Our focus in earlier articles has been, and remains, on the restoration of this once vibrant commercial and communal center. The city’s planned approach is to upgrade the streetscape, build a new fire hall, enforce building codes on derelict buildings, and add tax incentives to rehab and repurpose historic structures to once again serve surrounding neighborhoods. Along the way, we have briefly examined Burlington’s and the city’s early history, as rural Knoxville grew from a small pioneer outpost into a regional manufacturing and business center.

Let’s look a bit further into Burlington’s past.

The Ferries: In the age before cars, trucks, highways and bridges, you, your farm animals and produce got to Knoxville by wagon and horseback. From the east, you came up against the Holston and French Broad rivers. Privately operated ferries helped you across. Pulled by horse along cross-river cables, or pushed by long poles and sometimes rowed with oars, you got across through high water, wind and current.

The McBee ferry (1792) was located upstream on the Holston, and further downstream one used the Armstrong ferry (probably 1820s, near what became Asheville Highway), or downstream: the Boyd and Brabson ferries, located near where the French Broad River joined the Holston, at the headwaters of the Tennessee. Tony Holmes, a TVA reporter/historian, writes there have been some 23 ferries in and around Knoxville — with the heyday being from 1800 to 1920s. Better roads and cross river bridges eventually brought that era to a close.

The Armstrong Ferry: Irish born Robert Armstrong II (along with his dad Robert I) immigrated to America and, during the revolution, fought the British in the Carolinas in the 1780s. They received land grants in East Tennessee as a reward. Robert II’s sons, Moses and Aaron Armstrong, started and ran the ferry (1820s, long term it was Moses) that led travelers to “downtown” Burlington from banks of the Holston River, crossing near the site of the current Asheville Highway bridge from the Armstrong farm to what we now call Holston Drive (then it was Armstrong Ferry Pike).

See photos of the historic Armstrong house, ferry and likely crossing point (looking east).

The above photo of the Armstrong Ferry is weathered. A photo of the nearby Boyd’s Ferry, and its river setting, gives a much clearer view of the typical joined-timbered floating ferry structures. They were sturdy enough to carry people, wagons, horses, livestock and produce across the water so travelers could continue their journey.

Burlington: Once across the Holston, you were on Armstrong Ferry Pike, heading west toward Knoxville. Burlington was the first stop, a few short miles after the river crossing. There you would find the famed Cal Johnson’s race track, a place to shop or sell your wares, or perhaps visit Chilhowee Park, rest or board the Burlington trolley on to the big city. These influences helped Burlington and surrounding residential neighborhoods grow.

Greater Knoxville: The big city offered produce markets, retail shopping, dining and entertainment. Growing post-Civil War Knoxville (especially after the 1917 annexations) featured industry and employment opportunities: in the woolen mills, iron works, wood furniture and forestry trades, building construction, and railroad work, among other things away from farming in the countryside.

Neighborhoods like Burlington, grew along with the burgeoning city. Such pocket commercial centers, steeped in their colorful history and architecture, deserve a second chance. Let the renaissance begin …

Nick Della Volpe is a lawyer, a gardener and a former member of Knoxville City Council.