Ijamses were 'green' ahead of their time

Photo by Paul Efird // Buy this photo

The Ijams home, seen here in 1998, was razed to make way for the Nature Center’s education building.

Harry Pearle and Alice Yow Ijams were adventurers.

They hiked in the Smokies during their 1905 honeymoon. Lost one night, they sheltered in a mountain church.

They marked one wedding anniversary rowing the Tennessee River from Knoxville to Chattanooga, ending the weeklong, rain-plagued trip bedraggled.

They were nature lovers, conservationists and devoted parents to Elizabeth, Josephine (Jo), Mary and Martha. In 1910 they bought 20 South Knoxville acres and moved a one-story log cabin onto the property.

They spent the next four decades transforming the property into a garden showplace, a bird sanctuary, a sustainable homestead and an idyllic place to raise their daughters. Their cabin evolved into a rambling two-story home as Harry, called H.P., added a second story, sleeping porch and greenhouse.

"I think of nature and how close they were to nature, how progressive and ahead of their time they really were," recalls Mary Gallant, Martha Ijams Lovingood's daughter, of her grandparents.

When Mary, the Ijams' 16-year-old daughter, died in a 1932 car accident, her parents memorialized her through nature. They donated 2.5 acres of their land to the Knoxville Girl Scouts in memory of Mary, a devoted scout. Camp Mary Ijams was a day camp from 1939 until the 1970s. The Scouts later sold the property.

H.P. was an ornithologist who raised barred owls and kestrels. He patented a nest box, installed more than 100 on his land and kept records of the birds that lived there.

Active in the local Audubon group, H.P. told other members he'd build a clubhouse on his property if they'd mark their lands as bird habitats. The clubhouse was built, and more than 1,000 acres protected. Bird-watchers and students often came to Ijams to look for birds; school children were making field trips there in the 1940s.

In 1928 H.P. bought a collection of mounted birds containing a stuffed passenger pigeon. The specimen was his prized possession; he gave instructions that it was to be the first thing to be taken from the home in case of fire because "it can never be replaced."

This 1930s pen-and-ink map, filled with details and cartoon characters, was done by H.P. Ijams. Ijams was an artist who worked as an illustrator for the Knoxville News Sentinel from 1920 until his retirement in the 1950s. This map was one of the last that Ijams created to promote the new Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Rather than a road map, this guide is an often humorous look at the park.

An artist and Knoxville News Sentinel illustrator for 30 years, H.P. Ijams used his talent not only to create family Christmas cards but to promote the fledging Great Smoky Mountains National Park. In the 1930s he drew two pen-and-ink promotional maps of Knoxville and the mountains, and designed a series of 16 poster stamps for the Great Smoky Mountains Conservation Association.

Gallant remembers as a young child collaborating with her grandfather on their own designs.

"I used to sit on his lap, and we would have a coloring book or a storybook. I would tell him what to write, and he would draw the word bubbles (in the book)," says Gallant, now a graphic designer.

Alice Ijams was the family gardener. She was a charter member and later president of the Knoxville Garden Club, the group that decades later led the drive to preserve the Ijams property. She oversaw women's exhibits and "floricultural displays" at 1930s and 1940s Tennessee Valley Agricultural and Industry Fairs.

"I remember her loving her gardens, being in the greenhouse and cooking Sunday dinner for us," says Gallant. "She was a fabulous cook. ... Her chicken and dumplings were such comfort food. "

At times, Alice was called the "first lady" and "walking encyclopedia" of Knoxville garden clubs. She was also a businesswoman, opening Southside Greenhouses in the 1920s. She oversaw three large greenhouses a short walk from her home, selling flowers to Knoxville florist Brockway Crouch.

"There was always something in bloom and pretty. I remember working in the garden and playing outside," recalls Martha Kern, the daughter of Jo Ijams Kern. She and her brother, George, grew up on their grandparents' land. Their parents moved to the property in the 1950s to help Alice Ijams.

"I feel like I grew up in a Wayside Garden catalogue," says Martha Kern.

Amy McRary may be reached at 865-342-6437.

© 2010, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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