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Alcoa, Tennessee
Summary
Alcoa is a city in Blount County, Tennessee, south of Knoxville. Its population was 10,978 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Knoxville, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area.
As its name suggests, Alcoa was the site of a large aluminum smelting plant owned and operated by the Alcoa corporation (Aluminum Company of America). Formerly known as North Maryville, the town was incorporated under its present name in 1919.
Shortly after the Pittsburgh Reduction Company changed its name to the Aluminum Company of America in 1907, the company began investigating the possibility of establishing a large smelting operation in East Tennessee. The hydroelectric potential of the Little Tennessee River, which exits the mountains about southwest of Alcoa, was one of the primary incentives, as the company's aluminum smelting operation would require massive amounts of electricity. In 1910, the company established a base camp at what is now known as Calderwood, initially known as "Alcoa", and was known as such until the name was reapplied to the company's operations in North Maryville a few years later.
The company considered several potential plant sites in Knoxville, Etowah, and Monroe County, but chose North Maryville due in part to the influence of Maryville mayor Samuel Everett (1864−1941). By 1914, the company had completed the initial purchase of in North Maryville, and had initiated construction of the smelting plant and 150 houses for company employees. ALCOA's chief engineer Edwin Fickes and hydraulic engineer Robert Ewald drew up plans for the town to house the plant's workers. The town design initially called for the acquisition of , and included four sections— Vose and Springbrook in the north (around what is now Springbrook Park) and Bassel and Hall in the south (around what is now the South Plant). Hall, named for the inventor of the aluminum electrolytic process, was originally a segregated community for the plant's African-American workers. Oldfield, a small community between the planned town and Maryville, would later be annexed by the city of Alcoa.
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