Boundaries (Knoxville, Johnson City, Farragut: neighborhood, high school, college)

[inave]

I hesitate to post this and let my stupid hang out all over but my exasperation has gotten the best of me. Would someone PLEASE define the different areas of Knoxville. For instance, West Knox is from Street A to Lane be and C Road to D Boulevard; Farragut is Road 1 to Street B, etc., etc., You get the picture. I am SO tired of being directionally confused! Thanks, ya'll.

[Wilkes]

Well, since we've been here a few months now, I'll take a stab at it with my newly found expertise on Tennessee direction giving.

That road over yonder, jest past the river would be your Southern most point of Knoxville. Not sure what the name of that there street is, but it's got a few stop lights on it, ya'll know it when ya see it. The Northern edge is jest pas' the mountain you can see from Granny Mays' backyard if yer standin' behin' the lawnmower shed. Not sure where the Eastern side is, but I reckin it's over that way some. And the Western edge of town is behind that store where my brother Billy got caught drinkin' Coors back in high school. No, not the Weigel's where Jenny works, the BP station!

Yer welcome!

[weisgarber1]

Originally Posted by Wilkes

Well, since we've been here a few months now, I'll take a stab at it with my newly found expertise on Tennessee direction giving.

That road over yonder, jest past the river would be your Southern most point of Knoxville. Not sure what the name of that there street is, but it's got a few stop lights on it, ya'll know it when ya see it. The Northern edge is jest pas' the mountain you can see from Granny Mays' backyard if yer standin' behin' the lawnmower shed. Not sure where the Eastern side is, but I reckin it's over that way some. And the Western edge of town is behind that store where my brother Billy got caught drinkin' Coors back in high school. No, not the Weigel's where Jenny works, the BP station!

Yer welcome!

Such expertise.

[knoxgarden]

What is considered West Knoxville depends on who you're talking to and what you're talking about and where you are when you're talking.
For example, "West High School" on Sutherland Avenue I consider to be almost downtown, but it's the oldest westward movement. I live in what some people call West Knoxville, near West Hills mall, which is the third Westward expansion (Bearden was the second.) Many people think of Turkey Creek as West Knoxville and omit all the other stuff between it and downtown. Others start West Knoxville at Alcoa Highway.
Farragut is an actual town with boundaries which often stretch when a realtor is talking about it. Others think Turkey Creek is in Farragut but it's actually in the City of Knoxville, thanks to some interesting annexation by former Mayor Arthur Ashe.
Like many things in the South, the term has to be considered in context. After you've lived here for awhile, you'll just know.

[Wilkes]

Originally Posted by weisgarber1

Such expertise.

I had to give it a stab.

[goodbyehollywood]

You'd think this would be easy, but it's almost impossible. Because of truly weird-- incomprehensible, really-- zoning and annexation, the boundaries are not even close to straight lines. I can help a little. This might not be strictly accurate, but it'll give you a local's perspective. Old West Knoxville starts right beyond U.T. (called "Campus" by locals), going west on Kingston Pike. (That's called "The Pike" by locals. Before that, Kingston Pike is Cumberland Avenue, which is called "The Strip.")

Traveling west on The Pike takes you past Knoxville's Old Money section-- Cherokee Blvd., Sequoyah Hills, Riverbend and all the crumbling antebellum mansions. When you get out of the residential area, you'll hit Bearden Hill (this is not called "The Hill"-- "The Hill" is Ayres Hall on campus). Bearden Hill is the old "downtown" part of West Knoxville around Papermill and Northshore. The older part of West Knoxville continues to just below West Town Mall (called "The Mall" by local West Knoxvillians, to whom East Towne/Knoxville Center serves no clear purpose). From The Mall to Lovell Road is the "newer" part of West Knoxville, and Farragut is west of Lovell Rd.

Farragut's boundaries are very irregular and some subdivisions and developments you think are in Farragut actually aren't, because of the curvy boundaries. But as a very loose rule of thumb, locals consider Farragut to be the area west of Lovell Road to the Knox/Loudon County line, south to Ft. Loudon Lake (called "The Lake") and north to I-40 (usually just called "The Interstate;" if people mean something else, they'll say "75" or "640" or "Pellissippi."). But parts of Farragut jump The Interstate and some areas west of Lovell Rd. are actually Knox County.

This is becoming very long-winded, so before I write a guide book, let me just say there are dozens-- maybe hundreds-- of little pocket areas in West Knoxville alone-- Rocky Hill, Concord, Bluegrass, Choto, etc., etc.-- so you can see how confusing this is. I hope I'm right. Hope that helps. Quiz tomorrow, so study up.

[Kitties of Domination]

Good job, Hollywood. How long have you been here?

[jabogitlu]

It's better to think of it in broad generalities. Bearden Hill is Bearden. The area east of that is "around campus/The Fort" then there's downtown, and up from there there's Fountain City, below downtown there's "out the Chapman Highway." Then there's "down around West Town" (the mall, not the region)....

I can see how it'd be confusing. Knoxville is lucky in that it actually has descriptors. Most of the smaller cities in E TN (including Johnson City, sadly) don't really have neighborhood names.... just... streets...

[goodbyehollywood]

Originally Posted by Kitties of Domination

Good job, Hollywood. How long have you been here?

Born here. Raised here. Fled after college. Recently boomeranged back. So I'm both a local and a transplant. Gives you a weird perspective.

[creeksitter]

IMHO it's pretty easy - sort of.

South Knoxville is anything south/southeast of the Tenn & French broad rivers. East Knoxville is between I-40 East and the rivers. North Knoxville is from I-40 East over to I-75 & Clinton Highway. Then there should be northwest knoxville, but really it's Mechanicsville, Lonsdale & Norwood. West Knoxville might start somewhere west of Western avenue.

A resident of South or West Knox County might well tell you they live in South or West Knoxville. A resident of East Knox County will NEVER say they live in East Knoxville. Outside the northern/northwestern city line the resident will tell you the name of the community. From E to W there's Strawberry plains, Corryton, Carter, Ritta, Gibbs, Halls, Powell (and I understand you should NEVER get Halls & Powell mixed up on fear for your life), Karns & Solway.