For some reason, when we talk about Knoxville industry, we talk about textiles and nails and machinery and chemicals and stone and lumber. How come we always skip the fun stuff? A century ago, believe it or not, this city was also a center for the mass production of candy, including a wide variety…
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Christmas seems ancient, doesn’t it? The Biblical story is literally ancient, and there seems to be something old fashioned about most of the ways we…
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It’s not a sandwich, but an artistic and historical walking experience. If you’re walking or driving around central Knoxville, you’ll see, on…
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Several cities tout their favorite local authors, because people like to see the places they’ve read about in novels. Knoxville has its own literary heritage, associated with nationally well-known books and authors, and a brand-new guide to the city’s notable writers, and the places they wrote…
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The University of Tennessee is arguably the largest entity in Knoxville, and one of the oldest. But how well do we know it? About 100,000 people gather there now and then, especially in the fall to watch a football game, but may not see much of the rest of the university. But UT’s campus presents a…
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You’ve probably heard a lot about the history of the 19th amendment, which guaranteed women the right to vote. Tennessee played the key role in that Constitutional landmark event. Over the last couple of years, national events have celebrated its centennial. When Tennessee passed it in August of…
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There was a time when Knoxville seemed statue-shy—half a century ago, Knoxvillians could count their notable public statues on the fingers of one hand—but today there are striking statues all over. A New York Times columnist recently noted that Knoxville may be America’s only city with two statues…
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What was Christmas like 100 years ago? Many things in Knoxville were different. There was no TV, no Internet, and for most of the decade, no movies with sound. But the holidays were really not so different from the holidays today. In fact, you don’t need a whole lot of imagination to walk around…
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The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is soon to celebrate its centennial. A good hike in the mountains is a perfectly appropriate way to celebrate that. But so is a walk around downtown Knoxville. That’s where much of it happened, where lawyers, bankers, and engineers began the work that made the…
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History in the Making Gay Street was the site of the 1796 Constitutional Convention that resulted in the founding of the state of Tennessee and was a focal point for the early political activity of both the city and the state of Tennessee. On the eve of the Civil War, Gay Street was the site of…
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