Home" after the island in the adjacent stretch of the Tennessee River (this island is now known as Dickinson's Island). Dickinson's Island Home farm covered , with criss-crossed by white picket fences. What is now Island Home Boulevard was initially the main approach road to the Dickinson house. Along with a summer home, Dickinson used the farm as a model stock farm. An 1879 issue of the Knoxville Republican described a McCormick reaper and binder demonstration at Island Home, which was probably the first use of the latter in the general region. Island Home also served as a gathering place for various clubs and societies. The development of the Island Home Park neighborhood began with the completion of the "new" Gay Street Bridge in 1898. This new bridge was equipped with trolley tracks, connecting for the first time Knoxville and South Knoxville via trolley. The Island Home Park Company was founded in 1899 for the purpose of establishing a suburb on land acquired from Dickinson. Colonel Cary Spence (1869–1943), a World War I veteran and president of the Spence Trunk and Leather Company, was the Island Home Park company's president. Trolley tracks were extended along the length of the Island Home Boulevard median, and housing construction began sometime around 1910. Island Home Park was annexed by Knoxville in 1917. Like most of Knoxville's early streetcar suburbs, such as Old North Knoxville and Fourth and Gill, Island Home Park's original residents consisted of middle and upper middle class medical and financial professionals, factory and retail managers, and Tennessee Valley Authority engineers and specialists. One notable early resident was actor John Cullum, who has spoken fondly of the neighborhood. The Tennessee School for the Deaf moved to its present campus immediately east of Island Home Park in 1924, after selling its original school building on Western Avenue to the City of Knoxville for use as a city hall. The Downtown Island Airport is rooted in a charter flight service established by early Knoxville aviator Tom Kesterson on Dickinson's Island in 1930. Island Home Park Historic District The Island Home Park Historic District consists of 91 contributing houses situated along Island Home Boulevard, Spence Place, Fisher Place, and Maplewood. The two stone gateposts at the neighborhood's western entrance are listed as contributing objects, and the trolley turnaround just inside the gateposts and the median along Island Home Boulevard are listed as contributing sites.