Town of Norris – Norris TN

Description

“During the 1930s and 1940s the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) built, owned, and administered the community of Norris for fifteen years...

New urban theorists are hard at work designing the town of the future. But Norris, Tennessee, built by TVA nearly 70 years ago, beat them all to the punch…

The immediate purpose of the town was to house the workers building Norris Dam four miles away on the Clinch River. The second purpose, which may have been even more important to Morgan, was to show America that cooperative living works.

The houses would be built on a modest and tasteful scale, with an eye to community as much as comfort. In design, they would balance the traditions of the Tennessee Valley (building materials of natural stone and native cedar, and a porch on every house) with modern conveniences. In this rural region, which in 1933 was less than 10 percent electrified, Norris would be fully electric, with ceiling heat and refrigerators.”   (www.cityofnorris.com)

The TVA gave up control of the town in 1948. Several original New Deal buildings still stand including what was originally the TVA ceramics lab and the old Norris High School, now the middle school.