page_title: Old City Hall (Knoxville)
section_title: Tennessee School for the Deaf
hierarchical_section_title: Old City Hall (Knoxville) / History / Tennessee School for the Deaf
caption_attribution_description: English: Detail from an 1886 map showing the Old City Hall, then home to the "Deaf and Dumb Asylum," in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.
context_page_description: Old City Hall is a complex of historic buildings located at 601 West Summit Hill Drive in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Originally constructed in 1848 as the Tennessee School for the Deaf and Dumb, the complex served as Knoxville's city hall from 1925 until 1980. The complex has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey. It currently houses Lincoln Memorial University's Duncan School of Law.
context_section_description: The Tennessee School for the Deaf, originally called the Tennessee School for the Deaf and Dumb, or the "Deaf and Dumb Asylum," was authorized by the state in 1844, following legislative efforts initiated by state senator John Cocke of Grainger County.  Knoxville merchant Calvin Morgan (1773—1851) donated the property for the school, and construction began in 1846.  Jacob Newman oversaw the building's construction, and was probably the building's architect.  St. John's Episcopal rector Thomas William Humes delivered the dedicatory address upon the school's opening in 1848.
  The school's enrollment grew rapidly during the 1850s, but was forced to close at the outset of the Civil War, when occupying Confederate forces converted it into a hospital.  Following William P. Sanders's failed raid against the city in June 1863, an artillery battery was set up behind the school building.  When Union forces captured Knoxville in September 1863, they in turn used the school as a hospital.  The school finally reopened in December 1866.
  In 1873, the state appropriated $10,000 for the school, allowing it to expand.  A new classroom building, designed by early Knoxville architect A.C. Bruce, was completed in 1874, and a chapel and auditorium building, designed by Joseph Baumann (1844–1920), was completed in 1879.  A second classroom building was added in 1891, and a hospital building was constructed in 1899.  The school continued operating at the complex until 1924, when it moved to its new campus at the old Island Home estate in South Knoxville.
caption: The "Deaf and Dumb Asylum," as shown on an 1886 map of Knoxville
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