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Short Profiles of Reader Requested Towns

In their search for a great retirement spot, readers ask us to profile all kinds of towns, from the places they grew up or attended college to places they have visited in their travels or just heard about from other people.  This page is where we address these profile requests.

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Tucked away in the rolling hills of northeastern Tennessee is the village of Norris (population 1,500), a pleasing spot that is starting to attract second home owners and retirees in search of easy lakeside living, rural charm and affordability.    Started in 1933, Norris was a planned community built by the Tennessee Valley Authority and was originally designed to demonstrate the benefits of cooperative living (although it soon became a company town occupied by workers who came to build nearby Norris dam).  TVA town planners based their design on the English garden design movement of the1890s, and rather than all facing the street, homes were built at angles to one another.   The town was laid out to be entirely walkable, and it was the first in the country to employ greenbelts as a design feature (and it is surrounded by green spaces today). Norris also had some of the first all-electric homes in the country.  

Today, the town is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with many of its original buildings still occupied.   The overall cost of living is roughly 10% below the national average, and the median home price is $160,000.  Of the population, 28% is age 45 to 64 and 20% is age 65 or better.  Residents cherish the town's Norman Rockwell-like quality, with cute homes, a New England-style town square and just one of everything - one elementary school, one market, one diner, one post office, one bank, one police station, one library and one fire station (but it does have two parks and six churches).     Evening concerts, a farmers' market and festivals in the town square help create a sense of community, as does the walking trail that winds its way past every residence in town.   There is virtually no traffic and no crime. 

And while Norris feels a thousand miles away from modern life, it is really a bedroom community of nearby Oak Ridge (population 27,000) and Knoxville (population 655,000), so the staples of life, such as shopping, dining, museums, sporting venues and the rest, are just a few minutes away.   The nearest hospital, Methodist Medical Center, is a 300-bed acute care facility with 175 physicians on staff and is just 10 miles away.  Norris Lake (750 acres of shoreline) provides a wonderful backdrop, and recreation areas along the lake provide for plenty of hiking, picnicking and just enjoying some solitude.   Real estate developments have popped up along the lake, but retirement here remains low-key with much of it spent fishing (rockfish, walleye and bass) or boating or just chatting with neighbors.   The area receive 5 to 6 inches of precipitation each month and an occasional dusting of snow.  Summer temperatures are in the 80s and 90s, and winter temperatures are in the 30s, 40s and 50s.

Norris does have a few drawbacks.  It is losing a bit of population, and the air quality is below the national average (the water quality meets the national average).    The water level of the lake can fluctuate.   There is no senior center in town, but the East Tennessee Human Resource Agency operates several centers in the county, the closest one to Norris being the Clinton Senior Center, about 7 miles away.   

Recommended as a Retirement Spot? Yes

Norris might be too small or too rural for some, and its air quality should be considered, but its affordability, scenic location, lake recreation, low, low crime rate, proximity to a large city with amenities, visually-appealing layout, pretty town square, small town charm and community spirit make it a potential retirement spot.