Keswick, Staffordshire, Whitcomb, Berkshire and Camberley are but a handful of the ultra-British street names crisscrossing Broadacres subdivision on Emory Road in Powell. The names were the brainchild of one of the neighborhood’s developers, Bill Dawn. He picked from counties and towns in England because “they sound pleasing.”
Broadacres is closing in on its 60th anniversary of existence. It is one of the earliest stamps of suburbia writ large in north Knox County on the far side of Beaver Ridge. It is still one of the most sought-after neighborhoods in the county, and, in many ways is responsible for the growth of the Clinton Highway side of Powell. When the development was announced in late 1965, the area mostly consisted of farmland, primarily dairies.
Dawn’s other partners in the new community were Rufus H. Smith Jr., with whom he’d developed Sevenoaks subdivision on Kingston Pike, and brothers Wiliam and Lynn Weigel, owners of Broadacres Dairy Farm and the Weigel’s Jug O’Milk stores. Soon the 700 acres of pastureland would be divided into generous lots with more spacious interpretations of the mid-century modern rancher, split levels and Brady Bunch houses.
By July 1966, 29 homes had been built, and Broadacres was the feature for that year’s Parade of Homes, sponsored by the Home Builders Association of Knoxville. Admission was fifty cents.
The entire property for decades was part of Broadacres Dairy, originally under the proprietorship of W.W. Weigel & Sons. An ad from 1940 touts the 200-foot barn where the prized cows were milked (room for 70 head) and 500 tons of hay were stored. It also bragged about their “no touch” modern pasteurization and sterile bottling equipment, and that visitors were always welcome. Additional modernization in 1947 allowed the addition of cottage cheese and ice cream to the Weigel’s product line.
Though the Weigel brothers were jumping into real estate development, it didn’t mean they were getting out of the dairy business. The subdivision wraps quite neatly around what is left of the original dairy farm on Emory Road where the iconic barn, built in the 1930s, still stands (and is in use to this day).
A change in the neighborhood from when I visited high school friends there in the early 1980s is how much the trees have matured. It feels more lived in. It is also a testament to the fight over land use that continues and will continue across Knox County. Pretty much anywhere a home or business sits today, whether just built or past a century in age, it was built on land that used to be somebody’s farm.
Beth Kinnane writes a history feature for KnoxTNToday.com. It’s published each Tuesday and is one of our best-read features.
Sources: McClung Historical Collection digital archives/Knox County Library, The Knoxville News-Sentinel digital archives
