Fountain Citians opposed the annexation by a 10 to 1 margin, and the community filed a lawsuit to block it. After Knoxville made a number of concessions, including a one-year moratorium on city taxes, the lawsuit was dropped. On February 12, 1962, in a ceremony that included a mock funeral for what was deemed the death of Fountain City, the community's leaders handed over a symbolic sword to Knoxville mayor
John Duncan John Duncan may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* John Duncan (painter) (1866–1945), Scottish painter
* John Duncan (artist) (born 1953), American artist and musician
* Big John Duncan (born 1958), Scottish punk musician
* John Duncan (harpist) ...
.
Education
Along with
Central High School and
Gresham Middle School, public schools in Fountain City include Shannondale Elementary, Sterchi Elementary, Fountain City Elementary, and Inskip Elementary. Private schools include Nature's Way
Montessori
The Montessori method of education involves children's natural interests and activities rather than formal teaching methods. A Montessori classroom places an emphasis on hands-on learning and developing real-world skills. It emphasizes indepen ...
and Garden Montessori schools.
Fountainhead College of Technology (formerly Smithwood Elementary, then Tennessee Institute of Electronics) was, until recently, located in Fountain City.
Recreation
Fountain City Lake— commonly called the "Duck Pond"— remains one of Fountain City's most prominent features. Parks include Fountain City Park, located on the site of the old Fountain Head Campground, which consists of situated along the small spring that feeds into First Creek, the Fountain City Ball Park (built in 1954), and the Fountain City Art Center (built originally as a library in 1964).
References
External links
Fountain City historyFountain City Town Hall(community organization)
Knoxville.com Profile of Fountain City
{{Authority control
Neighborhoods in Knoxville, Tennessee