Tough, well-trapped, and cantankerous: Knoxville’s Historic Holston Hills Golf Course The site of this month’s Visit Knoxville Open is one of the most beautiful golf courses in the region, on the banks of the Holston River. Now almost a century old, Holston Hills is also one of the most historic…
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In and around Knoxville is an array of photogenic historic homes, houses noted for their age, architecture, and stories of the people who lived there. No two are very much alike. Some have been known and respected as house museums for almost a century, while another is a relatively recent addition…
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This April marks the 160 th anniversary of the end of the Civil War. By the time Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in a meeting more than 300 miles northeast of here at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, things had been pretty quiet in Knoxville for more than a year. Longstreet’s…
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After 150 years of envying the Gulf Coast Mardi Gras, we finally created our own version of it—and brought the dogs! Mardi Growl’s history is pretty recent and easy to track. Inspired by a similar event in St. Louis, it started in 2008, and has been a colorful, popular, and often a joyfully noisy…
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Knoxville has earned some acclaim for its country musicians. Several who started their careers on Knoxville radio, from Roy Acuff to Chet Atkins to Don Gibson to the Everly Brothers to Dolly Parton, became major stars. However, African American musicians in Knoxville have had a notable influence on…
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About six miles south of downtown Knoxville, Marble Springs is a bucolic idyll, a cluster of very old cabins in a creekside glade, surrounded by woods. It’s unlike most historic homes in that the touring is mostly outside, peering into four historic cabins arranged in a compound. It’s a good place…
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Knoxville has been home to all sorts of couples in its 230-odd years, even back to the days of Blount Mansion, and the team of William and Mary (or Molsey) Blount—whose union is remembered with the fact that Maryville, named for her, is the seat of Blount County, named for him. There have been…
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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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