In 1947 the City of Knoxville requested that the university sell it 17 to 20 acres of land at the edge of the agriculture campus, to the rear of Morgan Hall, for use as a sewage treatment plant. The board of trustees declined. In 1952 the City again requested land—this time eight acres that were contained in the previous request—proposing a land swap through which UT would acquire the “Rose Hole” at Clinch Avenue and Sixteenth Street (current site of Volunteer Hall.) The City had bought property in 1951 and constructed the Third Creek Sewage Treatment Plant but needed to expand. The board of trustees again declined to release land within the area bounded by the river, Kingston Pike, and Third Creek. In 1973 UT declined to provide 60 acres of the Cherokee Farm to the City of Knoxville for a sewage treatment plant, citing the need to maintain the land for agricultural research.