Before the city ever showed up to cut a ribbon, Fountain City residents had already started using the trail. Alison Bullock, with Knoxville's Parks and Recreation Department, said as much at the August 18 opening: people were running and biking the new stretch while construction crews were still working on it. Nobody waited for the grand opening. They'd been waiting long enough already.
That impatience makes sense once you know what the trail replaced. For years, the Sue Clancy Greenway inside Adair Park did something almost designed to frustrate a runner: it just stopped. You'd follow the path along Adair Creek, and at some point the pavement gave out and you were standing at a creek bank with no way forward except turning around and walking back the way you came. The city's own greenway page describes that old spur as a 0.56-mile dead end. Half a mile of trail, and then nothing.
Twenty Years for Half a Mile
The reason it took this long isn't a mystery, and it isn't really about money. It's about who owns the ground between Adair Park and the neighborhoods on the other side of Sharp's Ridge.
Fred Barry, president of Berry Lynnhurst Funeral Home, said his family had been in discussions about a greenway crossing through the cemetery for about 25 years. Carol Evans, executive director of Legacy Parks Foundation, called the process an "effort of trust" and said it took roughly two decades to actually secure the easement that made the connection possible. The trail needed permission to cross land owned by Knoxville Utilities Board, by Lynnhurst Cemetery, and by the Park at Fountain City apartment complex. Three separate property owners, one long negotiation, and a route that had to thread around active graves and utility infrastructure instead of just cutting the shortest line.
"It would never happen without the collaboration," Barry said at the ribbon cutting. "It's taken a lot of different folks. Legacy Parks, the city, all the construction workers. Everybody coming together."
What Actually Opened on August 18
The city broke ground on November 17, 2025, and at that point the project was described as a half-mile connector. By the time it opened ten months later, the finished trail measured a full mile, running from Adair Park across Lynnhurst Creek to a new southern trailhead. City Public Service crews built it themselves rather than hiring an outside contractor, clearing underbrush and packing down a 10-foot-wide crushed stone path.
Mayor Indya Kincannon put the change in blunt terms at the opening. The greenway, she said, "was first started decades ago under Victor Ashe's administration, but it was just a dead end. And now it's not a dead end anymore. It's a connection."
Here's where the three pieces of Fountain City's greenway system currently stand:
| Segment | Status as of September 2026 | Surface |
|---|---|---|
| Original Adair Park loop | Complete, in use for years | Paved |
| Sue Clancy Greenway Extension | Opened August 18, 2026 | Crushed stone / gravel |
| First Creek Greenway "missing link" (Broadway Shopping Center) | Announced for 2026 construction start, not yet complete | Not yet built |
Two Doors In
If you're planning to actually use this thing, you now have two ways to reach it. The first is the way it's always worked: through Adair Park itself, at 1807 Adair Drive. The 38-acre park still has its own 1.1-mile paved loop, two wooden bridges crossing Adair Creek, and plantings that trace back to the property's earlier life as the city's nursery.
The second is new. There's now a dedicated southern trailhead at 4719 Old North Broadway, sitting near the eastern entrance to Lynnhurst Cemetery. If you live south of Sharp's Ridge and never had a reason to drive up to Adair Park before, this is the entrance that puts the trail within walking distance without needing to cross Broadway at the interstate interchange at all.
The Sidewalk That Was Already Waiting
The new trail didn't have to build its own bridge over Broadway traffic because the city had already solved that piece. Back in 2024, Knoxville spent roughly $3 million to build or upgrade 3,800 feet of sidewalk along Old Broadway, specifically to give pedestrians a way around the congested spot where the interstate meets the highway. That sidewalk sat there for two years as infrastructure with only half a job to do. Now it connects directly into the new greenway extension, so the two projects together form one continuous route: sidewalk on one end, crushed stone trail on the other, no stretch where you're forced onto the shoulder of a four-lane road.
Not the Downtown Ride Yet
Here's the part that's easy to miss in the celebration coverage: this trail is still gravel, not asphalt. Future paving is tied to funding decisions working through the city's Five-Year Neighborhood Investment Plan, which means anyone picturing a smooth road-bike commute on this stretch should adjust that picture. Right now it's built for runners, walkers, and mountain or gravel bikes, not skinny tires or jogging strollers with small front wheels.
And the bigger promise, a genuine car-free route from Fountain City all the way into downtown Knoxville, still depends on a second, separate project. City officials said last fall that a "missing link" segment of the First Creek Greenway, located in front of the Broadway Shopping Center, was slated to begin construction sometime in 2026. As of the Sue Clancy extension's opening in August, that segment hadn't been reported as complete. Until it is, the connection Kincannon described as the long-term goal, a walkable, bikeable path stretching from Fountain City to downtown, remains half-built. Fountain City just got its dead end fixed. Downtown is still a separate project away.
Look for the Wave
The most Fountain City detail in the whole story belongs to Sue Clancy herself. She's 94 now, and Victor Ashe hired her at 52 to help build the city's first special events office, back during the 1982 World's Fair era. She went on to create Christmas in the City and run the logistics for Knoxville's 1996 Bicentennial. She only learned the greenway would carry her name at her own retirement party.
For the ribbon cutting, Clancy walked the entire trail with her family, something she said she hadn't done in more than ten years. And she made a point of noting what sits right next to the new southern trailhead: Lynnhurst Cemetery, where she'll one day be buried beside her husband.
"Whenever God's through with me, if you're ever walking in the neighborhood, just look over and I'll give you a wave and a wink," she said, "and we'll keep this legacy going."
That's the kind of detail that doesn't show up in a press release. It shows up in a neighborhood that's been patient enough, and connected enough, to turn a twenty-year easement negotiation into something a 94-year-old woman gets to walk the length of before she's done.
If you're already lacing up for a run past Adair Park or thinking about which entrance gets you there faster from your street, you know this neighborhood better than any website can tell you. And if you're the kind of person who tracks a trail extension the way some people track school ratings, that instinct is worth something when it's time to talk about property, too. Karli Pritchard Realtors works this side of Knoxville every day. When you're ready to talk about a move in Fountain City or anywhere else in the area, schedule a personalized market consultation and let's talk about what you actually need to know.
