Urban Legends

BOO AT THE BIJOU

URBAN LEGENDS By: Sarah M. Booher

Garza Law Firm

Now Knoxville’s third-oldest building standing and its oldest commercial property, the Bijou Theatre was originally built in 1816(ish) as a private residence for Thomas Humes, a wealthy merchant. While the Lamar Hotel was born after his widow sold it a year later, the building has housed a variety of businesses over the years, including a fruit stand, used car storage lot, adult movie house, and brothel.

But in its heyday, it was the place to be and be seen for Knoxville’s wealthy residents. There was a gala reception for Andrew Jackson while in town. Moreover, Frances Hodgson Burnett, famed author of The Secret Garden, had a brother who was a bartender at the hotel’s saloon. She herself loved the masquerade balls. Additionally, Rutherford B. Hayes, James K. Polk, and Ulysses S. Grant were all guests of the hotel. The Bijou Theatre itself was developed from the Lamar House ballroom/ back wing and opened in 1909. It was Knoxville’s first racially-integrated business.

THE GHOST OF WILLIAM SANDERS

When the Civil War dawned, Lamar House became a hospital for both sides. Colonel William P. Sanders, a chief of the calvary corps for the Union army, arrived in town on September 3, 1863, with plans to scout out the enemy and disrupt communication and transportation as part of the Knoxville Campaign. However, he was shot on November 18th by Confederate sharpshooter Colonel Edward Porter Alexander, his old roommate and classmate at West Point. He was taken to the bridal suite at Lamar House, where he died the next day. Initially buried under the cover of night in the cemetery of Second Presbyterian Church, his body was later moved to the Chattanooga National Cemetery (although there are also accounts that he’s buried at the entrance of Krutch Park), but his ghost is rumored to still be at the Bijou. Employees and guests are often visited by a soldier and catch glimpses of the glimmer of his uniform buttons and the corners of his eyes. If you’re ever on the top floor, beware. That’s where he died and continues to linger. Perhaps he’s still looking for his true love, a local woman whose family included a Confederate spy.

THOMAS ATKINS IS THIRSTY

The ghost of Thomas Atkins would join him 14 years later. Atkins ran, well, the Atkins Hotel, rumored to be the second-best hotel in town after the Lamar House. He didn’t much care for Thomas Sneed, Lamar House’s manager at the time. When Atkins asked for water after an all-day party at Sneed’s hotel, Sneed asked him, “What do you want water for when you can have a man’s drink?” In the midst of the ensuing altercation, Sneed took a derringer pistol from his pocket and shot Atkins in front of the remaining partygoers. He went free on a claim of selfdefense, but his social career was as dead as Atkins. Both Thomases can be visited these days in permanent proximity to one another at the Old Gray Cemetery. However, urban legend says Atkins is still desperately seeking that water. So, if you’re ever in the Bijou and hear footsteps of the paranormal variety, grab some tap or bottled water. Then he’ll leave you alone.

OTHER PHANTOM PRESENCES

A man by the name of Elium Smiley worked at the Bijou from 1909 until it closed in 1926. He signed his name underneath the landing bridge, and it is rumored that he is the spirit who walks the rafters and stage catwalk every evening. He also caused a lot of mischief for construction crews during the theatre’s roof renovation. Smiley loved making loud crashes and dropping large clumps of dirt and plaster onto the stage, while the ceiling above the mess remained mysteriously intact and secure.

Perhaps the most haunted area of the Bijou is the women’s restroom

on the second floor. There are countless accounts of icy hands tugging at women’s hems and pants while in there. Employees theorize that it is a child trying to get their attention.

Ghost Hunters, an A&E television series, named the Bijou the “hidden gem of haunted America,” although it has yet to devote a full episode to its ghosts. Other paranormal researchers declare it the most haunted building in Knoxville, claiming to have witnessed physical interactions, apparitions, disembodied voices, and residual hauntings. Regardless of the fame and notoriety these spirits bring to the Bijou, the building’s caretakers continue to leave one light on every evening in the theatre – the ‘ghost light’ – for their local phantom friends.