Peek at Carl Pitner’s map of Knoxville from 1930, and you’ll find Cleveland Place near Old Gray and Knoxville National cemeteries. The only noted business at Cleveland Place was the old city-owned General Hospital. It sat in a block bounded by Bernard, Damron and Central avenues as well as Wray Street.
The hospital served patients from 1902 until 1956 when UT Hospital opened. The original building was demolished, and its footprint was primarily replaced with offices of the Knox County Health Department and its parking spaces. One vestige of Knoxville General still remains, the building sitting at 970 Wray Street, the former home of Serene Manor, a private nursing home.
The City of Knoxville owns the building and last week announced plans to explore possibilities for using the facility to help address the city’s homelessness problem. This could include supportive housing as well as services, according to Kevin DuBose, Housing and Neighborhood Development Director for the City of Knoxville. A fine idea, in my opinion, since the building’s origins are rotted in philanthropy and social justice.
Built in 1932, it opened in 1933 as the Rosenwald Wing of Knoxville General Hospital. The nation, and the south especially, was still entrenched in Jim Crow, the Great Depression and navigating the landscape between two world wars. This new addition was specifically to serve members of the Black community, where they would be treated by Black doctors and nurses. Knoxville General was already seeing Black patients, but the sperate area of the hospital where they received treatment was absolutely not equal.
There was some pushback against the building, once constructed, being used to treat Black patients only. One letter to the editor of The Knoxville News Sentinel objected to the objecting, describing the Black quarters in the hospital as a dark and inadequate basement where Black patients were not allowed to be treated by Black doctors, even if they requested them. That would change with the new wing of the hospital.
The initial funds to construct the new wing came from the Rosenwald Fund, established in 1917 by Illinois businessman Julian Rosenwald “for the betterment of mankind.” A son of German Jewish immigrants, Rosenwald was born in Springfield, just down the road from Abe Lincoln’s place. He began his career in clothing manufacturing, eventually gaining a regular buyer in Sears Roebuck & Co. That relationship would eventually lead to him owning half the company and becoming president of the corporation. He stepped aside from running things in 1922, but remained as chairman of the board until his death in 1932.
But Rosenwald believed in his motto of “give while you live,” and though his philanthropic efforts were not exclusively to help the Black community, that was where the lion’s share of his funds went, especially in the south. It helped build over 5,000 schools and fund those already in existence, (including our own Austin now Austin-East High School), fund fellowships and scholarships for Black students as well as health projects like the new wing of Knoxville General over 90 years ago. His funds came with stipulation. There would be new equipment, there would be Black doctors and nurses.
One recipient of a Rosenwald Fund Fellowship was Simon Alexander Haley, which he used to obtain a masters degree in agriculture from Cornell University. One of his sons, Alec, became a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist. You’ve probably heard of him.
The Rosenwald Fund was fully exhausted by 1948, having distributed over $70 million in contributions.
Sources: The Knoxville Journal digital archives, The Knoxville News Sentinel digital archives, Library of Congress.
Beth Kinnane writes a history feature for KnoxTNToday.com. It’s published each Tuesday and is one of our best-read features.
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