Oakwood: Knoxville's Industrial Suburb of the Labor Aristocracy, 1902-1917

The study of an early twentieth century suburb of Knoxville reveals the extent to which residential suburbanization was, by the turn of the century, no longer the preserve of the middle classes, but rather an urban movement which encompassed the more skilled segment of the working class--the • labor aristocracy. The study also reveals that suburbanization in turn-of-the-century America was not exclusively a residential phenomenon. The suburb in question, Oakwood, was billed, at the time, as "Knoxville's 'magic' suburb." It was a skilled working class, industrial suburb and was adjacent to the large Southern Railroad Coster Works which employed the majority of Oakwood's wage earners. That this skilled segment of the working class chose to locate in Oakwood is an example of the value system inherent in the labor aristocracy.