The State Industrial Home for the Blind was opened on the site of what would become the Veterans Administration Hospital on January 1, 1892.

Two years later the facility was transformed into the State Hospital for Inebriates, which was a place of detention and treatment for males addicted to morphine, cocaine and other narcotics.

The city of Knoxville advocated for a permanent hospital facility on the site, which it secured the following year.

Buildings 1-5, 8-9, the warehouse, engineering shops, power plant, four resident quarters, three garages, the VA flag pole and a modern dairy barn were built in 1923.

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi announced on January 7, 2005 that the Knoxville facility would close.