Yale Avenue Urban Renewal Project—Refusal to Sell Homes

Irene P. Bowman, age 65, whose two-story frame house at the corner of Yale and Temple Avenues had been designated as the site of the new Humanities Complex, refused to give up her home. She rented rooms in the house and in a small gardener’s cottage at the rear of the house, and a niece was her only living relative. The circuit court granted title to the property to the Knoxville Housing Authority in June 1964, following a court jury of review inspection that raised the KHA offer from $35,000 to $45,000, but Bowman steadfastly refused to vacate. In May 1965 an agreement was finally reached for Bowman to move near her niece, avoiding the necessity to physically remove her from the property. In 1966 Mrs. Hattie Lee Burns was evicted from her property at 715 Thirteenth Street by UT to use her property for the Psychological Clinic. Mrs. Burns, who had lived in the house for 17 years and in Knoxville all her life, moved to an apartment in the Town and Country Motel, offered by her niece.