Inskip and Norwood

John L. Tillery settled in the Inskip area, west of Fountain City, in 1795. He was joined by other settlers including the Mathis, Zeigler and Sterchi families. This area built up around the railroad and coal yards. The Coster Yards provided employment to many residents. It was once the primary switching yard for all major railroads that accessed the region. The area was nameless until the 1870s, when church meetings brought attention to the quiet farming community. The National Camp Ground was established in the area by the Rev. Dr. Inskip on a farm owned by Arthur Crozier. The site was chosen because of its proximity to the railroad line. In 1872, the formal opening of the National Camp Meeting took place with thousands of people in attendance. The railroads ran special trips from Knoxville in order to accommodate all of the people traveling to the area. In 1888, the Sterchi sons went into the furniture business. Shortly thereafter, J.G. Sterchi bought out his brothers, and by 1913 he was a millionaire. He continued to live in the community and built his grand Greek Revival mansion on Dry Gap Road, which is still standing.



The Sterchi Mansion A quasi-downtown evolved at the corner of Inskip Drive and Central Avenue. It was here in 1946 that Eldridge Litton opened Litton’s market. It was his grandson who many years later closed the original market and reopened it in Fountain City as Litton’s Market and Restaurant, which is still popular today.



Norwood

    Like most communities, Norwood was once farmland.

    In 1933 what is now called Norwood community was called Tillerytown. A sawmill stood where the Tillery Theater was for many years. Later came McClain's Nursery and Wallace's ice cream, where everyone went on Sunday for good old homemade ice cream. The Airplane Service Station was and still is a landmark. About the same time the Treemont Tourist Camp was built.

    In 1943 a civic-minded couple Mr. and Mrs. George Hunter moved into this section from Ohio. They and four other people met in Jude Hockinjopsh's garage and formed a civic club. This group later met in the basement of Norwood Baptist Church, in Kent McClain's Nursery, and in the Norwood Fire Hall. Later they bought land on Merchants Road and with their own hands erected the Norwood Civic Club building which was the center of activity in Norwood.

    This group of six men named the community. Hunter said that there was a suburb of Cincinnati called Norwood. A proposal to rename the community Norwood passed.

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