The Bottom
A Neighborhood Wiped from the Map
"It was an interesting neighborhood of people who were, for the most part, very hard working people..."
- Dr. Robert J. Booker
Above Photo: Heiskell School students, 1911. The school served young children in The Bottom and was located at 903 Campbell Street.
Identifying a neighborhood erased
Our understanding of the history of The Bottom is largely in thanks to historian and former Beck executive director Robert J. Booker, whose memoir From the Bottom Up described his upcoming in The Bottom. This history is important because no physical landmarks of The Bottom remain; this neighborhood was razed by Riverfront-Willow, the first Urban Renewal project that began in 1959.
Named for its low-lying location, The Bottom was a neighborhood bordered by Vine Avenue on the South, Southern Railway Station to the North, Central Avenue on the West, and both Bell Street and First Creek to the East.
Development along the creek was halted when a devastating flood in 1867 wiped out many residences there. Those who could afford to leave quickly bought properties in other parts of town, especially as the train brought in pollution and reduced air quality. Formerly enslaved workers and European immigrants, however, remained in the First Creek valley due to its proximity to several industrial factories as well as its affordability.
Overlay of the 1930s borders of The Bottom on top of the 1867 Map of Knoxville.
Courtesy of the McClung Historical Collection.
By 1885, most of the community was Black, with several poor, white immigrant families also living in the neighborhood.
A family stands on their porch as First Creek floods, ca. 1939.
Beck Digital Archives, Mark and Cindy Proteau collection.
Life in The Bottom was defined by the proximity of the winding First Creek, which would flood each spring as winter’s thaws flowed down the Tennessee River and backed up into the tributary creek. The residents of The Bottom were very poor and had homes that could not withstand the flooding, even when built upon stilts in hopes of towering over the raging waters. Knoxville native Rev. James H. Robinson, a clergyman and founder of Operation Crossroads Africa, recounted his experience with flooding in The Bottom as an yearly event that overwhelmed and isolated his family.
Life in the Bottom: The Floods
"I always knew when spring came to the Bottoms. Not because the birds flew up from the deeper South, or the leaves on the trees were budding again, or because the grass was green and the days longer and warmer, but because old Cripple Creek overflowed its slimy banks.
My mother said that as long as she could remember, “Every spring that God sends, Cripple Creek overflows its banks, brings death and destruction, and increases the misery of hunger and sickness.”
Rev. James Robinson, "Road Without Turning."
His book is currently house at the Dr. Robert J. Booker Archive Collection.
The Bottom was a close-knit Black community in Knoxville that faced annual flooding and difficult living conditions, which were used as justification for Urban Renewal projects. The Knoxville Housing Authority targeted the neighborhood for "slum clearance" between 1938 and 1940, aiming to address the flooding issues that displaced families each year.
Despite poverty and challenging conditions, residents of The Bottom built a strong sense of community. Neighbors supported one another, and reflections on life there focus more on resilience and connection than financial struggle. Life continued even after the flooding, with the fertile soil left behind producing flowers and fruit. Children explored the overgrowth along the creek, gathering apples and pears as new life emerged from the destruction.
Erased From The Map
Four young boys in front of a home at 213 Bell Street.
Beck Digital Archives, Mark and Cindy Proteau collection.
After the passage of the Housing Act of 1949, funds for land redevelopment projects known as Urban Renewal opened. Plans for targeting The Bottom are noted as early as Knoxville’s Municipal Planning Commission’s Road Plan of 1930, with suggestions to “rejuvenate a blighted district along First Creek” by razing “low value” properties to create a new major thoroughfare. The Bottom as a project site for Urban Renewal is seen in a 1955 document on Knoxville’s Central Business District that celebrates the "proposed redevelopment of the Riverfront-Willow Street area along with the First Creek Valley" as a project that "holds great possibilities for the future."
The first Urban Renewal project, Riverfront-Willow, began in 1959 and proposed re-routing First Creek in order to prevent flooding in this neighborhood. However, the project eventually grew in size.
The Bottom was bordered by Vine Avenue, which housed vibrant Black businesses and community centers. The Urban Renewal project expanded in scope and eventually swallowed Vine Avenue, erasing a century of Black history and culture as the Riverfront-Willow project came to a close in the 1950s.
125 Kentucky Street
Beck Digital Archives, Mark and Cindy Proteau collection.
View of College Street from Holland's Store
Beck Digital Archives, Mark and Cindy Proteau collection.
212-214 Florida Street,
Beck Digital Archives, Mark and Cindy Proteau collection.
129 Kentucky Street,
Beck Digital Archives, Mark and Cindy Proteau collection.
Decades year: the Bottom redeveloped
For decades, the land cleared by Urban Renewal has remained largely undeveloped. While many promises were made to revitalize the community through new construction and business, none have come to fruition.
The land once home to The Bottom is now the home of Covenant Home Park, the newly established multi-use stadium and home of the Tennessee Smokies.
"Led by team owner, entrepreneur and successful businessman Randy Boyd – who provided the land needed for the ballpark – the development group plans to rejuvenate an area of Knoxville that’s been overlooked for decades." - Grand Slam Knox
LIVING AMONGST LEGACY
Yardley Flats
Named in honor of Att. William F. Yardley, the first Black Lawyer of Knoxville, educator, Justice of Peace, Alderman, and the First Black Candidate in the Tennessee Gubernatorial Election.
The Delaney
Named in honor of world renowned artist and painter of the 20th century, Beauford Delaney.
