Holston Hills

Around the year 1800, the state of North Carolina provided Robert C. McCree a land grant of approximately 300 acres on the noth side of what was then known as the Holston River, now the Tennessee River.

McCree soon sold this land to Moses Armstrong and Joseph A. Brooks. The Moses Armstrong House still stands at at 6114 Asheville Highway, a home built in 1805 next to the former River Breeze Drive-In Theater.

Fast forward to 1894, when, after many other land conveyances, the present boundaries of Holston Hills were owned by approximately 17 differnet individuals. From 1890 to 1906, Rosa McDonald began acquiring some of these properties, some conveyed to her by her husband, Joseph (James?) P. McDonald. These tracts extended from Asheville Highway to one mile east of Boyd's Bridge over the Tennessee River. Rosa McDonald held this property until 1916, when she transferred the property ot John F. Shea and others. They continued to own the property until 1924, when it was sold to Dr. Herbert Acuff, a prominent surgeon who was also associated with the development of the General Building on Gay Street in downtown Knoxville.

In 1925, Dr. Acuff sold the property to Holston Hills, Incorporated, which subdivided the property into lots and blocks. Dr. Brown's lot, according to an unattributed document at the McClung Historical Collection, had a cement floor on the property that was the floor of the barn of the old McDonald farm.



Idlehour, the farm of James P. McDonald, four miles east of Knoxville. source: reevesmaps.com.

The Holston Hills Golf Course was organized in 1925. A Donald Ross course built in 1927, it has long been recognized as one of the best courses in the state of Tennessee, and has hosted both regional and PGA events. It's No. 5 hole is one of the longest in the southeast at 615 yards.

Some notable players of the Holston Hills course include:

Sam Snead Cary Middlescoff Skip Alexander
Byron Nelson Jimmy Hinds Jimmy Thompson
Ben Hogan Bob Hamilton Walter Hagen
Sam Byrd Tony Penna Gene Sarazen
Jug McSpadden Dick Metz Bobby Jones
G.R. Rarner L.L. BAker Dr. Chesney

Currently, Holston Hills Country Club is ranked no. 51 [1] on the Golfweek top 100 classic courses in the United States. It is widely considered to be one of the more original Donald Ross designs left in the United States.