South Knoxville is the section of

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee, 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 Di ...

, United States, that lies south of 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, ...

. It is concentrated along Chapman Highway (

US 441 U.S. Route 441 (US 441) is a auxiliary route of U.S. Route 41. It extends from US 41 in Miami, Florida to US 25W in Rocky Top, Tennessee. Between its termini, US 441 travels through the states of Florida, Georgia, North ...

), Alcoa Highway (

US 129 U.S. Route 129 (US 129) is an auxiliary route of US 29, which it intersects in Athens, Georgia. US 129 currently runs for from an intersection with US 19/ US 27 ALT/ US 98 in Chiefland, Florida, to an interchange ...

), Maryville Pike ( SR 33), Sevierville Pike, and adjacent roads, and includes the neighborhoods of Lindbergh Forest,

Island Home Park Island Home Park is a neighborhood in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, located in the southeastern part of the city along the Tennessee River. Developed as a streetcar suburb in the early 1900s, the neighborhood retains most of its original ho ...

, Old Sevier, South Haven, Vestal, Lake Forest, South Woodlawn and Colonial Village. South Knoxville is connected to Downtown Knoxville via four vehicle bridges: the James C. Ford Memorial Bridge, the

Gay Street Bridge The Gay Street Bridge is a vehicle bridge that crosses the Tennessee River in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Completed in 1898, the bridgeMartha Carver, ''Tennessee's Survey Report for Historic Highway Bridges: Pre-1946 Masonry Arch, Timbe ...

, the Henley Bridge, by some incorrectly called the

Henley Street Bridge The Henley Bridge, sometimes referred to as Henley Street Bridge, is a vehicle bridge that crosses the Tennessee River in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Completed in 1931, the bridgeMartha Carver, ''Tennessee's Survey Report for Historic H ...

, and the J. E. "Buck" Karnes Bridge. Parts of South Knoxville were annexed by Knoxville in 1917. South Knoxville remained sparsely populated for most of the 19th century due to a lack of bridges spanning the river. Two notable early residents were Governor

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 ...

, who established a farm at Marble Springs in the 1790s, and entrepreneur Perez Dickinson, who built a mansion known as "Island Home" on what is now the TSD campus in the 1850s. During the Civil War, a string of forts— Fort Higley, Fort Dickerson, Fort Stanley, and Sevierville Hill— were erected by Union forces in 1863, and played a major role in forcing General

James Longstreet James Longstreet (January 8, 1821January 2, 1904) was one of the foremost Confederate generals of the American Civil War and the principal subordinate to General Robert E. Lee, who called him his "Old War Horse". He served under Lee as a corps ...

to attack the city from the west rather than from the south during his siege of the city later that year. Major outcroppings of

Tennessee marble Tennessee marble is a type of crystalline limestone found only in East Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. Long esteemed by architects and builders for its pinkish-gray color and the ease with which it is polished, this stone has been ...

in South Knoxville led to the development of several marble quarries and finishing facilities in the late 19th century, most notably the Ross-Republic quarries at what is now the Ijams Nature Center, and the

Candoro Marble Works The Candoro Marble Works was a marble cutting and polishing facility located in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Established as a subsidiary of the John J. Craig Company in 1914, the facility's marble products were used in the construction of ...

in Vestal. The completion of the Henley Bridge in 1931 and the opening of the

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Great Smoky Mountains National Park is an American national park in the southeastern United States, with parts in North Carolina and Tennessee. The park straddles the ridgeline of the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, whi ...

shortly afterward led to an explosion of commercial development along Chapman Highway, the primary route connecting Knoxville with the park. As of the 2000 census, South Knoxville had a population of 18,516 residents. Economic initiatives in recent years have centered on improving the waterfront for recreational and commercial uses, development of the Urban Wilderness trail system, and improving the aesthetics and accessibility of Chapman Highway and Maryville Pike.South City Sector Plan - The Development Plan
2009. Retrieved: 29 June 2011. The University of Tennessee Medical Center is one of South Knoxville's largest employers.

Schools

South Knoxville's only high school is

South-Doyle High School South-Doyle High School is a Southern Association of Colleges and Schools' accredited high school in unincorporated Knox County, Tennessee, near Knoxville, operated by the Knox County Schools school district. The school community is composed of ...

. Other noted schools in the area are South-Doyle Middle School, South Knoxville Elementary, Bonny Kate Elementary and Mount Olive Elementary. South Knoxville is also home to the

Tennessee School for the Deaf The Tennessee Schools for the Deaf (TSD) is a state-operated residential and day school for deaf and hard-of-hearing students who reside in the state of Tennessee ranging from pre-kindergarten to grade 12 also includes a post-secondary transition ...

, the campus of which is located adjacent to the Island Home Park neighborhood. Dogwood Elementary and Moreland Heights Elementary are among several elementary schools in the area.

Celebrities

Celebrities and notable people who are from or have lived in South Knoxville include federal judge

William H. Hastie William Henry Hastie Jr. (November 17, 1904 – April 14, 1976) was an American lawyer, judge, educator, public official, and civil rights advocate. He was the first African American to serve as Governor of the United States Virgin Islands, as a ...

, actors

David Keith David Keith may refer to: * David Keith (novelist) (1906–1994), pen name of American scholar Francis Steegmuller *David Keith (actor) (born 1954), American film and TV performer and director *David Keith (physicist), Canadian-born Harvard Profess ...

John Cullum John Cullum (born circa 1930) is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in many stage musicals and dramas, including '' Shenandoah'' (1975) and ''On the Twentieth Century'' (1978), winning the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Mus ...

and

Johnny Knoxville Philip John Clapp (born March 11, 1971), best known professionally as Johnny Knoxville, is an American stunt performer, actor, writer, producer, and professional wrestler. He is best known as a co-creator and star of the MTV reality stunt show ...

, cartoonist

Darby Conley Darby Conley is an American cartoonist best known for the newspaper comic strip ''Get Fuzzy''. Biography Conley was born in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1970, and grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee. While in high school in 1986, he won a student ca ...

, author

Cormac McCarthy Cormac McCarthy (born Charles Joseph McCarthy Jr., July 20, 1933) is an American writer who has written twelve novels, two plays, five screenplays and three short stories, spanning the Western and post-apocalyptic genres. He is known for his gr ...

Brad Renfro Brad Barron Renfro (July 25, 1982 – January 15, 2008) was an American actor. He made his film debut at the age of 11 with a starring role in '' The Client'' (1994). He went on to appear in 21 feature films and won several awards. Prior to bei ...

, celebrity chef Wayne Judd of TV's Cookitup with Chef Wayne, and Pittsburgh Steelers punter

Craig Colquitt Joseph Craig Colquitt (born June 9, 1954) is a former American football punter who spent eight seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with the Pittsburgh Steelers (1978–1981, 1983–1984) and Indianapolis Colts (1987). He was a membe ...

Notable mention

In 2010, South Knoxville's Ye Olde Steak House on Chapman Highway was featured in the third season of

The Travel Channel Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which had previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in New York, New York, United S ...

's ''

Man v. Food ''Man v. Food'' is an American food reality television series. It premiered on December 3, 2008 on the Travel Channel. The program was originally hosted by actor and food enthusiast Adam Richman. In each episode, Richman explores the "big food" o ...

''. In 2012 a book was published about South Knoxville and detailed the history of the area. The title is "South Knoxville

Gallery

All photos shown were taken in 2010. File:Bonny Kate Elementary, South Knoxville.jpg, Bonny Kate Elementary File:mt olive elementary knoxville.jpg, Mount Olive Elementary File:arrowhead apache trail knoxville.jpg, Apache Trail in the Arrowhead subdivision File:mtolivebaptist-knoxville.jpg, Mount Olive Baptist Church File:mtviewumc-knoxville.jpg, Mountain View United Methodist Church

References

External links