Arlington Garden

Arlington Garden. . This park was originally part of the 48-acre farm purchased by Reverend Isaac Emory (1830-1904), in 1882. Reverend Emory came to Knoxville in 1865 as a missionary for the American Sunday School movement and founded over 1,000 Sunday schools in churches, mostly in the mountains of East Tennessee., In 1890 Reverend Emory gave a right-of-way along present day Walker Boulevard for the Fountain Head Railway, a short-line railway to run from Knoxville to Fountain City Park. There were twenty stops on the five-mile trip from Knoxville to Fountain City, including a stop at Arlington station at this place, nearly half-way on the one-hour trip., After Reverend Emory's death, his son Charles M. Emory, Sr. operated the farm as a truck farm, first known as Arlington Gardens, later known as Emory Farm and Emoryland Farm. In 1924, he subdivided the property and sold off building lots, creating this neighborhood. From the 1940s to the 1960s a miniature golf course occupied the site of the present garden, followed by a Pizza Hut built in 1977., The Pizza Hut on this site was demolished in 2010 as part of the flood control project, which was put into place 2009-2011. At the neighborhood's request the city agreed to rezone the new vacant lot as "open space." Gary Diggs, PJ Snodgrass, and others led a group of energetic volunteers to create the pollinator garden, now named Arlington Garden. Grants have been awarded by the Knoxville Office of Neighborhoods and Parks and Recreation in recent years to help with the provision of flowers and other pollinators, paths, mulch, benches, and picnic tables to create a place for the public to enjoy. , [Caption] , The photo is of the Emery family whose house was on this land. Back row left to right: Charles and Elizabeth Emery, Issac and Amelia Emory Seated left to right: William, Charles, and Amelia Emory.