The area of Cumberland Avenue running along the UT campus first earned the nickname “The Strip” after a drug raid in the 1970s. Cumberland Avenue was one of the original Knoxville streets surveyed and platted by Charles McClung in 1791. Some sources say the street was originally called Fourth Street since it was the fourth street from the river, but around 1800 it became known as Cumberland Avenue because it led eventually to the Middle Tennessee settlements along the Cumberland River.
The hilly area west of downtown between Second and Third Creeks (encompassing the University of Tennessee) remained outside the city limits. The area’s main thoroughfare was called Kingston Pike because it led to the city of Kingston. This part of Knox County was incorporated as the city of West Knoxville in 1888, and a year later, the section of Kingston Pike within the little city of West Knoxville took the name of the Knoxville segment of the street, Cumberland Avenue. West Knoxville was annexed by the City in 1897 and ceased to have its own mayor, town council, and city hall. The street was residential until the 1920s, when it became increasingly commercial.