Circle Park is an on-campus park located off Volunteer Boulevard, behind the Volunteer Statue. Originally named Payne Circle, the central portion of the park was offered to the City of West Knoxville as a public park in 1888 and became the property of the City of West Knoxville on January 4, 1889. (West Knoxville was joined to Knoxville in 1898.)
Prior to the university’s late-1960s’ westward expansion, the park was ringed with fine homes, many of which had been sold to fraternities, for which this area served as a neighborhood park. Circle Park was the early-proposed site of the new university hospital.
The Volunteer Statue was installed in April 1968. The park was upgraded in 1974 utilizing a plan prepared by landscape architect Bill Oliphant. A major feature of the enhanced Circle Park was the plaza for the Volunteer Statue.
The park was upgraded again in 2004 with lighting and new brick walkways. In summer 2015 a major upgrade was undertaken for the entire park, improving the Volunteer Statue plaza area and its retaining wall and replacing the grass of the park with XtraGrass, a new type of landscaping that blends and reinforces natural grass with artificial turf, which offers the look and feel of natural grass with increased resistance to wear. UT and Astroturf developed the product, which was donated to UT for the project. The remainder of the renovation cost $1.2 million, paid for by the beautification portion of the student facilities fee.