failed. In 1817, an Irish immigrant named John Reynolds purchased what is now Bearden Hill from Knoxville founder James White. Reynolds's son, Major Robert Reynolds, inherited the property and built a house, Knollwood, that still stands atop the hill, overlooking Kingston Pike (his sister oversaw its construction, as he was away fighting in the Mexican–American War at the time). During the Civil War, Knollwood served as the headquarters of Confederate general James Longstreet while he planned his assault on Knoxville. Bearden's namesake, Marcus De Lafayette Bearden (1830–1885), was a Union officer, Mayor of Knoxville, and state legislator who owned a farm in the community along Weisbarger Road. He was a cousin of the older Bearden (the paper mill founder). In 1888, while serving in the state legislature, he managed to secure funding for the Eastern State Hospital (later known as Lakeshore Mental Health Institute) on Lyons View Pike, which provided a major economic boost to the community. Commercial development In 1900, Bearden remained a largely rural community concentrated around a railroad depot, a post office, a gristmill, and two stores. Within a few years, more businesses began to appear, due mainly to Kingston Pike's location along two cross-country tourism routes, the Dixie Highway and the Lee Highway. In the late-1920s, Knoxville's first motel, Edd's Tourist Camp, opened in Bearden. In subsequent years, dozens of filling stations, motels and restaurants sprang up catering to the Dixie-Lee Highway tourist traffic. While the completion of the Interstate Highway System in the 1960s drew away most of Kingston Pike's cross-country traffic, the construction of Western Plaza (Knoxville's first shopping center outside of the downtown area) in 1957 and West Town Mall in the early 1970s sparked a retail boom in West Knoxville. Numerous shopping centers and retail outlets sprang up in the 1970s and 1980s, and Knoxville's primary commercial corridor shifted from Downtown Knoxville to West Knoxville. Economy The Bearden area is home to over 30 shopping centers, covering over three million square feet of floor space. Along with West Town Mall, major centers include Homberg Place, Bearden Center, Knox Plaza, Papermill Plaza, and the Centre at Deane Hill. Most of these shopping centers have one or two large anchor stores flanked by various smaller stores. The Bearden area is also home to several dozen office buildings with over of office space. In recent years, Knoxville and the Bearden community have taken steps to