Cherokee Farm is a 569-acre tract of land along Alcoa Highway. In 1905 Dean of Agriculture Harcourt A. Morgan (who later became president of the university) asserted to a committee of the Tennessee legislature that the farm was needed for agricultural research, field crop demonstrations, and animal husbandry.
- J. Oliver had agreed to purchase the land for $90,000 from W. W. Harper and F. B. Stevens and had been sued for nonpayment of the note. Oliver conveyed the title to the Cherokee Land Company (Cherokee Association), a Knoxville corporation composed of T. Asbury Wright, W. J. Oliver, James W. K. Johnson, J. J. Toms, J. W. Brownlee, J. B. Wright, and Williston Cox. With the suit still pending against Oliver, the Cherokee Association spent approximately $20,000 on improving the bridge across the river—laying out lots and preparing roads. A few lots were sold.
Morgan approached Williston Cox (a friend, neighbor, principal in the land company attempting to develop the Cherokee Farm, and member of the UT Board of Trustees) about the advantages that would accrue to the university and the farmer if the university could acquire this property for agricultural purposes. When Knoxville refused to extend city water to the development, the developers found themselves in even greater difficulty. Cox convinced his partners that they should allow Knox County to acquire the property for UT at a price, which would cover their expenses and would include the legal fees paid by Harper and Stevens in suing for payment. Cox, Col. William S. Shields, and J. Allen Smith planned the strategy to persuade the county to purchase the land for the university.
Many Knoxvillians, including Knoxville Mayor Heiskell (who considered that officers of the Cherokee Association and UT were engaging in a highly shady deal in the name of agriculture), were opposed to the proposal. The Knox County Court formed a committee in 1914 at the request of Dean Morgan to investigate the possibility of purchasing the tract for an addition to the university’s farm. The committee reported that the 569 acres could be purchased for $140,000. The court obtained an enabling act from the legislature to issue 20-year bonds in the amount of $125,000 at 5 percent interest, with the proviso that the citizens of Knoxville raise the remainder.
At a special session of Knox County Court in February 1915, agricultural and educational bonds were voted to purchase the Cherokee Farm (appraised for tax purposes at $30,000), and the Board of Commerce raised the remainder of the $140,000 by private subscription. The land was conveyed to the university in a ceremony in Science Hall on January 27, 1916. So important an acquisition was Cherokee Farm that January 27 was declared to be a UT holiday. Governor Rye was present, along with Commissioner of Agriculture H. K. Bryson and other state officials. UT’s Agricultural Quartet sang two selections, one of which dealt with the Cherokee Farm. The dignitaries were served lunch by the domestic science students. In 1973 UT declined to provide 60 acres of the farm to the city of Knoxville for a sewage treatment plant, citing the need to maintain the land for agricultural research.
The 2001 update to the institutional master plan called for creation of a Cherokee Campus, which would include intramural fields, a soccer stadium, and graduate student housing. In 2006 President John Petersen announced that the farm would be used for a research campus, combining private and UT facilities. In 2007 he issued a new mission statement placing development of the Cherokee Farm under the management of the UT system. The SGA issued a statement supporting continued inclusion of intramural and recreational fields on the land. The Faculty Senate expressed its disapproval with Petersen’s change of control of the farm and requested that he dissolve the Cherokee Farm Planning Committee that he had appointed and appoint a new committee with “broad and diverse representation from faculty, student, and community stakeholders who would be appointed by Chancellor Loren Crabtree.”
Executive Vice President David Millhorn responded that the master plan was a starting point and that the Cherokee Farm had been under the administration of the UT system before the 2001 Master Plan Update. He also indicated that the Knoxville campus was represented by five of the twenty-member planning committee: Way Kuo, dean of the College of Engineering; John McRae, dean of the College of Architecture and Design; Brad Fenwick, vice chancellor for research; Denise Barlow, vice chancellor for finance and administration; and Randy Gentry, director of the Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment.
In November Petersen issued a document, “The University of Tennessee Management and Reporting Responsibilities,” which superseded both the mission statement he had previously issued and the Cherokee Farm Planning Group by establishing that the Cherokee Farm Campus would be a technology-oriented research park, and its development would be managed by a four-person team headed by UT Executive Vice President David Millhorn. President Petersen determined that the first facility to be located on the Cherokee Farm would be the Joint Institute for Materials Science, for which UT Knoxville had received federal and state funding. UT Knoxville faculty and administration preferred that the building be constructed on the main campus.
Responsibility for the Cherokee Farm was officially transferred from the Institute of Agriculture to the UT system in 2008, and the barns and silos were demolished in 2009 to make ready for the installation of infrastructure. Initial infrastructure work began in June 2010. EMJ Construction of Chattanooga was awarded the contract to provide the initial infrastructure development and site preparation, which included grading, road, and utilities.
A portion at the edge of the farm was allocated to the Athletics Department for use as an intercollegiate golf facility, together with additional land acquired from Knox County.