Bearden Historic Points of Interest

Bearden Mini Movie Hall of Fame

Located on Homburg Place in Bearden, Knoxville, TN 37919.

The location of the former Capri Theatre where during the late 1960s and early ’70s movie celebrities, including Ingrid Bergman, left their signatures in concrete during movie premieres.

“A Walk in the Spring Rain” starring IngridBergman and Anthony Quinn premiered at the Capri Theatre in Bearden in April 1970 followed by a private reception at Cherokee Country Club. Earlier in the day, Bergman had joined Bob Hope and local officials to kick off the 10th annual Dogwood Arts Festival.

Ingrid Bergman signature in concrete from 1970.

Looking weather-worn, Ingrid Bergman’s slab is accompanied by several well-known actors and celebrities, namely Cliff Robertson, Tessa Wyatt, Stan Brock, Patricia Neal, and a surprisingly recent, Tippi Hedren, who was here in 1999 for a benefit for Tiger Haven, the big cat sanctuary and rescue facility in nearby Kingston.

 

Erin Presbyterian Church

First Erin Presbyterian Church located near what is the location of Kingston Pike and Northshore Drice.

First Erin Presbyterian Church located near what is the location of Kingston Pike and Northshore Drice.

Located at 200 Lockett Road, Knoxville, TN 37919. The first church in the Erin community was built around 1872. Presbyterian members of the community took the lead in the building of the church, and the land was deeded in 1874 to Mrs. Mary Jane (General Joseph) Cooper with the stipulation that other denominations might use the facility when not in use by the Presbyterians. The inaugural trustees were Joseph A. Cooper, John W. Nave, William F. Crippen, and James W. Ventries. The church was officially organized in September 1877.

The first church site was erected around the Kingston Pike and Northshore Drive intersection near the railroad tracks. The second church site, built closer to Kingston Pike, about where Rose Mortuary/Mann’s Chapel now stands on, was completed in 1903. The third, and current site, was built in 1955, about half a mile west, on Lockett Road.

 

Everly Brothers Park

Don and Phil Everly. Courtesy The Wilson Library, UNC.

Currently in development on the corner of Kingston Pike and Forest Park Blvd, this pocket park is dedicated to Don and Phil Everly who spent their formative teen years in Knoxville attending nearby West High School during the 1950s before moving to Nashville and becoming known worldwide as gifted songwriters who influenced the Beatles among many others. Read more: Jack Neely’s “Don Everly, singer-song-writer of the Everly Brothers, turns 80s”

 

 

Gay Street Clock at Kimball’s

Former Hope Brothers Clock moved from Gay Street to Bearden Hill around 2008.

Located in front of Kimball’s Jewelers at 6464 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919, this vintage clock used to reside at the former Kimball’s Jewelers’ downtown store on S. Gay Street. That business has a long history beginning with Hope Brothers in 1864 and merged with Kimball’s in the 1960s. Kimball’s maintained the Gay Street store until 2004 when the company moved to Bearden Hill. Around 2008, the iconic sidewalk clock was moved to Kimball’s Bearden store.

 

Ijams Family Graves (Highland Cemetery)

The Ijams family grave is one of the more unusual grave markers in Highland Cemetery.

Located at Highland Cemetery north of Sutherland Avene. The Berry Highland Memorial Cemetery main office is located at 5315 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919.

A striking gravestone made out of a chunk of distinctive granite with just the name IJAMS at  Highland Cemetery stands for renowned Knoxville naturalist and commercial illustrator Harry Ijams (1876-1954) and his wife Alice Yoe (1880-1964). They are also joined by one of their four daughters, Mary Ijams (1916-1932) who died tragically at age 16 in 1932.

Harry Ijams was a talented illustrator who worked for the Knoxville Engraving Company at the turn of the twentieth century and later served as resident illustrator for the Knoxville News Sentinel. In a freelance capacity, Ijams lent his artistry to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park movement, producing postcards, tourist maps, and poster stamps during the 1920s and ‘30s. Alice Ijams ran her own horticultural business, Southside Greenhouse, in the 1920s which supplied flowers to the downtown Market House and local florists such as Crouch’s. Alice proved to be an astute and inspiring community leader of local garden clubs and for years managed the horticultural exhibits at the Tennessee Valley and Industry Fair.

The Ijams family farm, later a bird sanctuary, became a city park in 1965. Learn more at www.ijams.org

Lones-Dowell House and Cemetery

The Lones-Dowell house was built around 1850 replacing an earlier log cabin.

Located at 6341 Middlebrook Pike, Knoxville,TN 37909 near the intersection with Weisgarber Road.

Originally from Pennsylvania, the Lones family built a small home made with “hand-hewn oak and poplar logs” in the late 1790s near this spot before building a brick house slightly to the east which still stands to today. Adjacent to the house is a nice walking trail connected to the Dowell Springs development. The small family cemetery east of the house contains grave stones for Charles Lones (1812-1888), Rebecca Lones (1822-1863), and Lizzie Lones (1853-1889). Currently, the house is unoccupied but owned by Knox Heritage.

 

Slave Cemetery (Dowell-Springs)

Located close to the Boy Scouts HQ at 1333 Old Weisgarber Rd, Knoxville, TN 37909, on the lower walking path within the Dowell-Springs complex. Likely a late 18th and early 19th century rural Africa-American slave cemetery containing several graves. This small enclosed cemetery is enclosed and not directly accessible.

 

Knollwood

“Knollwood”

Located on Bearden Hill 150 Major Reynolds Place, Knoxville, TN 37919

Veteran of the War with Mexico, Major Robert Bannon Reynolds built this home in 1848. During the Civil War, Confederate Commander, Major General James Longstreet, used Knollwood as his command post before launching the siege of Knoxville in 1863. The house is listed on the National Register for Historic Places and is not open to the general public.

Lakeshore Park – formerly the Eastern State Insane Asylum/Mental Institution

Located at 6410 S. Northshore Dr, Knoxville, TN 37919 with entrances on Lyons View Pike and S. Northshore Drive.

Administrative building and patient wards, late 1800s. McClung Historical Collection.

Now an expansive and beloved park serving thousands daily, this site has a rich history dating back to the late 1700s when Capt. William Lyons acquired 500 acres. The Eastern State Mental Hospital open in 1886 and closed in 2013.  The structure at the top of the hill was once significantly larger than it is today, including two large wings which served as patient wards. All that remains of the building is the central lobby, now restored and serving as offices for Lakeshore Park and City Parks & Recreation.

Westmoreland Water Wheel

The structures were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.

Located at the intersection of Westmoreland Blvd and Westland Drive, Knoxville, TN 37919. This Charles Barber designed “Tudor Revival-style” water wheel and gatepost date from the 1920s and last used in the 1940s. The structures were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.

 

Former Site of Cresswell’s Barn

Once located at or very near the current location for the Episcopal Church of the Ascension at 800 S. Northshore Dr, Knoxville, TN 37919.

Historian John Cresswell’s publication of “A Brief Historical Sketch of the Village of Bearden” in 1899 provides a fascinating early history of the Bearden community. Courtesy McClung Historical Collection.

 

Former Site of Baum’s House of Flowers

Baum House of Flowers, 1950s. Aerial photograph courtesy of McClung Historical Collection.

Baum House of Flowers, 1950s. Aerial photograph courtesy of McClung Historical Collection.

For many years, Baum’s House of Flowers occupied a sizeable footprint with numerous commercial greenhouses. The site gives name to Baum Drive which cuts through from Northshore Drive to Deanne Hill Drive near Lockett Road.

 

 

 

Former Site of Lyons Mill

Located at Lakeshore Park 6410 S Northshore Dr, Knoxville, TN 37919

Lyons Mill, late 1800s. McClung Historical Collection.

This mill, demolished and no longer present, was originally built by Capt. William Lyons around 1825 and it operated for a century until 1925.

Lyons purchased the 500-acre property here in 1814 and sold 300-acres in 1874 to the state of Tennessee for the proposed East Tennessee Asylum for the Insane, which eventually opened in 1886.

 

 

 

 

Former Weston Fulton Mansion

Formerly located at 5709 Lyons View Pike, now the current location for Westcliff Condominiums. Weston Miller Fulton (1871-1946), best known for this “Fulton Sylphon” invention – a seamless metal bellows used in numerous temperature-control devices – built a mansion in 1928 on Lyons View Pike. Designed by architect, Charles Barber, all that now remains is the former gatehouse on Lyons View Pike.

 

Link to West Knoxville – Bearden Community History Page