Knoxville College

R. J. Creswell of the United Presbyterian Church began the school in 1864 as a mission for free Black residents and formerly enslaved people, and the church bought this hilltop in 1875; McKee Hall opened in 1876. Alumni include the football coach Jake Gaither, Willie May, who directed the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and Chicago Tribune columnist Vernon Jarrett. In 1960 students staged sit-ins at segregated downtown lunch counters. Accreditation was withdrawn in 1997, only 11 students remained in 2015, and a fire destroyed Elnathan Hall in 2024.

What the plaque says

Knoxville College This liberal arts institution was opened in Knoxville by the United Presbyterian Church in 1875. It crowns the ridge from which the main batteries of Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's attacking force shelled the Federal Fort Sanders about 1800 yards to the south, Nov. 29, 1863.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Blount Mansion — 1.6 mi
  The 1792 frame house of William Blount, governor of the Southwest Territory, Knoxville's only National Historic Landmark, where the people he enslaved are named.
• Beck Cultural Exchange Center — 2.4 mi
  Knoxville's Black history museum and archive, opened in 1975 in the 1912 Dandridge Avenue house the community bought for $22,500.
• Green McAdoo Cultural Center — 14 mi
  The 1935 school in Clinton that sent twelve Black students down Foley Hill to desegregate Clinton High School in August 1956, now a museum with bronze statues of the Clinton 12.
• Museum of Appalachia — 16 mi
  John Rice Irwin's 65-acre collection of moved log cabins and mountain objects north of Knoxville, opened in 1969, with a cabin believed to be Mark Twain's father's.

More markers nearby

• Old Mechanicsville — 0.4 mi
• The Assault Upon Fort Sanders — 0.8 mi
• Old Gray Cemetery — 1.0 mi
• Old Gray Cemetery — 1.0 mi