The Land

The Early Years

The land that Beardsley Farm is on was used agriculturally for many years before the founding of Beardsley. It was originally stewarded by Native Americans, most recently the Tsalaguwetiyi (Cherokee, East) and Tsoyaha (Yuchi) People, who were forcefully removed through colonization.

The first recorded deed on record was held by Knoxville College, a historically black liberal arts school founded in 1875. In the early 1900s, Knoxville College utilized this land as a farm to grow food for students and as an agricultural classroom. Historical records from as early as 1902 show Knoxville College hosting regional farming workshops and distributing free seeds on this very land—a tradition that’s continued today.

The Recent Past

In the 1930s, Knoxville College donated part of their farm—what is now Malcom Martin Park—to the city school system to build a junior high for Black students. At that time, there were no Black junior high schools. The school was built in 1936, named Beardsley Junior High after Gertrude Beardsley, the first woman on the school board.

Beardsley Junior High served Black students until the 1960s, when the school system began a slow and minimally effective desegregation process. This period saw significant "white flight" to the suburbs and violent racism against Black children enrolling in their zoned schools. The school board faced decades of lawsuits for non-compliance with federal integration laws well into the 1980s and early 90s. In 1991, as part of a major effort to address these issues, the school board closed 26 smaller neighborhood schools, replacing them with fewer, larger ones. Beardsley Junior High was one of the schools closed during this period.

The closure of Beardsley Junior High was a significant loss for the Mechanicsville community. The school had served not only as a middle school but also as a community hub for adults pursuing GEDs, night classes, community meetings, and providing a venue for basketball games for schools, community groups, and Knoxville College. It was a true neighborhood school.

A few years later, when the city sold Leslie Street Park to Eagle Distributing Company for an industrial park, they needed a new location for Ed Cothren Pool, which had been in Leslie Street Park for 60 years. Eagle Distributing funded the pool's relocation to Malcom Martin Park in 1996. Shortly thereafter, in 1998, Beardsley Farm was founded. The farm was started by employees of CAC with money from a grant, and land leased from the City of Knoxville. The farm aimed to promote healthier food options in the Mechanicsville, Lonsdale, Western Heights, and Beaumont areas.

And Today

It is important that we acknowledge the past; to pay respect to all those who have worked on and cared for this land over the years, and to recognize the violence and mistreatment that resulted in the removal of peoples from the land and the loss of property due to misguided policy.

With this in mind, Beardsley Farm works to connect this land back to the community. Today, over half of the park is cultivated by community members, while the rest is grown by staff and volunteers for those with immediate food needs in the neighborhood. Beardsley Farm and Knoxville College partner together today to expand the gardening zones in the park to meet the demand of community members requesting space for growing food.

References

We extend special thanks the Beck Center, Knoxville College, community members, and others for providing research, stories, and perspective on the history of this land.