About Us

We are Karns Community Club, a 501c3 community non-profit corporation in the Knoxville, Tennessee USA area. We have two buildings that we allow some community organizations to use and also rent them, generally to the public, for parties, weddings, family events, breakfast meetings, lunch meetings, corporate meetings, memorial services, and many other types of gatherings. The rental income is the primary financial support for the organization. We try to rent at reasonable rates to generate the income to maintain and improve the buildings and to provie small grants for worthwhile community projects. Each building has one large rental space. One building is located next to our public access tennis court. The other building is located in the Lions Club Park where there is a Lions Club free Adaptive Playground, a daily fee swimming pool, and an 800 square feet Pavilion that can be rented from the Lions Club.

Our Story

The Karns Community Club (KCC) was established in 1954 to provide leadership and a means to encourage a sense of community and to provide facilities that would enhance the quality of life for those residing within the Karns Community. One of the first efforts of the KCC was the construction of a Community Center Building and tennis court on what had been school property leased from Knox County Government. The Community Center Building served as a meeting place and library and eventually was called the ‘Old Library”. The second major project was the construction in the 1970’s of a Youth Center Building and tennis court in the Lions Club Park on property leased from the Lions Club. The tennis court at the Youth Center was eventually replaced by the Lions Club with an Adaptive Playground. Interest in the Youth Center waned over the years and a new library at another site was constructed by Knox County. At that point the KCC decided to allow community organizations to use the buildings and to rent the two buildings primarily on the weekends. Rental fees and sales of homemade ice cream at community events, became the primary income of the KCC to support its community activities. For many years the KCC hosted the Karns Community Fair. The fair activity has now been passed on to one of our Community Partners, the Karns Fair Board.