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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
There’s a certain breed of traveler who loves old cemeteries. Knoxville has lots of old burying places, graveyards, churchyards, memorial parks—dozens of them, 230 years’ worth—no two are very much alike. Perhaps most rewarding is an autumn walk in Old Gray. The tree-shaded Victorian-era cemetery is…
Read More
1. Clinch Avenue Geese Along Clinch Avenue, between Gay and State, is the big structure that contains the Tennessee Theatre. While the interior is extravagantly decorated with dozens of colorful designs and symbols from all over the world, the outside of the building is much more conservative. But…
Read More
It didn’t start in recent years, with UT’s Min Kao building, named for the influential Taiwan-born scientist who a fond alumnus of the 1970s, or the Chinese Pavilion, the most popular and significant feature of Knoxville’s 1982 World’s Fair. Tennesseans were always fascinated with all things Asian…
Read More
For summer vacation, Knoxvillians often go to the beach, if they don’t prefer to go even farther away. But there was a time when many Americans came to Knoxville to spend the summer. Before the Smokies opened in 1930, our region’s biggest draw was our springs resorts, advertising either relaxation…
Read More
Knoxville has an industrial history, but never relied on just one product. From its mid-19 th -century origins, the city’s industrial base was very diverse. We made nearly everything here. The phrase “the Marble City,” was first coined to describe Knoxville’s distinctive marble and limestone products…
Read More
Take a Sunday-afternoon stroll to behold Knoxville's ecclesiastical architecture! Churches are often the most striking buildings in any city, and that’s certainly the case in Knoxville. The stories behind downtown’s historic churches make them interesting to look…
Read More
