On Gay Street there’s a cineplex and a historic movie theater, and just across the street, at the Museum of East Tennessee History, is a comprehensive exhibit about the history of film here. It’s called “Lights! Cameras! East Tennessee!” and it’s pretty fascinating. Movies, still a favorite form of…
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Market Square today is known for its lively farmers’ market, open-air musical events, and its array of restaurants and nightspots. But this month, Knoxville will honor its heritage in the history of American journalism. As only a few people know, major publisher Adolph Ochs, founder of the modern…
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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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Downtown Knoxville never fails to attract attention, with relatively narrow streets reflecting its 18th-century origins, a public square of unusual shape, and a variety of large buildings of different styles in brick and marble, most of them built before 1930. And most of it’s on top of a 60-foot…
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Wondering how to get your kids interested in history? Let us help you solve this problem with the History Headquarters ( History HQ ). Located in the Museum of East Tennessee History, History HQ is the East Tennessee Historical Society’s exhibition experience for young historians and their families…
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We take World’s Fair Park for granted, as a venue for concerts and festivals, but next time you’re down there, have a look around. There may be nowhere like it in the world. It’s a pretty extraordinary assemblage of more than a century’s worth of architecture, from mid-Victorian industrial to some…
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Although it’s an iffy time to visit museums and cultural centers in an era of an unpredictable epidemic, we can still experience history with a drive…
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Knoxville has always been a music town, but the 1982 World’s Fair helped finally bring Knoxville into the musical spotlight. Read on and click through the links to hear some tunes on YouTube! Many great artists performed at the Fair, from Hollywood legend Bob Hope to classical greats Isaac Stern…
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After 40 years, it’s still hard to believe it happened. Even those who don’t remember the 1982 World’s Fair – and at this point, most Americans weren’t even alive then – are obliged to know something about it. It’s the answer to “What’s that big golden thing standing on the west side of downtown?”…
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Forty years ago, Knoxville hosted a world’s fair to highlight ways of dealing with a future with limited supplies of energy. Planned during the Energy Crisis of the 1970s, the big fair, originally known as the Knoxville International Energy Exposition, presented hundreds of solutions, both in terms…
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