Concord Village Historic District

About this property

Concord is an unincorporated community in Knox County, Tennessee, United States and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district, the Concord Village Historic District. The United States Geographic Names Information System classifies Concord as a populated place. It is located in western Knox County, east of Farragut and west of Knoxville. Mail destined for Concord is now addressed to Concord, Knoxville, or Farragut. The Village of Concord began to develop in 1854. Before that time, the area was sparsely settled. Large farms were centered on the Tennessee River, and relied on a nearby settlement, Campbell's Station (modern Farragut), for trade and other urban needs. In 1853, construction of the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad along the north bank of the Tennessee River caused a population and development shift to the area that became Concord. Concord was founded and platted in 1854 on land owned by James M. Rodgers. Rodgers laid out 55 lots, and named the new town Concord. It is believed the name was inspired by the nearby Concord Cumberland Presbyterian Church, of which Rodgers was a member ("Concord" being a common name for churches at the time). He began to sell lots in 1855, but later moved to California. Shortly before he moved, he bought several large tracts of land, some of which are still intact in some sections of the village. Concord developed rapidly after the arrival of the railroad. The first dwelling in Concord, a boarding house, was built by Shadrack Callaway (First Post Master in Concord). Combining the existing river transportation with the railroad made Concord the nucleus of several communities on the north side of the river, including Campbell's Station, Loveville and Ebenezer. On the eve of the Civil War, Congressman T.A.R. Nelson and Knoxville attorney Oliver Perry Temple, both Union supporters, delivered anti-secession speeches before hostile crowds at Concord. During the war, in the fall of 1863 prior to the Battle of Campbell's Station, the 24th Kentucky Infantry and the 103rd Ohio Infantry camped near Concord. During this time supplies were appropriated from several area farms including Callaway's Landing and the Pleasant Forest Cumberland Presbyterian Church one mile north of Concord was dismantled. The bricks were used to build fireplaces for the Union Army. The railroad also created a transportation market with communities in Blount County, including Friendsville and Louisville, which were connected to Concord by ferry, but were not to have rail transportation until the 1890s. The steamboat traveling from Chattanooga to Knoxville and back stopped at Callaway's Landing, hence the name, connecting Concord to Knoxville.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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