page_title: History of Knoxville, Tennessee
section_title: Expansion (1869–1917)
hierarchical_section_title: History of Knoxville, Tennessee / Knoxville and the rise of the New South (1866–1920) / Expansion (1869–1917)
caption_attribution_description: English: Knoxville, Tennessee, USA (the purple area at the center), as it appeared on an 1895 map of Knox County. West Knoxville and North Knoxville were separate cities, though they would be annexed in 1897. Lake Ottosee is now part of Chilhowee Park.
context_page_description: The History of Knoxville, Tennessee, began with the establishment of James White's Fort on the Trans-Appalachian frontier in 1786. The fort was chosen as the capital of the Southwest Territory in 1790, and the city, named for Secretary of War Henry Knox, was platted the following year. Knoxville became the first capital of the State of Tennessee in 1796, and grew steadily during the early 19th century as a way station for westward-bound migrants and as a commercial center for nearby mountain communities. The arrival of the railroad in the 1850s led to a boom in the city's population and commercial activity.
  While a Southern city, Knoxville was home to a strong pro-Union element during the secession crisis of the early 1860s, and remained bitterly divided throughout the Civil War. The city was occupied by Confederate forces until September 1863, when Union forces entered the city unopposed. Confederate forces laid siege to the city later that year, but retreated after failing to breach the city's fortifications during the Battle of Fort Sanders.
  Following the war, business leaders, many from the North, established major iron and textile industries in Knoxville.
context_section_description: Knoxville's first major annexation following the Civil War came in 1869, when it annexed the city of East Knoxville, an area east of First Creek that had incorporated in 1856.  In 1883, Knoxville annexed Mechanicsville, which had developed just northwest of the city as a village for Knoxville Iron Company and other factory workers.  In the 1870s and 1880s, the development of Knoxville's streetcar system (electrified by William Gibbs McAdoo in 1890) led to the rapid development of suburbs on the city's periphery.  Neighborhoods such as Fort Sanders, Fourth and Gill, Old North Knoxville, and Parkridge, are all rooted in "streetcar suburbs" developed during this period.
  In 1888, the area now consisting of Fort Sanders and the U.T. campus were incorporated as the City of West Knoxville, and in 1889  the area now consisting of Old North Knoxville and Fourth and Gill incorporated as the City of North Knoxville.  Knoxville annexed both in 1897.  In 1907, Parkridge, Chilhowee Park, and adjacent neighborhoods incorporated as Park City.  Lonsdale, a factory village northwest of the city, and Mountain View, located south of Park City, incorporated that same year.  Oakwood, which developed alongside the Southern Railway's Coster rail yard, was  incorporated in 1913.  In 1917, Knoxville annexed these four cities, along with the burgeoning suburb of Sequoyah Hills and parts of South Knoxville, effectively more than doubling the city's population, and increasing its land area from 4 to 26 square miles (10 to 67 km²).
  As Knoxville grew, the city's boosters continuously touted the city as an industrial boom town in an attempt to lure major companies.  In 1910 and 1911, two major national fairs, the Appalachian Expositions, were held at Chilhowee Park.  A third, the National Conservation Exposition, was held in 1913.  The fairs demonstrated the economic trend known as the "New South," the transition of the South from an agricultural-based economy to an industrial one.  The fairs also advocated the responsible usage of the region's natural resources.
caption: Knoxville in 1895, with North Knoxville and West Knoxville, which were separate cities until 1897
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