Cumberland Estates is a residential neighborhood in the City of Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, which gained national attention for architectural innovation and research housing in the mid-20th century.

It began 2.1 miles outside the city limits, in Knox County, as one of many planned suburban neighborhoods in the post-World War II economic expansion.

The development soon attracted an innovative young architect and national sponsors who would create new ways to rapidly and affordably fill the demand for residential housing needs for America’s growing population of families.

While the attention received from the research homes waned in the last century, the neighborhood has maintained its residential character with few changes while avoiding commercial encroachment and blight.

One of these, Palmetto, connects Sullivan Road to Oak Ridge Highway, which, on the plats filed at the Knoxville City-County Building, is often referred to as “Solway Road” or “Solway Highway to Oak Ridge.”[3][4] Near its completion, Dean was named the 1965 Tennessee Home Builder of the Year, and in 1966 he became president of the Home Builders Association of Greater Knoxville.

Ms. Dolores and her husband James (d. 2000) were the first and only owners of their home on Robindale Drive (an 1800 square foot three-bedroom basement rancher), which they purchased in 1962 for approximately $18,000, on the north side of Cumberland Estates.

[15] McCarty’s concentration was in breaking down all of the building elements into modular parts that could be prefabricated and organized into well-planned medium-cost housing.

The wall construction design was an interlocking prefabricated wall-panel system consisting of a pre-finished interior skin, electrical wiring and insulation, with the modular panels made by the builder off site which could then all be snapped into place at one time.

[3][17] Dean included three swimming pools in the development and set aside a 26-acre wooded lot for the creation of the Cumberland Estates Recreation Center, a city-owned facility with meeting rooms, gym, dance studio, outdoor playground and nature trails.

[22] To maintain a residential flavor along Western Avenue, the Metropolitan Planning Commission adopted a land use plan in 1970 recommending future commercial activity along the highway to be limited to community shopping facilities within and around the Cumberland Estates Shopping Center and single occupant commercial offices along the highway between Ball Camp Pike and Hinton Road.