Knoxify

Guide to Island Home

Where is Island Home?

Just south of the river, across the Gay street bridge and down Sevier Avenue Island Home is an easy drive to both down­town and UT cam­pus and is eas­ily acces­si­ble via I-40 and the South Knoxville Connector.

Island Home Information

One of Knoxville’s hid­den gems, Island Home began life as a “street­car sub­urb” some­time around 1910. In fact, the median that divides the mod­ern day Island Home Boule­vard was once where the street­car tracks ran that served the neighborhood.

The area was orig­i­nally the loca­tion of promi­nent local busi­ness­man Perez Dickinson’s sum­mer cot­tage, which was named “Island Home.” That struc­ture that gave Island Home its name is now a part of the Ten­nessee School for the Deaf. The Island Home Park Neigh­bor­hood Asso­ci­a­tion has more infor­ma­tion on Perez Dick­in­son and Island Home’s fas­ci­nat­ing history.

Island Home is a great place for nature lovers, as it’s located just min­utes from two pretty nifty parks, Ijams Nature Cen­ter and Island Home Park. Ijam’s is a 160 acre wildlife sanc­tu­ary with walk­ing trails and reg­u­lar events like Owl Prowls and Bat Nights. Island Home Park is a 3 acre city park that fea­tures pic­nic tables, a play­ground, a ten­nis court, access to the Will Skel­ton Green­way and water access for launch­ing canoes.

The neigh­bor­hood is also right by Knoxville’s other air­port, Down­town Island Home Air­port, which han­dles more than 300 air­craft oper­a­tions per day and is the base for more than one hun­dred pri­vate and cor­po­rate air­craft. Like every­thing else in the Island Home area, this air­port also has a col­or­ful his­tory which is def­i­nitely worth check­ing into.

Even though Island Home is only min­utes from down­town, hun­gry — and adven­tur­ous –res­i­dents might choose to stay on the south side of town and have a true din­ing expe­ri­ence at King Tut’s Grill. Not only can you enjoy house spe­cial­ties like the Egypt­ian Plat­ter and mon­strous Greek salad, but odds are owner Mo is not going to let you go home with­out wear­ing a silly hat or two and singing at least one karaoke tune.

Island Home is a low turnover neigh­bor­hood and choice homes often sell by word of mouth before they ever hit the mar­ket, so inter­ested buy­ers have to keep a keen eye on the market.

Island Home is cur­rently zoned for Dog­wood Ele­men­tary School, South Doyle Mid­dle School and South Doyle High School.

You will totally dig Island Home if you’re look­ing for:

• a his­toric home in a tight knit community
• some­thing close to Downtown
• some­thing close to the water
• easy access to a small air­craft airport
• easy access to pub­lic parks and out­door recre­ation activities

You’ll want to skip Island Home if you’re look­ing for:

• new or newer construction
• easy access to mall shopping
• a home with a large lot

Images of Island Home

© 2008 Robert Stock­dale Pho­tog­ra­phy, All Rights Reserved.