Editing Harriman, Tennessee (section)

==History==

===East Tennessee Land Company===
{{See also|Cardiff, Tennessee|Lenoir City, Tennessee#Lenoir_City_Company}}
[[Image:Harriman temperance university abt1906.jpg|thumb|American Temperance University, c.1906]]

Harriman was founded as a [[Temperance Towns|Temperance Town]] in 1889 by [[temperance movement]] activists led by New York-born minister and plant manager Frederick Gates. Seeking a land venture that could attract industrial and economic development while avoiding the vice-driven pitfalls of late 19th century [[company town]]s, Gates and fellow [[prohibitionism|prohibitionists]] chartered the East Tennessee Land Company in May 1889.  In subsequent months, the company acquired several hundred thousand acres of land around what is now Harriman, including the plantation of Union Army colonel and state senator, [[Robert K. Byrd]].  The company's early investors included 1888 [[Prohibition Party]] presidential candidate General [[Clinton B. Fisk]], who served as the company's first president, [[Quaker Oats Company|Quaker Oats]] co-founder [[Ferdinand Schumacher]], and publishers [[Isaac K. Funk]] and [[Adam Willis Wagnalls|A. W. Wagnalls]].<ref name=benhart1>John Benhart, ''Appalachian Aspirations: The Geography of Urbanization and Development in the Upper Tennessee River Valley, 1865-1900'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, 2007), pp. 63-70.</ref>

The East Tennessee Land Company's plan was to purchase land, build a town based on prohibitionist and other reform movement principles, and establish subsidiary companies to attract industry. After a successful land auction in Harriman in 1890, the company established three subsidiaries: the East Tennessee Mining Company to administer the region's coal and iron extraction operations, the Harriman Coal & Iron Railroad Company to develop the local railroad system, and the Harriman Manufacturing Company to attract industries by providing start-up capital.<ref name=benhart1 /> To project its prosperity and advertise Harriman, the company built an imposing brick headquarters (now Harriman City Hall), with its four picturesque [[Norman architecture|Norman]] towers, at the corner of Walden Avenue and Roane Street near the center of the new town.<ref name=benhart2>Benhart, p. 100.</ref> By 1892, several [[rolling mill]]s, factories, and other businesses had relocated to Harriman.<ref name=benhart2 />

To help finance its early operations, the East Tennessee Land Company borrowed just over one million dollars from the Central Trust Company of New York. In late 1891, capital markets in the U.S. began to freeze, leading to the [[Panic of 1893]]. The East Tennessee Land Company, unable to pay the interest on its million-dollar loan, attempted a last-ditch stock sale to raise money to pay off the loan, but the sale failed. In November 1893, the company was forced into [[bankruptcy]].<ref name=benhart3>Benhart, pp. 115-116.</ref>

===Development of Harriman===
[[Image:Roane-street-commercial-block-tn1.jpg|thumb|Commercial block along Roane Street, built in the 1890s]]

Harriman is named for [[Walter Harriman (governor)|Walter Harriman]], a governor of [[New Hampshire]] whose son, Walter C. Harriman, was managing director of the East Tennessee Land Company. As a colonel (later general) in the [[Union Army]] during the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], he had traveled on foot through the area with his 11th New Hampshire Regiment and camped for several days on the Emory River near the future site of the city. An elderly local later told the directors that Harriman had said that the site would be the perfect place for a town, and based on this conversation, the directors chose the name of "Harriman".<ref>W. Calvin Dickinson, [http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=H024 Walter C. Harriman] in the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture</ref>

The site of Harriman was chosen primarily for its proximity to Emory Gap, where the [[Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway|Cincinnati Southern Railway]] joined the [[East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway]]. The city, platted on Christmas Day in 1889, was laid out in a grid pattern that conformed to the Emory's oxbow bend at the base of Walden Ridge. The block bounded by Roane, Walden, Morgan, and Clinton streets was set aside for the city's public buildings (this block is now the location of the city hall, library, and fire department). Lots in the heights around Cumberland and Clinton streets (now [[Cornstalk Heights]]) were substantially larger, as it was expected that the city's wealthy and professional-class residents would buy homes here. The areas along the river (Emory Street) were for mills and residential areas for skilled laborers.<ref name=benhart4>Benhart, pp. 86, 92-98.</ref>

The initial land auction for Harriman was held in late February 1890, and was attended by over 4,000 prospective buyers from across the nation. Several hundred lots were sold, raising over $600,000. The most expensive lots were along Roane Street and in what is now Cornstalk Heights, most of which sold for over $2,000 apiece, while the lots closer to the river typically sold for less than $500 apiece. Shortly after the initial auction, the company platted several more lots outside the city in what is now the Walnut Hills and Oak View neighborhoods for the city's wage workers.<ref name=benhart4 />

===20th century===
[[Image:Harriman-hosiery-mills-tn1.gif|thumb|left|Harriman Hosiery Mills in 1940]]

In spite of the East Tennessee Land Company's collapse, Harriman continued to grow, although its growth was very gradual. The [[American Temperance University]] was established in 1894, and operated out of the East Tennessee Land Company's abandoned headquarters.<ref name=benhart2 /> In 1929, the combination of the [[Wall Street Crash of 1929|stock market crash]] and a devastating [[flood]] of the Emory River wiped out much of the city's industry. A [[paper mill]] and two [[hosiery]] mills provided the largest share of jobs in the city through the rest of the twentieth century, with the paper mill (a [[MeadWestvaco|Mead Corporation]] property) and the hosiery companies (Harriman Hosiery, formerly a Burlington Corp. plant, and independent Roane Hosiery) operating into the 1980s.

[[Image:424-walden-house-tn1.jpg|thumb|Circa-1890s [[Queen Anne Style architecture (United States)|Queen Anne-style]] house in Cornstalk Heights]]

The city got a boost in the 1940s and 1950s from heavy automobile traffic along US-27, which was a primary route connecting the [[Great Lakes]] region with [[Florida]] before [[I-75]] was completed. The routing of Interstate 40 through southwestern Harriman connected the community more closely with Knoxville but never produced the kind of modern industrial development inside the town that community leaders expected.

The city, still quaint but clearly different now from its economic heyday, still shows considerable evidence of being a "planned community". Its streets still remain in its original grid pattern, as the collapse of the East Tennessee Land Company in 1893 "froze" the city in its original developmental state. There remains a considerable number of homes&mdash;especially in Cornstalk Heights&mdash;displaying [[Victorian architecture]] as well—many of which have been either painstakingly maintained or restored. The Temperance heritage was slow to depart. There was no liquor store in Harriman until 1992.