Fountain City

GPS Start
- Trail begins at 2805 Gibbs Drive &
100 Hotel Avenue

We are on our way to Fountain City, a thriving community, that until it was annexed by Knoxville in 1962 was America's largest unincorporated town. The townsite was once a beautiful and secluded little valley blessed with clear streams fed by mineral springs. Non-native settlement of the valley began in 1787 with a trading post built by John Adair. Fort Adair was a supply depot for travelers heading west to the Nashville settlement.

During the mid-19th century, the level valley was a famous religious campground where revival meetings lasted for days. Families came by wagon from many miles around, bringing their own food and bedding.

In 1890, the former campgrounds were developed as a summer resort that was christened Fountain City. A large hillside hotel was surrounded by family cottages and a bachelor's annex.

At the foot of the hill was a small ornamental lake and a woodland park complete with a large bandstand. Vacationers came from Knoxville on a little dummy-line railroad train with open-sided cars pulled by a miniature steam engine. By the time the resort hotel burned early in this century, Fountain City had grown into a prosperous community, linked to downtown Knoxville by an inter-urban trolley line. Until the late 1950?s, when the streetcars stopped running, an excursion to Fountain City's park was the favorite picnic outing for Knoxville scout troops and Sunday school classes.

The garden side turning onto Gibbs Road
The garden side of the Fountain City trail begins on Gibbs Road where the houses and the bright pink dogwood trees date from the early 1920?s. After World War I, Americans adopted the compact and comfortable bungalow as their favorite architectural style in the same way that the ranch house swept across the country in the wake of World War II.

When these trees were planted, pink dogwoods were big news in horticulture. They had only recently been developed by grafting wild pink trees on white dogwood rootstock. Native pink dogwoods are very rare, but a few of them exist in Knoxville's woodlands. In the wild, their blossoms are a very pale shell pink.

Turning left on Jacksboro Pike
Because of Fountain City's higher elevation, spring comes a little later than in downtown Knoxville, and it lingers longer. Dogwood blossoms often are just opening here when other trails have passed their peak bloom.

Turning right between the stone columns
These stone columns mark the entrance to Harrill Hills and the beginning of spectacular beauty - dogwoods overhead, azaleas underneath, wisteria, if in bloom, for contrast, and red maple trees for the exclamation points!

On Crestwood and Briarcliff
Look for wild violets along the roadsides - blue, purple, white, and parti-colored. In the woods, one may see patches of wild blue phlox or drifts of mayapples and possibly a yellow trillium.

On Garden Drive
On the left is Black Oak Ridge, named for the tall oak trees that cover its steep slopes. The black oak is only one of Tennessee's native varieties, along with white, red, pin, and willow oaks.

On Shannondale Road
Halfway up the ridge we will visit a newer residential area called Beverly Acres.

Beverly Acres
All these oaks and pine trees make for very acid soil, and acid-loving mountain laurel, rhododendron, and azaleas flourish in this rich woodland loam.

On Fulton Drive
The dogwood thrives in Knoxville's naturally acid soil, and dogwoods spring up like mushrooms underneath the oak trees. In this area, we are visiting the wild dogwood in its native habitat. Wild trees are taller than the cultivated varieties and have fewer branches. Their blooms are sparse but very large and continue to grow until they fall from the trees. During a wet spring, wild dogwood blossoms often measure five or six inches in length.

The beautiful weeping dogwood is unique to the Knoxville area. Its' slender, pliant branches fountain from the top of the tree trunk, like a weeping cherry tree's. Wherever it chooses to grow, it must be left undisturbed; this special dogwood cannot be transplanted.

Turning from Garden onto Briarcliff
Now we are coming into fantasyland, an area famous for masses of azaleas in unusual shades. Yards and gardens are filled with tulips, narcissus, candytuft, baskets of gold, and the iris, Tennessee's state flower.

Turning onto Garden
I think you will agree that fantasyland richly deserves its title.

Approaching Savage Garden
Ahead on the right is the oriental garden established in the early 1920?s by a Knoxville industrialist, Mr. W. J. Savage. Its' stone bridges, benches, and pagodas survived many years of neglect; and its giant azaleas bloomed bravely above rampant weeds. It is being restored to the beauty that caused this street to be named Garden Drive.

Downhill to Broadway
Ahead on the right is the triangular beauty spot planned and maintained by the Fountain City Council of Garden Clubs. This marks the exit of the garden side of the Fountain City trail.

The Fountain City dogwood trail continues on the other side of the highway at Hotel Avenue.

Passing Fountain City Park
This is the Fountain City Park, maintained by the Lions Club. The park ends at a steep cliff where a spring bubbles from the solid rock. This spring is responsible for Fountain City's name. Ahead is what is fondly called "the duck pond" by the local residents.

Hotel Avenue is the entrance to the panorama side of the trail. On the left, Gresham Junior High School occupies the site of the 1890?s resort hotel.

Turning from grove park onto Walkup Drive - are you ready?

On the left is the first glimpse of an unforgettable view that stretches across the city of Knoxville to the distant Smoky Mountains. It was for this view that Mr. C.J. McClung, a prominent Knoxvillian, built his big white summer cottage in 1912. Later, the house became the year-round home of Knoxville banker, Mr. William Walkup.

Rounding Brabson Drive

Here comes the view again. This time, it will be on the right.

On Grove Drive
We are climbing again toward the very top of Black Oak Ridge. In the early 1920?s, Judge Hugh L. McClung built an imposing Italianate villa there and named it Belcaro. So that nothing would block the superlative view, he cleared away all trees in front of the house and turned the steep slope of the ridge into a terraced garden. Belcaro was torn down in 1996. Its extensive grounds were sold years ago and subdivided. We will see Judge McClung's beloved view from a slightly lower level.

Martha Berry Drive

This area was all part of the Belcaro estate, and there on the left is the glorious view!

Snowdon Drive

We have traveled the length of Black Oak Ridge; and as this beautiful street blends into the next, we will be turning back toward Fountain City.

Gresham Road
Because of Fountain City's higher elevation, spring comes a little later than it does in downtown Knoxville, and it lingers a little longer. That is why the dogwood blossoms often are just beginning to open here when other trails have already had their peak blooming time.

Crossing Ridgecrest onto Martha Berry

We are back on the heights. Please feast your eyes once more on the great valley of East Tennessee and the Great Smoky Mountains. Going down grove as any East Tennessean will tell you, there's no place to go from the top of a mountain but down. We are coming back to the 1890?s resort area, and there's one more landmark left to see.

On Church Drive

Look at the one-of-a-kind stone gazebo on the left. Ahead on the left is heart-shaped Fountain City Lake, maintained by the Lions Club (generations of children have called it the "duck pond"). This was the end of the line for the little railroad in the 1890?s and for 20th century streetcars. This is the end of the line, too, for the panorama side of the Fountain City dogwood trail.

Don't miss out on Gibbs Road, entrance to the garden side of the trail, Lynnhurst Cemetery, and the site of Fort Adair.

Returning to departure point back in the late 19th century, family doctors prescribed a visit to mineral springs as a sure cure for every ailment from chilblains to consumption. The worse the water tasted, the more beneficial it was bound to be. Thank you for celebrating spring with us today!

There are six other dogwood trails -all different and all beautiful- for you to see and enjoy. Hurry back!