James White's Fort

When William Blount, the territorial governor of the Southwest Territory, moved the territorial capital to White's Fort in 1791, he renamed it Knoxville in honor of Henry Knox, the American Revolutionary War general and President George Washington's secretary of war.

The fort began as a cabin near what is now the corner of State Street and Clinch Avenue.

This cabin soon became the center of a cluster of fortified log structures known as White's Fort.

In 1906, when the Kennedy house was demolished for development, Isaiah Ford bought the log structure and moved it to Woodlawn Pike.

It was purchased again in 1960 by the City Association of Women's Clubs; in 1968, the timbers were reconstructed as part of the fort.