Vol. 2, Issue 38 Sept. 29, 2016

SPECIAL BICENQUASQUIGENARY ISSUE!

SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 KNOXMERCURY.COM V.

2 / N.38

KNOXVILLE’S 225th ANNIVERSARY

di s c ov e r

see

HISTORIC HOMES

this city Has made a difference

a chronological tour

by Thomas Fraser

a special section by Jack Neely

PLUS: WHERE TO CELEBRATE OUR 225 TH NEWS

Knoxville Homeless Collective Protests Criminalization

JACK NEELY

Founders Day: On Oct. 3, Knoxville Turns 225.

We’re Pretty Sure.

MUSIC

Local Hero Mic Harrison’s Next Album, Vanishing South, Rocks Out

GEORGE DODDS

Why Knoxville’s Metropolitan Statistical Area Should Matter to You

COMING SOON ON

OCTOBER 13

Delivering Fine Journalism Since 2015

EDITORIAL EDITOR Coury Turczyn coury@knoxmercury.com SENIOR EDITOR Matthew Everett matthew@knoxmercury.com CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Jack Neely jack@knoxhistoryproject.org STAFF WRITERS S. Heather Duncan heather@knoxmercury.com CONTRIBUTORS

Abode is a home living and design magazine unlike any other in Knoxville.

It celebrates the area’s most unique houses.

Featuring:

• Fascinating tours of the area’s most surprising homes • Stunning renovation projects with before/after photos • Intimate photo essays about local craftspeople and products • Local green living and landscaping ideas

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Chris Barrett Ian Blackburn Brian Canever Patrice Cole Eric Dawson George Dodds Lee Gardner Mike Gibson Carey Hodges Nick Huinker Donna Johnson

White Lily Fla ts

Hayley Brundige Maria Smith

DESIGN ART DIRECTOR Tricia Bateman tricia@knoxmercury.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER

ODEL ROOM REM

Charlie Finch

the kitchen

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

y Shaker Fountain Cit a Duncan creates

David Luttrell Shawn Poynter Justin Fee Tyler Oxendine

en a modern kitch classic feel for

PER KIN S

BY DEN NIS A BODE

MAY 2016

A BODE

Middleb llebrook rookss

CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS

Ben Adams Matthew Foltz-Gray

ADVERTISING PUBLISHER & DIRECTOR OF SALES Charlie Vogel charlie@knoxmercury.com SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Scott Hamstead scott@knoxmercury.com Stacey Pastor stacey@knoxmercury.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Michael Tremoulis michael@knoxmercury.com

BUSINESS BUSINESS MANAGER Scott Dickey scott.dickey@knoxmercury.com v id L ut t r el l

Organ ically M o de r n : A Hols ton Riv er Hom e

Photos by George

Ph o t o s b y D a

s ingbird, Atticu n To Kill A Mock advises his Finch famously that, “You never daughter Scout you a person until stand under really of s from his point consider thing of true in all sorts view.” That’s an Daniel F. Dunc ways. So when he starts on a kitchen, starts to work d. aroun ing by just stand I’m crazy at first, “People think walk in and stand because I just fforr a long kitchen fo around in the says. a time,” Duncan e Duncan in Should you engag ng space, of your cooki consideration he to learn that long take ’t it doesn per about cabinets, isn’t think ing think ing about se—instead, he’s , the en exper ience your entire kitch in it. live and work way that you most recent One of Duncan’s a his approach— dies embo cts o ects oj proje proj style cramped galley remodel of a tain City home kitchen in a Foun desperate The owners, built in 1929. ng keepi to ted resor fforr a long time, fforr space, had fo of the lasts fo at the bottom tough stuff. It get on too their microwave So, ; wine doesn’t they may have it’s easy to clean to the basement. be start a remodel, an stairs leading In fact, it can first we may to add space was their it—it won’t stain. how much space, so lots of counter finish so that’s way to it work.“ used as floor and the best —and island to make tive— desire b ective bj obj objec rs’ the is.” owne onto by adding tough this stuff In this case the emphasizes achieve that was created a style r an space fact, Shake er in The MAY 20 en is, desig n fforr lots of count fo with house; the kitch an adds, this they filled with a that 16 crea utility but, Dunc space. Armed tive, un wide-open area el, which “is ffeel, an built entirely new Shaker fe om the ffrom , which Dunc iqueof, alo ings fr is more a large island rough set of draw ca there’s a little he r, rs and electr ical irly simple, butl homexam er Ingra m Fulle ffairly fa es ple, with wide drawe architect, Brew it.” As an both a table space more pizazz to an open slate. outlets to create was steel He e ess Duncan had area. uniqu stainl a and work a s, this was ay points out the rs ways, and a storage “In some way ce ted by the owne what lete the surfa owners knew countertops (selec abricaffa fabric also able to comp gives o ectt in that the oj proj projec a local metall open to boards, which and made by but they were s): “I ks): with only two th W Work they wanted, were s MetalWor particularly smoo , too. And they tor, FourSeason ess the surface a some suggestions about the stainl a s. “It was ay says. y ” he say y, ty,” tive finish. was concerned quality, it attrac in but and sted the style, r intere f like f, Shake itself, se it was a really steel with the The cabinetry el ffeel also unique becau ” n.”

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Rose Kennedy Catherine Landis Dennis Perkins Stephanie Piper Ryan Reed Eleanor Scott Alan Sherrod April Snellings Joe Sullivan Kim Trevathan Chris Wohlwend

INTERNS

BY TRACY JON ES

here was a time in Knoxville when many perfe ctly good buildings met the wreck king ing ball once they outlived their original purpose. Even beautifully ifu f lly constructfu ed, iconic pieces of architectur al histor y were left f to sit vacan ft t, invite vanda lism or decay, and then be decla red too o far ffa r gone to save.

Maybe that still happens sometimes. But not with a grow ing in network of herita ge preservatio nists and a d savvy devel opers who are repurposing the histor ic gems in Knox ville’s urban center and maki ng them shine. Once 6 the manufactu ring center for the south ’s best flour (ask a foodie), the four-story brick Whit Lily Flour build e ing (at Depot and Central avenu es near the Old City) is now home to White Lily Flats, a fully leased reside ntial complex from Dewhirst Properties. The developer has preserved much of the space’s manu factur ing histor y (gears Daniel F.

Cabinetmaker

• home furnishings and home-related products • custom home builders • renovation/preservation experts • architects • interior designers • home and garden service providers • landscapers • real estate agents • home listings • green products and services

S

Repurposing History T

...all together in one special publication, with the editorial style and inviting design that only the Mercury can provide!

It’s the ideal place to advertise:

HOUSE TOUR

unique

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 618 South Gay St., Suite L2, Knoxville, TN 37902 knoxmercury.com • 865-313-2059 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR & PRESS RELEASES editor@knoxmercury.com CALENDAR SUBMISSIONS calendar@knoxmercury.com SALES QUERIES sales@knoxmercury.com DISTRIBUTION distribution@knoxmercury.com

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Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of Knoxville’s most unique home design magazine. For more information, contact us at sales@knoxmercury.com or 865-313-2059.

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY September 29, 2016

Jack Neely Coury Turczyn Joe Sullivan Charlie Vogel The Knoxville Mercury is an independent weekly news magazine devoted to informing and connecting Knoxville’s many different communities. It is a taxable, not-for-profit company governed by the Knoxville History Project, a non-profit organization devoted to exploring, disseminating, and celebrating Knoxville’s unique cultural heritage. It publishes 25,000 copies per week, available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. © 2016 The Knoxville Mercury

Sept. 29, 2016 Volume 02 / Issue 38 knoxmercury.com

CONTENTS

“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” —H. G. Wells

10 A History Extravaganza!

COVER STORY

NEWS

9 Homeless

Pushback

The Knoxville Homeless Collective marched through town last week to meet briefly with Mayor Madeline Rogero, demanding that the city stop criminalizing the homeless. They gave Rogero until this Thursday to respond by putting a “Homeless Bill of Rights” on her agenda. S. Heather Duncan reports

To celebrate Knoxville’s 225th birthday (Oct. 3), we’re pulling out all the stops and with a history spectacular!

COVER STORY:

Thomas Fraser shows us how to track down Knoxville’s history ourselves with his chronological tour of the Historic Homes of Knoxville.

SPECIAL SECTION: Jack Neely, director of the Knoxville History Project and Mercury columnist, selects 25 turning points in Knoxville’s history that show “Why Knoxville Matters.”

Help Support Independent Journalism!

Nobody said this would be easy. Turns out there’s a good reason why! But if you appreciate our effort to provide a locally owned media voice for Knoxville, consider pitching in. Find out how you can help: knoxmercury.com/donate.

DEPARTMENTS

OPINION

A&E

4

6

18

38

Howdy Start Here: Dumpster Dive, Public Affairs, and PechaKucha Knoxville—each week, we run a slide from an interesting local presentation. ’Bye Finish There: Restless Native by Chris Wohlwend. Plus Crooked Street Crossword by Ian Blackburn and Jack Neely and Spirit of the Staircase by Matthew Foltz-Gray

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Architecture Matters George Dodds tells you everything you always wanted to know about metropolitan statistical areas (but were afraid to ask).

Scruffy Citizen Jack Neely provides a capsule history of Knoxville’s founding. Or at least what’s known.

19 20 21

CALENDAR Program Notes: Local label Gezellig Records debuts with some new releases.

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Spotlights: Coheed and Cambria, Cereus Bright

Inside the Vault: Stan Brock, action-movie hero? Yes! Eric Dawson uncovers the evidence.

Music: Mike Gibson checks in with Mic Harrison on his upcoming (and rockin’) new album.

Movies: Lee Gardner absorbs the imagery, if not the documentation, of Dead Slow Ahead.

September 29, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 3

HOWDY DUMPSTER highlights DIVE Weekly from our blog Read more at knoxmercury.com/blog

Photo by Sarah Shebaro

PECHA KUCHA NIGHT KNOXVILLE HOW TO MAKE PRINTMAKING ACCESSIBLE TO ALL | Bryan Baker | Presented Feb. 12, 2015 Striped Light is a creative-output imprint producing fine art, recorded material, and cultural experiences. This new establishment is the studio, office, and team headquarters for a trio of creative minds that have joined forces. They will be publishing, collaborating, and exploring tangents of their own volition as works are developed for the Striped Light catalog and portfolio. This team of experienced printers will also be available for hire, offering limited-edition custom letterpress design and printing for events, business ephemera, and artistic ventures. | Watch the 6-minute presentation at pechakucha.org/cities/knoxville

PUBLIC AFFAIRS

9/29 MEETING: HUMAN TRAFFICKING THURSDAY

6-7:30 p.m., Bearden Branch Library (100 Golfclub Rd.). Free.

In this meeting presented by the League of Women Voters of Knoxville/Knox County, Katie Little—operations coordinator for the Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking—will discuss human trafficking in the Knoxville area. Info: lwvknoxville.org or ccaht.org.

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY September 29, 2016

10/1 2016 GREAT LLAMA RACE SATURDAY

11 a.m.-4 p.m., World’s Fair Park. $5.

This must be the most unusual annual fundraiser in Knoxville: Local celebrities team up with llamas from Southeast Llama Rescue to represent local schools and race (trot) to victory. Proceeds go toward SLR as well as Casa de Sara, a nonprofit that provides education and opportunities for at-risk children and families in Latin America and the Knoxville area.

Info: thegreatllamarace.com.

MORRISTOWN COLLEGE DISPUTE The historic Morristown College campus could be razed and turned into a sprawling city park if the City Council of the small town about 50 miles east of Knoxville prevails in court. The Morristown City Council has filed a petition in Hamblen County Circuit Court in hopes of taking possession of the 52-acre campus through eminent domain proceedings.

Knoxville developers Amy and Brant Enderle bought the property at auction for $275,000 in 2014.

“RUN THEM DOWN” University of Tennessee law professor and nationally syndicated columnist Glenn Reynolds had his Twitter account temporarily suspended in response to a post suggesting that protesters in Charlotte, N.C., should be run over by drivers.

HOMELESS PROTEST The Knoxville Homeless Collective led a demonstration last Wednesday demanding that the city stop criminalizing the homeless and create a “designated safe zone” where they could rest without arrest or police harassment. See follow-up news feature in this issue.

10/2 FIFTH ANNUAL WINE TASTING AND 10/4 ARTS ACADEMY FOR KIDS: COOKING CULINARY EVENT SUNDAY

5:30-8:30 p.m., Consulate of the Republic of Slovenia (4801 Westover Terrace). $70 This simply named fundraiser takes place in an unusual corner of Knoxville: the Consulate of the Republic of Slovenia. Yes, it may also be the home of Lydia Pulsipher and Mac Goodwin, but it is a consulate nonetheless.

Proceeds will fund Slow Food Tennessee Valley’s program to host field trips for inner-city students to local farms and farmers’ markets. RSVP: macgoodwin@me.com.

TUESDAY

4-5:30 p.m., Knox County Public Defender’s Community Law Office (1101 Liberty St.). Free.

Held every Tuesday during the school year, Arts Academy is a free, after-school enrichment program for children in grades 1-5. We’re not sure if public defenders can cook, but for this class they’re bringing in chef Tyler White, an instructor at Pellissippi State’s culinary arts program.

Info: pdknox.org.

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ProjectBrandAid.com | #ProjectBrandAid September 29, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 5

ARCHITECTURE MATTERS

Bright Lights, Big MSA Why Knoxville’s metropolitan statistical area should matter to you

BY GEORGE DODDS

J

ay McInerney could have set his chronicle of the narcotized 1980s in Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth, or any number of sprawling American metro-zones that were equally awash with “Bolivian Marching Powder,” his catch phrase for cocaine in the widely popular Bright Lights, Big City (1984).

Yet, had he done so, it would have necessitated more than a new title.

His protagonist, who was “all messed up with no place to go,” needed Manhattan’s frenetic urban core for his rake’s progress. McInerney could have done without the bright lights, but he needed the big city.

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY September 29, 2016

Bright Lights, Big Metropolitan Statistical Area falls flat. Locales such as LA and Fort Worth, while technically metropolitan, are not cities in the way we’ve understood the term for millennia.

Yet, it has become fashionable to conflate these formless zones of commerce and consumption with the ancient notion of “urban” that only confounds an already nettlesome issue.

In matters of form, substance, material, structure, political organization, fiscal management, and perhaps most importantly, character and identity, cities and metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) are different in

kind. That said, one cannot overstate the importance of the MSA as a new way of thinking about urbanity.

Moreover, the ubiquity of its use may help us better understand places such as Knoxville.

Actuarial topics make eyes glaze and set one’s mind adrift. The metropolitan statistical area could be the poster child for such matters—on a permanent no-fly list of things not discussed at cocktail parties, alongside life insurance policies and conspiracy theories. MSAs may not be “such stuff as dreams are made on,” yet they lie at the heart of that hazy thing called The American Dream.

The Office of Management and Budget first used the category in 1949 to describe new settlement patterns that propagated in post-war America.

A 2010 OMB report in the Federal Register explains: “The general concept of a metropolitan statistical area is that of an area containing a large population nucleus and adjacent communities that have a high degree of integration with that nucleus.”

It may be surprising to learn that, according to the OMB, over 80 percent of Americans live in urban areas. Of course, there is a big difference between living in multi-unit housing, in walking distance to a grocery store, near a bus or subway line in a dense urban core, and life on a lawn-covered quarter-acre plot outside the city center.

Muddling an already vague concept, there are vast stretches of virtually all MSAs that include scattered fields of grazing cows, acres of asphalt parking lots, shapeless shopping malls, and miles of tract housing.

The Knoxville metropolitan statistical area is one of these; it

includes Knox, Anderson, Blount, Campbell, Grainger, Loudon, Morgan, Roane, and Union counties: population over 830,000. This is more than quadruple the population of the city of Knoxville, and equal to that of the city of San Francisco. Yet, MSAs don’t have a mayor and it’s likely that most Knoxville metro-dwellers don’t identify themselves as metropolitan.

There’s good reason for this, having much to do with the MSA’s notional haze along with America’s generally conflicted relationship with cities.

In his seminal The Fall of Public Man (1977), Richard Sennett observed: “There are probably as many different ways of conceiving what a city is as there are cities.” The reasons are several; its meaning varies greatly from one culture to another, and meanings change over just a few generations, even within the same culture. Which may explain why the OMB and Census Bureau demur from defining it.

What the federal government does define, however, are “urban” and “rural” areas—the building blocks of a MSA. “Urban” ones are densely populated areas of 50,000 or more; a rural area is, by default, everything “not urban.”

Hence, when the edges of America’s urbanized areas changed so rapidly as to be all but unrecognizable from their pre-war status, in a quintessentially Orwellian manner, governmental agencies simply tweaked existing The City, As It Was: An 1863 topographical map of Knoxville (far left) “Shewing [sic] the Positions Occupied by the United States & Confederate Forces during the Siege.” An 1886 aerial view of Knoxville (left) shows a city already well-defined to the east, along Gay Street, and bounded on the west by the Second Creek of the bluff.

Seduction of Place (2002), he characterizes New Urbanism as being less about building “community” (its published goal) and far more about selling real estate to a privileged few.

Moreover, Rykwert (the Royal Institute of British Architects 2014 Gold Medalist) argues that rather than providing an authentic urban experience, it succeeds in shielding its inhabitants, offering “a refuge and shelter from the city,” rather than a dwelling place within a city. For Rykwert, instead of a place “where strangers are likely to meet,” it is primarily a retail development where no strangers are allowed.

Many consider cities to be one of humankind’s most remarkable inventions—centers of government, religions, law, and seats of learning.

They also have a markedly unsavory and unhygienic reputation: the foundation of America’s longstanding anti-urbanism. Its philosophical underpinning emigrated from Europe along with the earliest colonists, took root in North America’s seemingly limitless expanses, and were validated in the American imagination by such foundational documents as Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia.

If we accept Jacobs’ argument that suburbs are a parasite to the host “urb” that they surround, and if we value (as both Jacobs and Sennett do) the role that cities play in bringing together people of different backgrounds, races, and religions—something thwarted in the sprawl-space of strip malls and interstate exchanges— one can see how the whole idea of a metropolitan statistical area, that

conflates suburban and urban areas, is a matter of concern.

How do those empowered to direct the future of Knoxville’s development avoid either adding to the dross of noxious sprawl or, at the other extreme, resorting to what Rykwert called a “refuge… from the city”? For over a century Knoxville existed as a tightly knit collection of more-or-less orthogonally organized streets bracketed, on the west, by the bluffs east of 11th Street and, on the east, by the First Creek gulch. When Knoxville expanded, it looked west, first annexing Sequoyah Hills and later, in 1917, quadrupling its size by annexing such suburban developments as the oxymoronic Park City.

Annexation remained an essential strategy for Knoxville to cushion itself from economic downturns for most of the 20th century. The result is that areas conceived and developed as suburbs—such as the Chilhowee Park neighborhood—were re-categorized urban, long before the invention of such devices as the metropolitan statistical area.

The intrusion of suburban settlement patterns and building typologies—along with their incumbent dependencies on widely dispersed services and infrastructure within the city limits—is not unique to Knoxville. Throughout the 20th century it did much to change America’s conception of what a city looked like, how it functioned, and how its citizens related to its public spaces.

Jacobs’ neat distinction between city and suburb quickly dissolves when one accepts that most of a city like

Knoxville consists of what is structurally and functionally suburban.

How would Jacobs or Sennett (both of whom lived much of their lives in the provincial enclave of lower Manhattan) react to cities such as Knoxville that have inverted the parasite/host relationship—wherein a city is built on the back of something fundamentally suburban? I suspect neither would recognize most of Knoxville as a “ville” of any kind. And that’s not an altogether bad thing.

We need to be able to distinguish between core, pith, and skin. It does not devalue the outer (or middle) reaches of Knoxville simply to recognize that the city center is fundamentally different from these other zones. In the center, one often must pay to park and walk a bit. If these sorts of things are disagreeable, then one has the freedom to choose someplace else to be. But, for a city to build parking garages where they are not needed, in the core, and offer free parking, is not the way to re-invigorate the city center—it is simply yet another way of conflating center and edge, further transforming the “ville,” into the periphery. Cities are not suburbs, “only denser.” ◆ George Dodds is the Alvin and Sally Beaman Professor of Architecture at the University of Tennessee. Architecture Matters explores issues concerning the human-made environment in Knoxville and its environs.

Spreading Outward: An undated aerial view of Park City (bottom left), include the Standard Knitting Mill to the north and Myers Stadium (left of center).

Knoxville city limits, now: the intersection of Rifle Range Drive and Brown Gap Road (below right).

Courtesy of Knox Heritage

Courtesy of Google Earth

definitions to fit the new reality.

For the first time in human history, the manner in which a civilization defined its most important places were no longer culturally determined. They have nothing to do with density, character, sustainable living, or quality of life. They are exclusively quantitative, geographical creatures defined by the proximity of population clusters. If one wished to build a Knoxville MSA Cultural Center, it would probably look a lot like Turkey Creek.

In The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), Jane Jacobs was the first to argue that, more than television or illegal drugs, the automobile was most responsible for killing American cities. For Jacobs, cities and suburbs (the latter of which she tended to view as parasites) are different not in degree, but in kind; “[Cities] are not like suburbs, only denser.”

The root of the problem for Jacobs and Sennett is cultural. Jacobs placed a premium on a city’s ability to bring together people of different cultures, values, and origins. In Death and Life, she explains: “[Cities] differ from towns and suburbs in basic ways, and one of these is that cities are, by definition, full of strangers.” Sennett, writing a generation later in The Fall, echoes Jacobs when he explains that cities are places where, first and foremost, “strangers are likely to meet.”

In a metropolitan statistical area, however, either everyone is a stranger, or no strangers are allowed, such as in gated communities. Joseph Rykwert’s critique of the popular planning movement, “New Urbanism,” helps explain this curious situation. In The

September 29, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 7

SCRUFFY CITIZEN

Knoxville’s Birthday On Oct. 3, Knoxville turns 225. We’re pretty sure.

BY JACK NEELY

T

he occasion we’re celebrating this week, Founders Day, is one of the foggier moments in Knoxville’s history.

We don’t know very much about Mr. James White personally, except the basic biological facts about his offspring and about a dozen impressive-sounding positions he held over the years: militia officer, judge, delegate to the statehood convention.

Concerning his aspirations, choices, and ideals, he’s not quotable. There’s no picture of him. But in 1786, at age 39, White built a fortified residence on a creek not yet known as First Creek.

He’d been living in White’s Fort for just five years when Gov. William Blount, signer of the U.S. Constitution, chose White’s obscure neighborhood as the capital of a major federal project called the Southwestern Territory, a massive swath of land stretching from the mountains all the way to the Mississippi River. Blount chose to call it Knoxville. Gen. Henry Knox, a Bostonian who never visited this part of the world, was secretary of President George Washington’s war department, and therefore Gov. Blount’s immediate superior. It never hurts to name stuff after your boss.

It’s hard to know whether White was pleased with this development.

White had grown up in rural North Carolina, born in 1747 several miles north of Charlotte, which itself was hardly more than a crossroads. His resume wouldn’t suggest much interest in cities. Despite spells in

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY September 29, 2016

Jonesborough and Greeneville, he tended to avoid small towns, too.

But as Capt. White sailed into middle age, it became inevitable that there would have to be something like a city on this spot where he’d chosen to settle. His son in law, Charles McClung, did know something about cities. Born in eastern Pennsylvania, McClung had lived in Philadelphia, perhaps the most important city in North America. He settled with White’s family, and helped the capital project by surveying 32 acres of White’s land on the top of the river bluff and laying out a regular grid of streets with urban-sounding names.

On Monday, Oct. 3, 1791—it’s a Monday again this year—White sold each of 64 half-acre lots of his land to prospective Knoxvillians in a lottery, carefully supervised by three commissioners, including John Adair and George McNutt, who were Irishmen by birth. (The third was named Paul Cunningham; I’m not sure where he came from.) That commission was there to assure the land sale would be fair and equitable, “without fear or affection to any, whether present or absent.” It was arguably the first form of local government in Knoxville.

Several of the first Knoxvillians were, like Adair and McNutt, Irish immigrants. Others came from Virginia, the Carolinas, Pennsylvania, even Boston—that was Tennessee’s original newspaperman, George Roulstone. Most were probably strangers to each other until they met here.

There’s some confusion in the records about who bought what and who actually took possession of each lot, and when. It all worked out somehow.

Knoxville was an ever-changing, rough-edged place that some didn’t expect to last. People came and went.

Even Capt. White went. Perhaps because, after less than a decade, the city he’d founded was getting too noisy for him, he moved out of town to a simple cabin in a more pristine spot east of town. The Blounts died in middle age about the same time the Whites moved out. Roulstone, the first journalist, and Carrick, founder of a church and a college, both died young. Newcomers to this odd town on top of a river bluff were left to guess how it got here.

Few paused to save old documents or even consider that the place was important enough to have anything like a history. However, in the early 1840s, Knoxville captured the imagination of a 26-year-old journalist named Thomas Humes, who did some research. His dad was an Irish immigrant. Hardly anyone was around to correct him. In time for what was believed to be the city’s 50th anniversary, on Feb. 10, 1842, Humes gave a long talk, telling Knoxville’s tale, perhaps for the first time.

Humes’ research holds up pretty well. Most of it except the date.

The only one alive in 1842 who recalled those early days was an elderly man named Hugh Dunlap, who believed it took place in February 1792. He spoke with the certainty with which all old men speak. He just couldn’t remember exactly which day in February. “It excited no particular interest at the time,” Dunlap wrote in a letter. Later historians would note that

February 1792 was the month Dunlap arrived from Philadelphia, just as there was a good deal of construction in progress, likely with additional surveying and perhaps auctioning.

If Dunlap got mixed up, he wasn’t the last old man to get mixed up about a vivid memory. Trust but verify. Their stories are always at least partly true.

If they’d just reviewed the existing but probably hard to find back issues of the Knoxville Gazette, they’d have known that by November 1791, there was indeed a place, or at least an idea, called Knoxville. Even if the Knoxville Gazette was printed, in its early days, in Rogersville.

In any case, Dunlap’s imperfect but willful memory, combined with an arbitary date, the 10th, resulted in Knoxville’s first birthday celebration on Feb. 10, 1842, a memorable festival downtown, held in two hotels and one church, with a supper and ball that didn’t end until 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 11.

Humes predicted Knoxville would celebrate its centennial on Feb. 10, 1892. It didn’t. Humes died the month before.

Still, Feb. 10 was celebrated as “Knoxville’s Birthday,” not every year, but often enough, by schools and civic groups—until the early 1930s, when the East Tennessee Historical Society straightened us out on that matter.

Oct. 3, 1791 was Knoxville’s founding date, as librarian Laura Luttrell affirmed, and it became a thing to celebrate, with a big birthday cake with 140-something candles, to be blown out by some of the city’s most elderly and esteemed citizens.

And so it will be this weekend.

Enjoy the festivities. A city doesn’t often get to celebrate its bicenquasquigenary. ◆

“It excited no particular interest at the time.”

—HUGH DUNLAP, who claimed to be the last survivor of the founding of Knoxville

Photo by Heather Duncan

Homeless Pushback The Knoxville Homeless Collective presses the city for a “Homeless Bill of Rights”

BY S. HEATHER DUNCAN

T

he Knoxville Homeless Collective marched through town last week to meet briefly with Mayor Madeline Rogero, demanding that the city stop criminalizing the homeless. They gave Rogero until this Thursday to respond by putting a “Homeless Bill of Rights” on her agenda. The collective seeks a city regulation that would prohibit discrimination based on housing status and create a “safe zone” where the homeless could rest and do other life-sustaining activities without fear of arrest or police harassment.

Last Wednesday, about 25 people walked—some with the aid of walkers, some struggling in the hot sun, others being pushed in wheelchairs—from Depot Street in the Mission District through the Old City.

The collective presented a letter to Rogero accusing her of “silence and compliance” while police conduct “illegal camp evictions” and “illegal arrests” of the homeless. Members of the collective later posted on the group’s Facebook page: “She refused to answer this, what happens to homeless folks when they can’t camp anywhere (private nor public) without eviction or harassment by KPD?” City spokeswoman Kathleen Gibi says in an email interview that Rogero has met four other times with members of the collective, a grassroots group of the homeless and recently homeless that is supported by the East Tennessee Peace and Justice Center. Rogero, whose current city

budget includes about $900,000 for homeless services, also leads the Mayor’s Roundtable on Homelessness, which meets regularly to discuss efforts to prevent homelessness and help the homeless. The Homeless Collective is represented on that roundtable, but has never sought to discuss the Homeless Bill of Rights in that forum, Gibi says.

The “Homeless Bill of Rights” was presented to the city earlier this year. In a March response addressed to Peace and Justice Center founder Eddie Young, Knoxville’s homeless program coordinator Michael Dunthorn raised concerns about its unintended consequences—for example, potentially allowing people to urinate in Market Square at will.

In the letter, Dunthorn pointed out that existing laws ban discrimination and protect personal property and privacy.

“As the mayor has explained many times to members of the collective, while we share the goals of providing resources and options to the homeless, we think some of the demands included in the Homeless Bill of Rights are simply bad ideas and unworkable policies that would make people less safe and lead to more problems,” Gibi writes. “There is no ‘right’ to live or camp on public property or on someone else’s private property.”

In response to an open records request, the city provided a list of 70

apparent homeless camps “cleaned” in 2016, and details of cleanups in August and September. During that time, the largest number of people were displaced from a camp near Cooper Street below Interstate 40, where 19 people were removed (11 in August, and eight in September, potentially some of the same people both times), followed by a camp at Blackstock Avenue and McGhee North, where nine people were removed in August. City officials noted that some of the camps are cleaned almost weekly, so there may have been only two or three people at these sites during a particular cleanup.

“Cleanups on private property are generally initiated by complaints from the property owner or neighbors.

Cleanups on public property are initiated upon the observance of people camping on public property,” writes Gibi.

Homeless collective member Peggy Sue Morrow says the city, police, and railroad officials have “started a war” with Knoxville’s homeless in the past year, more aggressively destroying camps and throwing out people’s few possessions without giving them a chance to remove them.

“They even took my kittens. …

Just because we’re homeless, we’re not worthless,” she says with tears in her eyes.

The Knoxville Police Department has a 13-step written procedure for removing people and items from a homeless camp that includes contacting the Knoxville-Knox County Community Action Committee and giving it at least two weeks to attempt to help camp occupants find housing.

Once CAC indicates it is done, police visit the camp, accompanied by additional officials. During this visit, police are supposed to provide a written notification that they will be arresting whoever is there and removing their possessions in 72 hours; at the same time they are to provide a list of resources to help with food, shelter, or medical assistance.

(If no one is at the camp, they leave notices behind.)

But Morrow, who says she was homeless for years until she was able to get an apartment in Isabella Towers very recently, disputes that police are following this procedure.

Chris Irwin, a public defender who represents many homeless clients in court, took the day off from

work last Wednesday to join the march in a suit and tie. He says the homeless often get used by savvy petty criminals, who offer homeless people jobs only to ask them to cash checks or pawn items using their legal ID. The scam artist makes off with the money, and the homeless person ends up in jail.

The protesters seemed to include more homeless supporters than homeless people, with many expressing outrage at the city’s perceived emphasis on downtown economic development rather than helping the economically disadvantaged who live on downtown streets.

“Redevelopment is just going to increase the criminalization of the homeless. We’ve already seen that,” says Knoxville resident Karly Safar.

“People talk about how progressive the mayor is. What has she done? She should order the police to stop ticketing these people, especially if their ‘crimes’ don’t hurt others.”

The collective’s letter to Rogero accused a specific KPD officer, Steven Frazier, of following and threatening a collective member who is now afraid to go to work. On its Facebook page, the collective states that when members met with Rogero, she “refused to address the maltreatment we receive by KPD!” KPD officials did not respond to a request for a response by press time.

Frazier’s personnel file included no complaints or discipline in the past decade. (He was investigated for harassment in 2004, but the department determined the accusation was unfounded.) Frazier, who has been with KPD since 1997 and with several Florida sheriff’s offices before that, has been assigned to the Central Business Improvement District for about 10 years and often patrols by bike. His evaluations indicate he has been part of the department’s efforts to curb aggressive panhandling, clean up homeless camps, and curb drug problems at the Volunteer Ministry Center. His self-initiated work has included early morning “sweeps of crack hangouts under bridges that serve as camp sites and bases for operations for criminal activity” like car burglary.

Supervisors have credited Frazier with working well with CAC and with contributing to finding humane alternatives to jailing several severely mentally ill homeless people. ◆ September 29, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 9

Photos by Thomas Fraser

BY THO MAS F RASER

H

istory, like water, is all around—it’s found in seeps, springs, wells, and rivers.

And then there are fountainheads, like the seven historic homes of Knoxville.

I visited them all, in chronological order of their origin, and you should, too. Because as my father (a Southern historian not too keen on eliminating even the most unsavory aspects of our past) likes to quote: We need to know our history or we are doomed to repeat it.

But it’s not all bad. A lot of history features parts both beautiful and poignant, as these seven old homes prove in their own way.

So I set out in search of these local fountainheads, moving across three centuries, beginning with breakfast not far from the Civil War-era Fort Dickerson, another local historic attraction.

There was no hardtack on the Shoney’s buffet, but there was plenty of pig, and I loaded up before setting off for another, older fort across the river.

10

jaMes White’s FoRt 1786

205 Hill Ave., 865-525-6514 jameswhitefort.org Claim to fame: Original, relocated house of Knoxville founder James White. Thought to be the first permanent home built in Knoxville.

Curator Robert McGinnis doesn’t think members of our soft American society of today would fare too well in the harsh conditions of the frontier.

But he likes to remind the fort’s roughly 9,000 annual visitors what it was like, how “the things we did they might find unsavory.”

Contemporaries of James White— who built the first cabin in 1786 on what might be called the site of Knoxville’s nativity—didn’t bathe much and lived in relative squalor. They procured their own meat. Dozens of families were sequestered behind the fences of the crude fort, living among livestock on packed summer dirt and frozen winter mud. Fires burned even in the heat of summer, and there was always the threat of attack from the

increasingly displaced Native American population. There was illness.

There was privation.

But today a visitor to the site, which includes a main house, a kitchen, and a smokehouse, can get a taste of frontier life in a place that serves as a quiet downtown oasis of sorts off Hill Avenue.

The fort is not in its original location, and only the main house is original. In 1906, Isaiah Ford painstakingly dismantled the main cabin and rebuilt it on Woodlawn Pike. The city Association of Women’s Clubs established the James White Fort Association in 1956, determined to resurrect the fort downtown. By 1970, the main house was reconstructed, and copies of the outbuildings and palisades were in place, and it was opened to the public.

Today within the palisades, it’s unexpectedly peaceful in the summer heat, save the intrusion of urban noises that, oddly, included a steam whistle from a river boat down the way. I sit for a minute in the shade by

The twice-dismantled main house at James White’s Fort includes a large stone hearth flanked by replicas of long guns and powder horns (top and bottom right).

A dogtrot, which served as both a fire barrier, storage area, and mud room of sorts, separates the main house from the rest of the structures at the reproduction of the fort in downtown Knoxville. an old millstone in the midst of chirping birds and buzzing bees.

There are no other visitors.

I amble into the main house, which is pleasantly cool. The ancient boards creak underfoot in dim light, and its easy to imagine the smell of woodsmoke and sweat as deals and arguments and schemes were hashed out in clouds of tobacco smoke around a wooden table and in the rocking chairs that now sit empty. It must have been loud at times, but there is a certain comfortable snugness about the space.

There are replicas of long guns and pistols, and upstairs beyond the creaky stairs a chamber pot resides under a comfortable-looking bed covered with colorful quilts. True to its Knoxville form, a Colonial-style wig

We visit each of Knoxville’s seven historic homes

by Thomas Fraser

TO

KNOXVILLE MERCURY September 29, 2016

di s c ov e r

see

sits on a stand by a window that looks out on the green compound below. It is dim and quiet and cool and peaceful.

Downstairs and back outside, I walk by the dog trot festooned with dried beans and gourds. A lizard skitters by the door to the weaving house, which features an impressive collection of native arrowheads and a primer of the Cherokee alphabet that could serve as a learning resource for curious children who then could ride their imaginations back in time.

Blount Mansion 1792

200 W. Hill Ave., 865-525-2375 blountmansion.org Claim to fame: Home of William Blount, a signer of the Constitution and territorial governor. Much of the Tennessee Constitution was written here.

I navigate lunchtime traffic and find a rarity downtown: An empty parking lot. It’s behind Blount Mansion, also on Hill Avenue. The green trusses of Gay Street Bridge frame Calhoun’s and the Tennessee River beyond. You can see

the steamboat landing by the river— once called the Holston—that gave the old city its life-force.

I check Yelp reviews for no particular reason, and one reviewer cautions against big expectations, noting “I’ve seen bigger mansions on MTV Cribs.” But the old manse, built

by Gov. William Blount, is indeed a mansion when judged against James White Fort. The glass and steel of downtown—tempered by the brick of the Andrew Johnson Building—tower above the visitor center.

But lots of history is available here—a surprising amount, “for a house as old it is,” says director David Hearnes. University of Tennessee researchers are doing dendrochronology studies on the home that so far have revealed no historic surprises.

The house is as old as suspected.

Hearnes and assistant director Emily Ellis greet me personably and are happy to share the story of the framed home said by some to the first non-log house in Tennessee.

A register lists visitors from

Britain, Argentina, and Hawaii; about 3,000 people come to the site each year, Hearnes says, and most have favorable impressions of Knoxville. Some are surprised by the vitality and sophistication of downtown, “though they think we can all do more with the river.”

Inside the old, relatively roomy house you get lost among the crafted lumber and the beautiful simplicity of hardwood floors surprisingly well-illuminated by the natural light that pours through a window flanked by a Thomas Hope desk that is Ellis’ favorite piece.

Another favorite item among the collection: An old straw doll with a porcelain head found in a wall by workers doing renovations in 20132014 in the west wing added by Willie Blount before 1820. The ragged, ancient doll lies askew like an old totem in its own crib. “It’s creepy-looking but cool at the same time because it did come out of the walls,” Ellis says.

There’s a kitchen that was rebuilt on its original foundation, and there is a hand-carved cookie press among

The family dining room at Blount Mansion—and its dining table set with replicas of period flatware and dishes—is overseen by a reverse glass painting of George Washington (top left). Blount Mansion, built in 1792, is now surrounded by the modern glass and steel of downtown Knoxville (top right).

Visitors can see how William Blount’s desk may have looked, including a replica of a late 18th-century newspaper (bottom left). Other technologies of the time include a spinning wheel for the production and repair of clothing. the artifacts. By the standards of the day, “even the cookies were fancy,” Ellis says.

Four slaves lived in the room: Sal, Cupid, and their two children. There in the darkened, now-lifeless kitchen you can imagine them bustling about, preparing food in the huge, soot-darkened cooking fireplace.

Most of the produce and meat consumed in the home came from farmland outside the city, but a nice ornamental garden, which includes giant vitex maintained by the Knoxville Garden Club, offers another respite from urban hubbub.

September 29, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 11

maRBle SPRings c. 1797

1220 W. Gov. John Sevier Highway, marblesprings.net Claim to fame: Final home of Gov. John Sevier, first and six-term governor of Tennessee and governor of the short-lived state of Franklin.

The kitchen garden at Marble Springs has given up the ghost, like a lot of things this long, hot, and dry summer. But we can always pop down to the grocery store for produce grown 1,000 miles away.

There was no such luxury in John Sevier’s day: if the three sisters failed, it was forage or die to replace the corn, beans, and squash, and augment the diet with hunted game. There really was no practical irrigation system, despite the presence of the namesake springs, explains groundskeeper John Gammon. During even minor droughts, the residents of what is now a 33.5-acre collection of outbuildings, fields and woods simply weren’t going to have enough to eat.

The wide-open nature of the site makes it easy to envision men tramping about with their kill in their buckskin as fires burned in rings 12

KNOXVILLE MERCURY September 29, 2016

throughout the residential areas, and children ran about playing their ancient games of the day.

“That was part of their experience,” Gammon says. He would have planted demonstrations of fall crops by now, but bailed on the proposition. We both unconsciously look up into the late-summer sky above towering tulip poplars prompted by drought into early fall color. There is no sign of rain.

Earlier, I had a sense of déjà vu as Gammon led members of Boy Scout Troop No. 129 of Oak Ridge into the original, primitive cabin that still stands on the property. I had been there as a schoolboy, about a million years ago.

Inside the small, cool cabin, as Gammon lectures on the history of Marble Springs, I am mesmerized by a portrait of an impeccably beautiful woman hanging above the wooden mantelpiece.

She is Catherine Sherrill, Sevier’s second wife. But the image is not that of the hard-scrabble governor’s wife. It is an approximate and stylized portrait done based on descriptions of the woman, and she looks more Flapper than frontier.

The boys’ eyes begin to glaze a bit

as Gammon relays the history of Sevier, the first—and six-term—governor of Tennessee. As he moves into the history of the short-lived state of Franklin, the otherwise well-mannered boys begin fidgeting with mess kits—they are camping on the grounds in pursuit of forestry and pioneering badges. That is common at Marble Springs, in a rural part of South Knoxville, as it boasts more woods and fields than cultural relics. Their colorful tents dot a pasture to the right of the main entrance.

The boys undoubtedly are thinking ahead to the planned supper of dutch-oven chicken and dumplings, but they revive a bit at the urging of a scoutmaster as they visit the kitchen cabin. Gammon explains subsistence farming, food preservation—food could kill you back in the day—and shows off a hard block of tea.

Then it’s on to the loom house, a small dim structure that quickly smells of teenage boys on a hot summer day, and Gammon gives a brief history of cotton, silk, and wool textiles.

And they learn the origin of the term “pop goes the weasel,” a common lesson in looming and linguistics also offered at other historic Knoxville houses.

Groundskeeper John Gammon walks past the parched kitchen garden at Marble Springs, the last home of Gov. John Sevier (left). A stone marker built with chimney stones from the original Sevier cabin marks the entrance to the 33-acre South Knoxville landmark (right). A stylized portrait gives Sevier’s second wife, Catherine Sherrill, a distinctly early 20th century appearance (bottom left). Gammon demonstrates textile production to members of Boy Scout Troop 129 of Oak Ridge.

When a set amount of yarn was loomed, a device called a weasel went…POP! There was neither evidence of a monkey nor cobbler’s bench at Marble Springs.

Ramsey House 1797

2614 Thorngrove Pike, 865-546-0745 ramseyhouse.org Claim to fame: Family home of the Ramseys, an influential East Tennessee family with ties to the Confederacy, railroad development, the University of Tennessee, and early public medical care.

It’s enough—almost—to make a man sympathize with Confederates.

When Yankees torched structures at the Ramsey plantation, some 4,000 books were lost, among them the early

annals of Tennessee. That was an assault against human culture and civilization, not just against tiring Rebels.

You’ll learn that and other sad things in a professionally produced— and somewhat melancholy—video shown visitors to the Ramsey House on Thorngrove Pike, sited in a pastoral setting a surprisingly short distance from downtown Knoxville. The 100 acres of land offer another history lesson: It is used for demonstration games by members of the Tennessee Association of Vintage Base Ball.

A long path to the stolid gray Georgian stone and marble house moves beyond a colorfully painted outbuilding that is often used by brides and grooms and their wedding parties ahead of the nuptials often offered on the site. The home, like the other historic houses of Knoxville, offers a sense of enduring peace and quiet despite its tragic past. At the height of the Ramsey plantation, 35 people lived in the house and outbuildings.

As we move ahead in history, the lineage of the historic homes and their owners gets more complicated to trace, but here’s a brief rundown of the house and plantation, according to

Knox Heritage: The main house was built in 1797 for Col. Francis Alexander Ramsey near where the Holston and French Broad rivers merge to form the Tennessee. Ramsey, a founder of Blount College, which ultimately became the University of Tennessee, beget three children: Dr. J.G.M. Ramsey, the oldest son, was an official with the Confederacy and a railroad man; middle son, William Ramsey, was a cabinet secretary for Tennessee and Knoxville’s first elected mayor; Francis Ramsey, the youngest of the brothers, opened the city’s first public hospital and was a surgeon for the Confederate army.

As I reflect on the sad truths of the family—Col. Ramsey himself died of a mosquito-borne illness likely contracted from a city creek, and the family was left destitute after the Civil War on a ruined plantation replete with “memories too difficult to bear”—a tiny dog sniffs my shoe.

It’s Ellie, a retired “chiweeniedoodle” therapy dog who accompanies most tours taken by the roughly 8,000 annual visitors. She’s important enough to the Ramsey House that assistant director Linda Gincott spells her name for me.

Gincott points out a number of fascinating things that survived war and time in the stone house: the 219-year-old banister; a secretary with hidden compartments that holds 200-year-old books; and a sampler by a Ramsey granddaughter, Eliza Jane, said to be the oldest sampler in Tennessee.

The sampler is a portrait of grief—it lists all the Ramsey children, one of whom is said to haunt the house, who died well before their time.

The house still holds trappings of the wealth of the day: There is a tea set, impeccably carved chairs, a pewter mold and small sewing kit, and a fire screen to shield the faces of the ladies. But as late-afternoon light slants through a window and Ellie moves into the sunlight splashed on the sturdy hardwood floor, Gincott offers a reminder of the hardscrabble nature of the day: There are thick shutters that can be closed on quick notice against attacks by Native Americans, criminals, or determined wildlife.

Crescent Bend 1834 2728 Kingston Pike, 865-637-3163 crescentbend.org

A quiet pathway leads beneath trees to the entrance of Ramsey House, built of marble and limestone in 1797 (top left). A 219-year-old banister features flourishes typical of the day (bottom left). Wedding parties use this outbuilding to prepare for ceremonies on the 100-acre site (bottom center). A granddaughter of Col. Ramsey played with “colored” dolls after the Civil War; that would have been potentially controversial for the time.

Claim to fame: Original 900-acre farm was site of Civil War skirmishes and the mortal wounding of federal Brig. Gen. William P. Sanders; features Italianate gardens with views of the Tennessee River, valuable wallpaper, and the Toms Foundation collection of 18th century furniture.

In a slightly jarring modern touch, I ring the doorbell at the Armstrong-Lockett house at Crescent Bend on Kingston Pike. Sprinklers chitter on the front lawn, holding at bay the heat and drought that became a threaded theme on my tours of the seven homes.

I’m met by event coordinator Judy McMillan with the same mix of gratitude and graciousness common among the hosts at all the homes. She’s preparing for an advance meeting with wedding planners. The use of this and other historic homes as wedding venues augments their coffers. And a fine September 29, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 13

This page: The Armstrong-Lockett House at Crescent Bend is home to the Toms Collection of 18th-century furniture (top left). A fire shield, to the right, provided protection against the sometimes extreme heat generated by fireplaces. The house and its features, including its large wood mantles, was impeccably restored after it was saved from demolition in the late 20th century.

Facing page: Mabry-Hazen House executive director betrothal site this is: manicured and terraced Italianate gardens sweep beneath a fine vista down to the banks of the Tennessee at what was once a natural crescent. Twenty-thousand tulips bloom in spring. Two personal watercraft whine by below.

But at its roots, Crescent Bend was a 900-acre working farm, and Armstrong-Lockett was one of the first homes built on Kingston Pike.

Now just down from the university, “this was the country,” in 1834, McMillan says.

And that’s why Drury Paine Armstrong built the house, now ironically located in a valley prone to air pollution. His wife had “consumption,” now known as tuberculosis, and needed fresh country air. The master bedroom was located downstairs, presumably on behalf of the ailing wife, and visitors immediately find themselves surrounded by finery of several eras. The house nonetheless has a modern feel, perhaps augmented by an addition to accommodate weddings. Light pours in over the view of the river below.

Bleak House, still known in some 14

KNOXVILLE MERCURY September 29, 2016

circles as Confederate Memorial Hall, shares the property.

Rich history has since accumulated at the farm: Gen. William Sanders was killed in battle here during the Civil War, and the site subsequently became the site of a Rebel artillery battery; and the home contains the William P. Toms collection of 18th century furniture.

A room full of dazzling silver displays behind glass—some pieces date to the 17th century—gives some parts of the home a museum feel, but you can still feel the presence of the families who have called the house home over the decades.

The most notable part of the house, in McMillan’s eyes, is in the dining room, which features what could possibly be the most expensive wallpaper you will ever see.

As McMillan tells it, the ornate French wallpaper, called “The French Garden,” by Pierre Mongin and printed by Jean Zuber—and now valued at $500,000—was purchased

by Andrew Jackson in 1832 for use at the Hermitage in Nashville.

A barge toting furnishings and the wallpaper caught fire near

Nashville, and the contents of the barge were thrown overboard.

The story gets a bit convoluted, but ultimately the wallpaper was salvaged and papered in Cedar Grove, the circa-1833 home of Col. Joseph Scott that is now home to Stevens Mortuary.

Scott recruited the services of a reformed pirate—and wallpaper hanger—named John Stacks. According to the archives of the News Sentinel, Stacks liked the town so much he settled here and became a marshal. The tale is obviously too good to be fiction, and is a good fit for Knoxville, McMillan muses.

“We’ve always been a scruffy little city,” she says.

The McClung Museum salvaged the wallpaper and it has been on loan to the Toms Foundation, which owns the property, since the 1970s. The multi-hued wallpaper features figures costumed in the clothes of the 1830s dispersed among classical statues and architectural components.

“It’s the prettiest thing in the house,” McMillan says, and the wallpaper is assiduously protected from light.

She turns off alarms and opens curtains to sunshine to share it with me.

Calvin Chappelle stands by the entrance to the family dining room (top left) at the house perched above downtown Knoxville. Some 95 percent of its furnishings and decorations were the property of multiple generations who lived in the home. Chappelle stands by a wall display featuring various historical aspects of the home (bottom left). An ever-expanding family tree represents multiple generations of descendants of the Mabry-Hazen family (bottom right).

maBRy-HaZen hoUse 1858

1711 Dandridge Ave., 865-522-8661 mabryhazen.com Claim to fame: Family home of Knoxville booster, businessman, and Confederate sympathizer Joseph Mabry; site of Union artillery batteries during Civil War; 95 percent of furnishings and artifacts original to home.

Calvin Chappelle looks the part.

The executive director of the Mabry-Hazen House is a Civil War reenactor.

Chappelle, who has a tangled beard and mussy black hair, is a two-way player. It makes sense: The historic home perched on Knoxville’s highest ridge north of the Tennessee River was held in the hands of both Yankees and Rebels.

“Obviously it was a prime location for both armies during the Civil War,” he says as we take in the view of the center city 320 feet below. Some 5,000 visitors a year share the view near the house, built in 1858 by Joseph Alexander Mabry II. Mabry, who was a prime player in a deal that established Knoxville’s

Join us in celebrating 50 years of Montessori Education in Knoxville!

1966 We began as the Knoxville Montessori Children’s House at Messiah Lutheran Church.

2016 Now we’re the Knoxville Montessori School at 4311 Kingston Pike.

Knoxville Montessori School 50th Anniversary Open House October 22, 2016 10:00 a.m. - Noon 4311 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37917 RSVP: kms@knoxvillemontessori.org Find us on Facebook!

September 29, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 15

famous Market Square, was a railroad man, businessman, and ardent Confederate. He pledged $100,000 to the Confederacy, and sold matériel in support of the lost cause. He was also a man who could tell which way the wind blew: When the Yankees came calling in 1863, Chappelle says, Mabry told them: “I’m a notorious rebel but will not stand in your way.”

The property served as the eastern anchor of the Union defensive network north of what was then the Holston River. The then-denuded ridge was an excellent artillery site.

Mabry rode out the war, but was on his way to ruin when bad bonds came due in 1873. In the end, his financial straits didn’t matter: He and his son, and their attacker, were killed in a gunfight on Gay Street that was famously recounted—with likely flourishes—by Mark Twain in Life on the Mississippi.

Four generations of the Mabrys occupied the Italianate home—a daughter married a Hazen—and about 95 percent of the present furnishings and decorations belonged to the family. A large and updated family tree blooms on a wall. It is a comfort16

KNOXVILLE MERCURY September 29, 2016

able home reminiscent of that of a great-aunt or great-grandmother.

There is horsehair furniture and a beautiful case clock, and the 1850s windows have salvaged 1840s glass.

Some 1,600 soldiers enjoy peace in a Confederate cemetery on the 11-acre property, which boasts four historic structures.

Heartbreak, again, serves as a foundation for the historic site: Evelyn Hazen gave birth to 14 children in her lifetime. Six didn’t survive childhood.

But modern times are happier times at the Mabry-Hazen House. I caught Chappelle right before two women came to scope the property, not for retrenchments, but for a wedding.

Historic Westwood 1890

3425 Kingston Pike, 865-523-8008 historicwestwood.org Claim to fame: Built as a “wedding promise” for Adelia Armstrong Lutz, who is thought to be first professional female artist in Tennessee; includes original artwork by Adelia and her studio, illuminated with natural light; now home to the offices of Knox Heritage.

It’s hard not to love Adelia across time and beyond this world.

Who can help but adore a woman who paints hollyhocks on a wall, and adorns stove tiles with the likenesses of great poets and artists?

Historic Westwood, on Kingston Pike near Sequoyah Hills, was built for Adelia Armstrong Lutz as a “wedding promise” by her husband, John Edwin Lutz. It’s easy to roar past the entrance, caught up in speeding traffic, and you have to park in a church next door. But then you walk up to the immaculately preserved Richardsonian Romanesque house across the heart-shaped driveway, and that’s where you begin to fall in love.

The house, now also home to the busy offices of Knox Heritage and the East Tennessee Preservation Alliance, is one of Kingston Pike’s “three sisters,” along with Bleak House and Armstrong-Lockett House to the east. It is one of the more affluent and well-appointed historic homes of Knoxville.

Adelia grew up in Bleak House, and moved into Westwood in 1890.

Docent Betty Allen guides me through the formal and informal

Adelia Armstrong Lutz painted these original fireplace tiles with the faces of famous poet and artists (top left). Westwood, just off busy Kingston Pike, was built as “a wedding promise” in the Richardson Romanesque style for Adelia by her husband, John Edwin Lutz (top right). Adelia is shown working in her naturally lighted studio in this vintage photograph (bottom left). These stainedglass windows are among several in Westwood, now home to the offices of Knox Heritage (bottom right). parlors, past immaculately polished and preserved woodwork and past the family piano and original faded frescoes resurrected on the wall.

And then the studio, brilliant in the natural light pouring into the room through windows and skylights, makes my heart soar.

This is where Adelia, said to be the first professional female artist in the state, painted and labored and imagined and poured her creativity onto canvas. It is a breath-taking room, and adding to its elegant charm is a set of tiles inlaid around a fireplace now adorned with an Egyptian relief.

Adelia painstakingly painted the faces of Shakespeare, Longfellow, Emerson, Browning, Rustin, and

m

y 100-year journey complete, I buy a magnet for my mother and think of my father and wonder what kind of legacy I’ll leave. I exit the wedding promise with the sense of melancholy, nostalgia, and intellectual satisfaction that every good history lesson leaves. I get in my truck and head west on the old Kingston Road. ◆

KnoxVille’s 225 CeleBRations 225th Anniversary Saturday, Oct. 1, • 10 a.m.–12 p.m. • Krutch Park, downtown • free

This mini festival in the Krutch Park extension will include about 20 booths of local arts and culture organizations, plus artisans and kids activities. Meanwhile, Ensemble Knox, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s String Quartet, Knoxville Opera, and Marble City Opera will be performing. At 10:30 a.m. and 12 p.m. in the nearby Museum of East Tennessee History, the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound will be screening a one-hour fi lm of archival footage from its collection.

Founders Day Luncheon

Sunday, Oct. 2 • 5:30 p.m. •Gay Street Bridge • $225 • tickets: knoxtix.com or 865-523-7543 • info: knoxalliance.com

Monday, Oct. 3 • 11:30 a.m. • The Foundry (747 World’s Fair Park Drive) • $50 • hhknoxville.org

This fundraiser for the Arts & Heritage Fund, Knoxville’s united arts fund, presents a rather unique opportunity to, yes, have dinner on the Gay Street Bridge, prepared by All Occasion Catering. The birthday party will feature remarks

by Mayor Madeline Rogero, a poem by poet laureate RB Morris, entertainment by Carol Zinavage Shane, and a silent auction.

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This luncheon presented by the Historic Homes of Knoxville features the one and only Bill Landry as keynote speaker, plus Jack Neely will be on scene to provide even more Knoxville history tidbits. Knoxville’s official poet laureate, RB Morris, will read his poem honoring the city’s 225th birthday. And WBIR’s John Becker will host the proceedings.

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Your Downtown Experience Begins Here

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Dinner on the Gay Street Bridge

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Thackeray, among other artistic and literary luminaries. The faces have faded in time, but all except three tiles have been identified.

Across the house, past the dining room where Adelia long ago painted the hollyhocks on the wall, there is another face dear to the site.

Cook and caretaker Sallie Snead worked for Adelia’s daughter, Louise, after Adelia died. She was divorced, childless, and lived in a cabin out back, but she would take Adelia’s grandchildren downtown on the streetcar line.

The house was never out of the hands of family members—a descendant of Adelia lived there until 2012.

Over the years, artists and students and guests would come and go; Adelia loved to entertain in the home where she would eventually die.

It was, Allen says, “a happy house.”

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September 29, 2016 KNOXVILLE MERCURY 17 FOOD CKS TRU

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P rogram Notes

Label Maker Ben T.O. Smith puts industry experience to use with new Knoxville-based record label

B

en T.O. Smith was sitting in his small apartment in Utrecht, in the Netherlands, on a study abroad trip in 2013 when he came up with the idea for Gezellig Records.

Gezellig, derived from the Dutch word “gezelligheid,” has no direct English translation; it suggests a feeling of belonging and togetherness.

That’s the sense that Smith wants to bring to the independent music label he launched in July.

Smith, a University of Tennessee journalism grad who currently works at AC Entertainment, has put together a roster of six artists with a wide range of backgrounds and sounds.

The lineup includes local artists like DJ Hatred and the electronic pop duo Peak Physique, featuring Matt Honkonen and Wil Wright, alongside the bitter noise rockers No Men, from Chicago, and Le Almeida, a psychedelic space-rock band from Rio de Janeiro. Smith says he found this selection of artists through personal connections, recommendations, and online research.

“It’s not a Knoxville-centric label, despite having two or three artists that are from Knoxville,” Smith says.

DJ HATRED THE LAST ENEMY THAT WILL BE ABOLISHED IS DEATH

19 18

Inside the Vault: Stan Brock

KNOXVILLE MERCURY September 29, 2016

“I want it to be as worldly as possible.”

While he’s had help with marketing, building the label’s website, and some media research, Gezellig Records is basically a one-man show.

Smith says his experience—working at AC Entertainment, cohosting the Indie Aisle show on WUTK, and working at the now-defunct Disc Exchange—has given him a thorough introduction to the music industry. (It doesn’t hurt that Smith’s dad was a tour manager for Metallica for 16 years.)

“Just being around music and the people who help make music happen—that’s the thing that really got me,” Smith says.

The recent closure of the Disc Exchange was part of the reason Smith decided to fi nally pursue his idea for Gezellig Records three years after its original conception.

“For a while I’ve been thinking, ‘Man, I kind of want to work for a record label,’” Smith says. “So I just started one.”

Wright, of Peak Physique, says Smith has been a valuable asset to the Knoxville music scene and generally regards him as a “barometer for cool things.” For Wright, letting Smith put

PEAK PHYSIQUE I BELONG TO YOU

out his music was a “no-brainer.”

“I see the label as sort of an extension and functionality of his radio show,” Wright says. “Ben has always been the person introducing everyone to amazing artists that they certainly would’ve never heard of before.”

Wright, who previously worked at a large booking agency, says smaller labels like Gezellig can act as a “guiding force” for bands trying to get organized, plan tours, and start putting out their music. While artists at larger labels can be forced to scramble for attention, labels like Gezellig can focus more attention on a smaller roster of artists.

“A label that has your back and that doesn’t have a lot of backs to worry about can have everybody’s back a little bit more,” Wright says.

The label is “essentially a side project” Smith works on when he gets out of his day job, he says. One of his biggest challenges is getting people to listen to the music he puts out.

“If people are listening, that’s the best thing,” Smith says. “Otherwise, like logistically, operations-wise, it’s nothing I haven’t done in any of my other jobs. It’s more exciting because I get to learn it all over again.”

Smith acknowledges that Gezellig is “not a moneymaker by any means.” He has set up a subscription series aptly named the Cozy Club to help fund the label: For a payment of $150, subscribers will receive the fi rst

LÊ ALMEIDA MANTRA HAPPENING

20

Music: Mic Harrison

10 releases from the label, free downloads of digital releases, and other perks. Upcoming releases from Gezellig include new music from DJ Hatred, a CD issue of Le Almeida’s album Mantra Happening (which has only been available as a download), and a full-length album from Peak Physique.

In the long term, Smith hopes Gezellig will become a multimedia label, curating books, art, and fi lm.

Smith also hopes his label will encourage others to take on similar projects to support the work of local artists.

“I want to see more of this stuff pop up in Knoxville, because I don’t think it’s difficult—it’s just time-consuming and it does take a lot of work,” Smith says. “I think if more of this sort of label stuff pops up, it will boost the local music scene and the recording scene.”

As artists are able to more easily self-record and release their music online, Smith says small labels like his are technically unnecessary. But he feels there’s still value in curating the work of little-known artists from diverse backgrounds.

“I want people to be able to see the Gezellig logo and be able to say, ‘I trust that label will put out quality music. I don’t know this, but I know it will be good,’” Smith says.

For more information about Gezellig Records, visit gezelligrecords.com. (Hayley Brundige)

BEN T.O. SMITH

21

Movie: Dead Slow Ahead

Inside the Vault

Wild at Heart An old videotape reveals Stan Brock’s unlikely career as an ’80s action hero

BY ERIC DAWSON

A

recent cover story on Stan Brock brought to mind an obscure fi lm with Knoxville connections that he starred in. Through his work with Remote Area Medical, providing assistance to the many people in this country and abroad who do not have access to affordable health care, Brock would surely be considered a hero by any right-thinking person.

Before he created RAM, though, he played an action hero in the 1980 movie Galyon.

A copy turned up in the collection of the local advertising fi rm Lavidge & Associates, whose founder, Art Lavidge, coproduced the fi lm. It’s not a fi lm print, but Galyon survives on three-quarter-inch videotape, as does Forgotten Wilderness, a kind of staged documentary with Brock in a role that echoes his work in Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.

The director and executive producer was Ivan Tors, a Hungarian-born renaissance man who led an interesting and varied life, including a stint as an animal trainer and a long career as a motion picture and television producer. Many of his productions had aquatic and wildlife themes; Sea Hunt and Flipper are the best known. Before directing Galyon, Tors’ last theatrical fi lm had been Zebra in the Kitchen, from 1965, starring Jay North from TV’s Dennis the Menace as a boy who liberates animals at a zoo.

Tors clearly shared with Brock an interest in the natural world; he frequently used movies and television to educate audiences about wild animals and promote environmental issues. Even Brock and Tor’s 1976

adventure fi lm Escape From Angola had an inordinate amount of wildlife footage. One IMDB commenter complained that “far too much of the dialog is spent lecturing about Africa and wildlife conservation rather than serving what plot there is.”

Galyon is pretty much a straightup action movie. Brock wrote the script and manages to sneak in a few environmental messages, but there wasn’t a lot of room for such talk in the story of a soldier of fortune hired to rescue the daughter and son-in-law of an oil executive from revolutionary Venezuelan kidnappers. The plot is further thickened by the appearance of a briefcase holding the plans for a U.S. military takeover of the Middle East in the event of an energy crisis. Partially shot in Venezuela, the film reflects Brock’s own concerns with politics and the military in the region—he had lived and worked on a cattle ranch in neighboring Guyana for 15 years.

Brock wasn’t an unlikely action hero at all. He appears to have been remarkably fit at the time of the shoot, when he was 43. There is a lot of hand-to-hand combat in Galyon, and Brock did his own stunts—sometimes

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to his detriment. In a News Sentinel article from the time, he explained that he temporarily lost his voice after a karate expert kicked him in the neck during fi lming. In another scene, a prop door failed to give, giving him a mild concussion.

Galyon probably didn’t make much money during its initial release, but it seems to have had a robust second life on VHS. As of this writing, there are four different VHS editions of the movie available on eBay. (The fi lm also boasts a trippy electronic soundtrack that begs to be rediscovered and reissued.) Galyon is largely forgotten today. It will likely fade from memory entirely when the tapes give out. There might be some fi lm prints out there, but they’d likely be difficult to track down. Brock’s legacy will be his selfless philanthropic work, but his TV and movie roles also deserve to be remembered, so we’ve got the tapes in cold storage, to preserve them just a little longer. They’re part of his history, too.

Two weeks ago, we published an appreciation of local soul singer Clifford Curry, who died on Sept. 6. A few days later, we learned that country and folk singer Joy King died on Sept.

11, at the age of 79. King had a storied career in country and folk music in Knoxville and beyond, working with Lowell Blanchard, Fred Neil, Floyd Cramer, and many others, as well as operating the Raven folk coffeehouse on Chapman Highway. Inside the Vault ran a two-part column on her back in March that is available online. She will be missed. ◆

Brock’s legacy will be his philanthropic work, but his TV and movie work—like the 1980 action pic Galyon—are part of his history, too.

September 29, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 19

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Music

More recently, Harrison has picked up another Knoxville ’90s rock stalwart, in the person of former Superdrag drummer Don Coffey.

(Harrison played guitar in Superdrag for a couple of years in the early ’00s.)

Coffey started with the High Score in February when the band’s previous drummer, Brad Henderson, decided he wasn’t ready to commit to recording another album.

“Don hadn’t played drums in seven years, so he was a little worried about picking it up again,” Harrison says. “But it was just like falling off a bicycle—he had it from the word go.

And these new songs we were writing were right up his alley—power pop and rock. I knew he’d have it down the first time, and he did.”

Harrison says all of the songs for the next record are sitting in the can, recorded and mixed and awaiting the mastering process. Still, Harrison says not to expect Vanishing South to be released before spring of next year.

“We’ve been doing things a little different this time,” he says. “Usually, we set a date and then rush everything to get the recording done. This time, we’re taking our time. And when one thing gets done, then we can move on to the next.” ◆

Vanishing Point Mic Harrison’s next album is on the horizon

BY MIKE GIBSON

S

inger/songwriter Mic Harrison’s upcoming acoustic performance at the Royal Oaks Concert Series in Maryville will afford longtime fans an opportunity to preview some of the songs from his forthcoming record, Vanishing South, the follow-up to his 2012 album Still Wanna Fight. Don’t be fooled by the Royal Oaks series’ acoustic format, however; his trad-country roots notwithstanding, Harrison says his latest batch of tunes is situated squarely on the rock ’n’ roll side of the musical spectrum.

“It’s Trosper’s fault,” Harrison says with a chuckle. Trosper is Robbie Trosper, the lead guitar player in Harrison’s backing band, the High

Score. Trosper will take the stage along with Harrison at the Royal Oaks performance.

“The new stuff rocks a little harder because Robbie had a whole lot to do with the writing,” Harrison says. “With some of the earlier records, I came in with songs and said to the band, ‘Here you go, guys.’ This time, Robbie and I hammered things out together more, then brought them to the rest of the band.

“I came in with some melodies, and then he twisted them up, which then changed the melodies even more.

We changed some of these tunes five and six times before we had them finished.”

For those who don’t know, Harrison is the beer-swilling, big-hearted blue-collar guitarist, singer, and songwriter who moved to Knoxville from a West Tennessee sawmill back in the early 1990s, taking a spot beside songwriter extraordinaire Scott Miller as co-frontman of local Americana standouts the V-roys.

When the V-roys broke up in 2000, Harrison joined with local rockers the High Score, with whom he has released a string of sterling releases, making a dent or two in the Americana charts and garnering a measure of college radio airplay along the way.

WHO

Mic Harrison and the High Score with Josh Smith

WHERE

Royal Oaks Golf Course and Event Center (4411 Legends Way, Maryville)

WHEN

Friday, Sept. 30, at 7:30 p.m.

Photo by Annie Clark-Rankin

20

KNOXVILLE MERCURY September 29, 2016

HOW MUCH $15

INFO

storiesbeyondthemusic.com

why knoxville

matters 25 ways th tthis his h is city city h has as made m a de a difference d i ff ffe erence iin n its its 225 22 5 years ye a r s

presented by

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© 2016 Scripps Networks, LLC. All rights reserved.

contents 5 6 7 8 10 12 14 15 16

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Why Knoxville Matters No. 1 | Tennessee’s First Newspaper No. 2 | Birth of a University No. 3 | The First Constitutional Convention No. 4 | The Dawn of Whiggery No. 5 | A New Sort of School No. 6 | Lanuching New American Literatures No. 7 | A Linchpin in America’s Rail System No. 8 | A

Significant Distraction No. 9 | A Controversial Journalist Turns Governor No. 10 | Electing Aftrican-Americans to Office No. 11 | A Little College Becomes a Big University No. 12 | A College for Blacks No. 13 | Roots of New Genre Take Hold No. 14 | Big Business Sets Up Shop No. 15 | Mail-Order Design No. 16 | Making Conservation a National Ideal No. 17 | Bringing Music to the People No. 18 | The Nation’s Most Popular Park is Created No. 19 | Forming a Souther Football Powerhouse No. 20 | A New Kind of Government No. 21 | Revolutionizing Waste Management No. 22 | A Knoxville Judge and a Landmark Order No. 23 | A New Paradigm in Women’s Athletics No. 24 | Throwing a Colorful Party No. 25 | A Fresh Take on Television What’s Next

RESTORING KNOXVILLE

Written by Jack Neely

Art Direction by Tricia Bateman Edited by Coury Turczyn

Photo Research Assistance by Josh Witt Sales Direction by Charlie Vogel

Sales by Scott Hamstead, Stacey Pastor, Michael Tremoulis Copyright 2016 by the Knoxville History Project and the Knoxville Mercury Advertise with us: sales@knoxmercury.com, 865-313-2048

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Continuing to Serve the People of the Valley tva.com

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T E N N E S S E E VA L L E Y AU T H O R I T Y

Why Knoxville Matters

2016

25 ways this city has made a difference in its 225 years

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noxville’s 225 years old. There are older cities in America, but many more newer ones. Knoxville’s older than Chicago, Toronto, Memphis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Austin, Atlanta. But so what? What do we have to show for it?

For the 225th, we were interested in looking for several reasons why Knoxville matters to American history. There have been moments when Knoxville has made a difference in the world beyond the Tennessee Valley, and this is our attempt to identify some of the important ones. We are, in short, considering the question of why the world should care there’s a place called Knoxville.

We have polled the public at large and corresponded with several professors and authors, and have compiled a list of 25 significant developments where Knoxville made history. These are Knoxville events.

Lots of people from Knoxville have made a big difference in the world at large, but this is an occasion to emphasize splashes in Knoxville that made waves elsewhere.

These are not necessarily the most important developments in the development of the Knoxville we know today, though several of them played a major role in that regard.

And it’s a subjective list, for which we sought some variety. But they’re 25 reasons why people should have heard of us.

Also, for this purpose we’re not covering former Knoxvillians who changed the world after they left, and there’s been a wide variety of those, ranging from newspaperman Adolph Ochs to bluesman Brownie McGhee. They got a good start here, but made their mark elsewhere.

We might begin by mentioning the Native Americans, and the Treaty of the Holston, which occurred within the boundaries now considered Knoxville. But the July 1791 treaty happened three months before the founding of Knoxville, whose birthday we’re celebrating this fall. It was mainly a truce between multiple factions of the Cherokee and President Washington’s U.S. government, with multiple provisos, including the prohibition of whites from settling or hunting in Cherokee territories. Within a couple of years, it would be ignored by members of both groups.

—Jack Neely, executive director, Knoxville History Project

5

No. 1

Tennessee’s First Newspaper

1791

George Roulstone and the Knoxville Gazette

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eorge Roulstone was born in Boston in 1767, at a dramatic time and place in world history. He was a toddler at the time of the Boston Massacre, 6 at the time of the Boston Tea Party. As a school kid, he could probably hear the gunfire that announced the Battle of Bunker Hill, and a new war for independence.

The war ended before he was old enough to fight, but Roulstone was only 18 when he started a newspaper in Salem, Mass. It lasted all of five months, but maybe he learned a few things. He came south, and found work in printing in Fayetteville, N.C. Then William Blount, who had recently represented North Carolina in the U.S. Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, suggested that there would be need for

C ou r et s y o Ten f t he ne s s e e S t at e L ibr ar y a rch iv nd A es

6

a newspaper over the mountains.

Roulstone was just 24 when he first arrived in a rough frontier settlement of a few hundred daring people living mostly in cabins on a river bluff. There were few stores and hardly any industry. There were no churches. There was no local government. There was no state of Tennessee. There weren’t even any frame houses. But it needed a newspaper.

It needed a newspaper because Knoxville was to be the capital of the new Southwestern Territory, a huge swath of land from the Appalachian mountains to the Mississippi River, administered by President George Washington.

The prospect of installing a press, a heavy piece of machinery, up on Knoxville’s bluff was daunting.

Roulstone set up in the slightly older town of Rogersville, about 65 miles northeast of Knoxville near the Holston River. For its first 11 months, the Knoxville Gazette rolled off presses in Rogersville. The first newspaper published south of the Kentucky territory and west of the mountains, it was at first just a four-page paper, published every two weeks.

Roulstone’s first priority was remarkable. He published, in serial

form, the entire book-length essay The Rights of Man by British author Thomas Paine—in the Knoxville Gazette. It was new to everybody in the world, and perhaps that year’s most internationally controversial publication.

Roulstone doubled his newspaper’s frequency, from biweekly to weekly—and later two twice a week— reporting on treaties with native Americans and the actions of the territorial legislature, and in 1796 reported on the founding of a state. He became the state printer, and was a busy man, publishing the Gazette but also numerous law books, like The Laws of the State of Tennessee, for distribution to lawyers and judges across the state.

He remained publisher until his untimely death, of unreported causes, at age 37 in 1804. His wife, Elizabeth, became the paper’s publisher, and thus became the first female journalist in Tennessee, keeping her position in charge of the Gazette until she remarried and moved away four years later. The Gazette lasted until 1818, by which time other papers were there to do the job.

Since George Roulstone arrived in 1791, Knoxville and its region have always had a local newspaper.

The prospect of installing a press, a heavy piece of machinery, up on Knoxville’s bluff was daunting.

So George Roulstone set up in the slightly older town of Rogersville, about 65 miles northeast of Knoxville near the Holston River.

No. 2

Birth of a University

1794 Blount Mansion 200 W. Hill Ave. Knoxville, TN 37902 865.525.2375 blountmansion.org

The Early Days of Blount College

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t was a tiny school, and after only 15 years it closed. Whether we consider it the same thing as the University of Tennessee, thus giving UT a claim to be one of the oldest colleges in America, is a matter of opinion. But it was an institution of more than ordinary interest, in any case.

Pennsylvania-born Samuel Carrick was a Presbyterian minister who founded a school he was careful to call non-sectarian. At the time, almost all colleges, even those of the Ivy League, were affiliated with a religious organization. Carrick asserted his school was not, thus allowing a later claim that it was the first non-sectarian college in U.S. history. Carrick’s profession may have been the reason for the phrasing, to put those of other denominations at ease, but his role as a pioneer Presbyterian minister also causes historians to question whether it was truly non-sectarian. After all, Carrick’s first school in Knox County had been called a “seminary.”

Another mystery associated with its earliest days is the presence of five female students, which offers Blount College—and by association, UT—a tendril of a claim to be the first co-educational college. However, further examination proves the girls were very young, likely in a pre-collegiate curriculum. Records of what they were actually studying are scant.

Carrick renamed his college East Tennessee College in 1807, but then the founder and primary faculty member died suddenly in 1809, the school closed, and remained closed for 11 years. It reopened under the same name in 1820. In 1828 it moved from downtown Knoxville to the Hill, the nucleus of UT’s current campus.

Crescent Bend

2728 Kingston Pk. Knoxville, TN 37919 865.637.3163 crescentbend.com

James White’s Fort

Another mystery associated with its earliest days is the presence of five female students.

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Ramsey House

2614 Thorngrove Pk. Knoxville, TN 37914 865.546.0745 ramseyhouse.org

Westwood

3425 Kingston Pk. Knoxville, TN 37919 865.523.8008 knoxheritage.org/westwood Purchase a combo pass for $25 and visit all 7 Knoxville Landmarks!

7

www.hhknoxville.org

No. 3

1796

The First Constitutional Convention Founding the State of Tennessee

T

he reason Knoxville was founded as a city and not just a settlement was that it was, from its birth, the capital of a large federally administered region called the Southwestern Territory. In early 1796, there were only 15 states in the United States of America. “Tennessee” was a word people had heard, but just as an approximation of a Cherokee word, the name of a village that had been applied

Couretsy of the Tennessee State Library and Archives

8

to a very long river that flowed through little-known regions. Enough Americans lived in the territory between the Appalachian mountains and the Mississippi River to qualify it as a state, over 77,000 according to a 1795 census.

The U.S. Constitution that Gov. William Blount had signed nine years earlier permitted the addition of new states, but did not describe a clear path. Those who lived in this long, narrow swath took a bold course. Here, without Congressional initiative or sanction, representatives from across the territory gathered in Knoxville and drew up a state constitution.

This boldest of all statehood strategies is still called “The Tennessee Plan,” and today is cited by Puerto Ricans who favor statehood.

The territory was divided into 11 counties, and each county sent five delegates to the convention. Most of these settlers had been born in the colonies, especially Virginia and North Carolina and distant Pennsylvania. A few delegates were immigrants from Ireland, including Knox County’s John Adair. It was one of the most esteemed gatherings in regional history. Among the 55 men who assembled on Gay Street that January were James Robertson, founder of Nashville; future President Andrew Jackson, then a young soldier-judge in his 20s; William C.C. Claiborne, the youngest delegate—he may have been no older than 20—who later became famous as the first English-speaking governor of Louisiana; future Tennessee Gov. Archibald Roane; and, of course Knoxville founder James White and Gov. William Blount, former North Carolina delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention.

Several delegates were so prominent in Tennessee history that they have counties named for them, some already mentioned. Others included John McNairy, Joseph McMinn, William Cocke, Joseph Anderson, John Rhea, and Landon Carter.

In the capacious offices of U.S. agent David Henley, at the southwest corner of Gay and Church, these 55 men argued daily for three weeks.

Unlike some state constitutions, like that of North Carolina, the Knoxville constitution did not demand that office holders be Protestant Christians. “No preference shall ever be given by law to any religious establishments or modes of worship,” it went. “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under this State.”

However, it added that “No person who denies the being of god, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of the State.” It would have permitted Muslims, but not atheists, to hold office.

The Knoxville constitution did not differentiate between the rights of blacks and whites, and permitted free black men to vote and to bear arms.

Most blacks in Tennessee were slaves, but during Tennessee’s first 38 years as a state, under the Knoxville constitution, free black men voted. (A second constitution written in Nashville in 1834 restricted blacks’ rights.)

The Knoxville constitution was broad-reaching in some respects. The mouth of the Mississippi River was controlled by King Charles IV of Spain, and would soon be controlled

by Napoleon’s France. The delegates gathered in Knoxville—400 miles away from the river—declared that “the free navigation of the Mississippi is one of the inherent rights of the citizens of this State; it cannot, therefore, be conceded to any prince, potentate, power, person or persons whatever.”

On Feb. 6, 1796, these founders of Tennessee signed that finished document. Thomas Jefferson reportedly remarked that it was “the least imperfect and most republican” of the 16 state constitutions of that era.

CBWW.com Bearden 865-584-4000 140 Major Reynolds Place Knoxville 37919

80 Years and Counting Coldwell Banker Wallace & Wallace, Realtors celebrates 80 years in business this year. The year the company began, the average price of a home was $3,925.

Today, according to the Knoxville Area Association of Realtors MLS data, the average price of a home is $200,000. To get a perspective on the length of time that has passed, east Tennesseans saw the completion of the Norris Dam, read the first issue of Life magazine, and the first plane landed at McGhee-Tyson Airport.

So what keeps a company in business for 80 years? In the case of Wallace & Wallace, Inc., consistent growth and the pursuit of excellence is the answer. Jim Wallace says, “Reinvention is the key to surviving the roller coaster of the real estate market. We have to continually evaluate everything we do and stay flexible. Change is constant.”

Today, the Wallace brothers still lead the company and firmly believe in maintaining a high level of professionalism and integrity. George Wallace says, “At the end of the day, I want to know we made the right decisions for our clients, agents and staff. Trust and honesty are virtues on which we will not compromise.”

Coldwell Banker Wallace & Wallace, Realtors has 350 agents and offers residential sales, property management, relocation service, commercial real estate, and has an affiliation with New Penn Financial and Melrose Title Company.

The source for real estate in East Tennessee.

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Northshore 865-584-4700 813 S. Northshore Drive Suite 101 Knoxville 37919 Each office is independently owned and operated.

9

No. 4

1836

The Dawn of Whiggery Hugh Lawson White’s Challenge to Presidential Power

H

Photo couretsy of the Library of Congress

ugh Lawson White would have had an impressive resume even if he never left Knoxville. The son of early settler James White, Hugh became a prominent state legislator, powerful judge, pioneer banker, and sometime farmer (his spread covered much of the area much later known as Fort Sanders)—all before, in 1825, the state Legislature selected White to replace Andrew Jackson in the U.S. Senate. When Jackson was elected president, White became one of the president’s most dependable allies in Washington. Although his gaunt appearance earned him the nickname “The Skeleton,” White was much

10

respected by his Senate colleagues, who compared him to the Roman senator, Cato. By 1833 his colleagues elected him president pro tempore of the nation’s most powerful body of legislators. During that critical few months, White played a role in settling South Carolina’s Nullification Crisis.

He was at the time so famous that the fact that he lived in Knoxville was the former capital’s main claim to fame.

In 1834, a committee of disaffected Democrats including Congressman Davy Crockett and John Bell—who many years later would be a third-par-

ty nominee for president himself— nominated White for the presidency.

At the time, White was still a Democrat, and his likely opponent in 1836 would be fellow Democrat Martin Van Buren, the Jackson protégé whom the president chose to succeed himself.

White became the first of the Jacksonian Democrats to become a leader of the anti-Jacksonian movement.

In 1835, the White candidacy looked like a national movement, with strong support in the Midwest.

Indiana liked him. That year, White County, Ark., was named for him.

Young Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln’s support for White was likely

his first public political statement.

(Lincoln’s interest in White was unrelated to either’s opinion about slavery. White was a slave-owner and if not a outspoken advocate of slavery, no opponent.)

White is memorable not for his influence on slavery or other issues of the day, but his challenge to a sitting president. Early in Jackson’s second term, White became convinced that Jackson was becoming too powerful, seizing powers that rightfully belonged to the states and the people.

The fact that Jackson’s fellow Tennessean and longtime ally suddenly opposed the president startled the nation.

Although White never actively campaigned, Crockett wrote anti-Van Buren satires in support of his friend.

His popularity may have emboldened other anti-Jackson figures around the country to join the fight, and they picked up some of White’s early momentum to become regional favorites. Intellectual Sen. Daniel Webster declared for president in Massachusetts, war hero William Henry Harrison in Ohio. By November 1836, there were four anti-Jackson candidates. Although White’s intentions were likely sincere, by 1836 it was clear the anti-Jackson factions were uniting to force the election into the House of Representatives by denying Van Buren a majority of the electoral votes. The unprecedented tactic failed, and Van Buren was elected, but White came in third in the five-man race, besting even the famous Daniel Webster in the popular vote, and carrying the president’s own state of Tennessee.

The anti-Jacksonians survived Jackson’s presidency. Now known as the Whigs, named after the British party famous for opposing the king, they won the following presidential election. The Whigs were a dominant party for about 20 years, but the election of 1836 is sometimes seen as a watershed for American politics, and for better or worse, the beginning of our current two-party system.

White didn’t live to see the end of the next election. Weakened when he came down with the plague that devastated Knoxville in 1838, he died in 1840, and is buried in First Presbyterian’s churchyard.

PROUD TO MAKE OUR HOME IN ONE OF KNOXVILLE’S MOST HISTORIC LANDMARKS

T

he Lincoln Memorial University-Duncan School of Law sits on land donated by merchant Calvin Morgan in 1844. Tennessee appropriated funds for the construction of what came to be known as the Tennessee School for the Deaf, which opened in 1848. The school was converted to a Civil War hospital in 1861, first serving Confederate forces and later Union troops.

After the war, the school reopened and operated on the same site until 1924, when Knoxville acquired the land for its City Hall. The City used the location until 1980, when its offices were moved into the City-County Building.

The buildings are among the National Register of Historic Places as one of the few remaining examples of Greek Revival structures in East Tennessee. The Tennessee Valley Authority and Knoxville Area Partnership each occupied the property for several years until LMU acquired the lease in 2008 and opened LMU Law in 2009.

E

arlier this year, in recognition of the need to provide high-quality legal services to those who otherwise could not afford to hire a lawyer, LMU, with the cooperation of the Old City Hall Knoxville Partnership and the City of Knoxville, agreed to fully renovate the Stair Building on the LMU Law site and lease it to Legal Aid of East Tennessee for $1 a year. LMU plans to invest over $1 million to restore and preserve the historic building, which is owned by the City of Knoxville.

Law.LMUnet.edu

LMU Law is provisionally approved by the Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar of the American Bar Association, 321 North Clark Street, Chicago, IL 60654, 312-988-6738.

11

No. 5

1844-51

A New Sort of School The Tennessee School for the Deaf

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n the early 1840s, Knoxville didn’t have much going on. It had been more than 20 years since the town had been capital of anything. Travelers, more scarce than they’d been in the 1790s, remarked that the place seemed barely there. It had a tiny college on a hill just outside of city limits, but East Tennessee University had no statewide status and no national profile. It was not even of that much interest to locals.

Families who could afford it sent their sons to Ivy League schools up north.

In 1843, elderly State Sen. John Cocke of Grainger County had an unusual idea. Son of one of Tennessee’s founders, he’d been a state senator back when the Legislature met in Knoxville, decades earlier. In 1808 he had killed a Knoxville merchant in a duel. But the 70s are a more

The Stanley farm—and its ox-drawn wagon—in the late 1880s.

Our founder, Charles Stanley, built his first greenhouse in 1955, and also sold plants from the back of his truck on Market Square. Saturdays in October we will again sell plants on the square, so come by and see us!

Stanley's Greenhouse has been growing with Knoxville for the past 61 years. Thanks to our amazing customers for allowing us to help you keep Knoxville green!

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12

contemplative time, and he thought it high time that the deaf of Tennessee should have their own school. His bill passed, establishing in Knoxville a Deaf and Dumb Asylum, more aptly renamed later as Tennessee School for the Deaf.

It was Knoxville’s first statewide institution since capital days. More importantly, it was the eighth school for the deaf ever established in America. Although never large—at the time of the Civil War it had only 55 students, who lived on campus—the school for the deaf built the city’s grandest building, on a hill in what was then the city’s northwestern corner, the same building we know today as Lincoln Memorial University’s School of Law. In the 19th century it was called the “Asylum”; back then,

the word had no psychological implication and only meant “sanctuary,” or “safe place.” The deaf school was a point of pride for a city that needed one, and a magnet for some interesting reformers who came from other parts of the country to teach. It also drew interesting speakers, whose talks were translated in sign language, among them Admiral George Dewey, hero of Manila Bay, in 1899— and a few decades later, Louise Tracy, wife of actor Spencer Tracy, who had been an advocate for the deaf since the infancy of her deaf son, for whom she founded the John Tracy Clinic.

TSD’s history gets a little extra kick in that it’s what drew the Ijams family to Knoxville. Thomas Ijams, an Iowan who’d been teaching at the National Deaf-Mute College in

Couretsy of the Calvin M. McClung Digital Collection

Washington, came to be the school’s first postwar superintendent in 1866 and was one of TSD’s most influential chiefs. His son, Harry, founded what we now know as Ijams Nature Center, whose proximity to the modern TSD is coincidental. When Ijams was in charge, the school was downtown.

Like almost all schools in America at the time, it was intended for whites. In 1879, a separate, privately funded Negro School for the Deaf opened, under the leadership of former slave and Knoxville policeman, James Mason, who helped obtain state funding for his school. It operated on Dandridge Avenue for several decades until 1965, when TSD was integrated.

In 1921, Dr. Ethel Poore was chosen to be the new superintendent of TSD. She was the first female superintendent of an American school for the deaf—and, in fact, the first female chief of a state institution in Tennessee. She served for 30 years, during which time the school moved from its original downtown campus to the much roomier space in Island Home.

deaf and dumb asylum

Sunday, October 2 6 p.m.

Join us for a service of Choral Evensong featuring the combined choirs of Church Street UMC, First Baptist Church, First Presbyterian Church, and St. John's Episcopal Cathedral. This free event begins at 6 p.m. at Church Street UMC, located at the corner of Henley and Main. www.churchstreetumc.org 524-3048

Saving Knoxville history one historic place at a time.

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October 21! www.knoxheritage.org

13

No. 6 historic buildings, including one of the South’s oldest libraries

1854-68

on fresh local dishes and classic British favorites for antiques, art, and crafts from Appalachian artisans

Launching New American Literatures George Washington Harris and Frances Hodgson Burnett

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trails that lead into a national park and state natural area

noxville has some reputation for literature, but not much for literature written here. James Agee, for example, hardly ever wrote for publication in his hometown. In two early cases, however, Knoxville is where two nationally influential authors did much of their early work.

In all other respects, these two mid-19th century writers are opposites.

George Washington Harris (1814-1869) was a sometime jeweler, sometime steamboat pilot, sometime postmaster, who in 1854 began writing short stories in Knoxville about an untamed, irreverent country character named Sut Lovingood. Published in both local papers and in high-circulation national magazines, the Sut stories became nationally popular, eventually collected in a book, Sut Lovingood’s Yarns. Harris’ stories are believed to have influenced the much-younger writer Mark Twain,

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14

Couretsy of the Library of Congress

frances hodgson burnett

whose Huck Finn can be seen as a more complex, endearing version of Sut. William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, and others have acknowledged a debt to the author who lived on Gay Street when he began writing for publication.

Some credit Harris with creating the Southern Gothic, or, perhaps more aptly, the “Southern Grotesque,” but also sometimes with doing something more: blazing new trails for an American vernacular, popularizing a new informal, native style of writing that didn’t depend on European models of discretion and carefully composed paragraphs.

Harris left his home town during the Civil War, not long before his opposite arrived. Frances Hodgson began writing in Knoxville, published her first short story in 1868, at age 19, when she lived in a small house on a hill that would, just a few years later, become the campus of Knoxville College. With the addition of a new last name—that of her East Tennessee husband, Dr. Swan Burnett—she became known as Frances Hodgson Burnett, and had some currency as a magazine writer while she lived in Knoxville. She moved away in her late 20s, and as author of about 30 novels, she was one of the most successful female novelists of the Victorian era.

Most of her books, aimed at both adults and children, aren’t well known, like an obscure one called In Connection with the DeWilloughby Claim, set in a thinly disguised Knoxville—but Little Lord Fauntleroy, The Secret Garden, and A Little Princess (sometimes known as Sara Crewe) are classics that have inspired more than a dozen motion pictures.

Harris wrote mostly about the remote countryside; Burnett wrote mostly about England. Both were born elsewhere, and both eventually moved away. But both launched their careers in Knoxville.

No. 7

A Linchpin in America’s Rail System

1858

T

oday, Knoxville is one of a few American cities its size that lack any sort of passenger rail service.

However, Knoxville was once notable for its rail connections. Beginning in 1858, when the new East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad met the 3-yearold East Tennessee and Georgia in downtown Knoxville, the city became a linchpin to a regionally and sometimes nationally important rail system. The East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia, as it was known after 1869, served East Tennessee, but also linked the Northeast with the gulf states, moving dozens of trains daily, carrying both passengers and freight. The ETV&G was one of the South’s major lines. For a quarter century, its headquarters was in downtown Knoxville.

For passengers, it was an amenity

that suddenly rendered the Eastern cities so accessible that New York hotels advertised in Knoxville papers.

But the railroad had a bigger practical impact on industry. Knoxville had always had certain resources, like marble, coal, iron, and lumber, but they were never available for largescale development until the ETV&G made it possible to move them around the country in massive quantities. Big packing houses like Armour set up shop along the rail lines. Raw materials could also be shipped in, for processing in Knoxville. It also enabled wholesale houses, like McClung & Co., to bloom into significant regional and even national presences.

The ETV&G improved transportation throughout much of the industri-

alizing South, allowing manufacturing to flourish in suddenly industrial cities like Chattanooga and Birmingham, which grew rapidly during this period.

Driven by the railroad-fueled economy, Knoxville quadrupled in population in the 30 years after the Civil War, developing baseball, streetcars, opera festivals, the amenities of a modern American city.

In 1894, the ETV&G became a central part of J.P. Morgan’s newly formed Southern Railway, headquartered in Virginia, but the city retained an important status as a hub for the system, and as Southern’s primary railroad-car repair center—the Coster Shops, named for one of Morgan’s New York associates, were located in Knoxville for almost a century.

Couretsy of the Calvin M. McClung Digital Collection

The East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia Railroad

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15

No. 8

1863

A Significant Distraction The Siege of Knoxville

T Couretsy of the Library of Congress

‘assault on ft. sanders’ byKurz & Allison

his one is not as obvious a contender as it might seem. The Battle of Knoxville, a weeks-long siege culminating in a 20-minute battle, was a successful Union defense against a disorganized and desperate Confederate siege.

It was a battle of will between two battle-tested generals who were by then known by name throughout the North and the South: the Union’s Ambrose Burnside and the Confederacy’s James Longstreet. However, it’s often left out of short-book summations of the war (not to mention Ken Burns’ documentary) because its significance is not obvious. It did not result in any significant advancement of the war’s narrative.

At least, not in itself. Its significance might lie primarily in the fact

that it distracted Longstreet and his 15,000 experienced troops long enough for Grant and Sherman to fi rm up the Union occupation of Chatt anooga which, weeks earlier, was anything but assured. The capture of Chatt anooga was one of the fi nal deadly blows to the Confederacy, but somehow the war lurched along for another year and a half.

When Gen. Sherman arrived in Knoxville just after the battle, misinformed that the Union troops were suffering from hunger, he remarked that it was the best-fortified city he’d ever seen, surrounded by 17 large and small forts, as well as trenchwork and other imaginative defenses, much of it designed by Union Capt. Orlando Poe.

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HAPPY 225TH BIRTHDAY KNOXVILLE “We’re a family owned business, and the whole business is family. We take care of our employees and treat them fairly, so our employees are dedicated to the company. You don’t find that alot anymore.”

Donna Johnston, president of Engert Plumbing & Heating Inc.

Plumbing • Heating • Air Conditioning • Water Systems • Metal Fabrication Commercial & Residential As a family business that has been serving Knoxville, Tennessee and surrounding areas for over 125 years, Engert Plumbing & Heating Inc. has long been a rich part of Knoxville’s history. Our commitment to our community and our willingness to be part of the preservation of our community has been proven throughout the years. Whether your project consists of new construction, renovation, design build or service, you can have confidence knowing Engert Plumbing & Heating Inc. will complete your project with professionalism and unrivaled knowledge of the industry, all while staying on schedule and using the highest quality materials available as we strive to “continue to serve the customers as we do ourselves.”

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No. 9

1849-69

A Controversial Journalist Turns Governor Parson Brownlow’s Tale

W Couretsy of the Calvin M. McClung Digital Collection

parson brownlow

illiam Gannaway Brownlow (1805-1877) was forever known as Parson Brownlow, even though his national fame came as an editor and political figure, years after his youthful adventures as a circuit-riding Methodist parson. The Virginia-born editor moved his newspaper, the Whig, from Jonesborough to Knoxville in 1849, and by 1861 was perhaps the South’s most famous native Unionist, a colorfully anti-secession pundit. Although his Knoxville-based newspaper was small, his irreverent, often outlandish humor was quoted as far away as New England, while he was burned in effigy as far away as Texas.

For months after the Confederate occupation, Brownlow was boldly

flying the U.S. flag high above his Cumberland Avenue home. Eventually arrested, he left Knoxville during the war and returned reborn as an abolitionist—although you may not have to be a cynic to gather that what fueled his sudden interest in civil rights was his passion for annoying Confederates. By a turn of events that seems, in retrospect, bizarre, the scathing, unpredictable journalist became the Reconstruction governor of Tennessee. In that role the harshly partisan Brownlow throttled and lashed the recently Confederate state back into the Union much faster than any other, in so doing granting full suff rage to black men, even before black men were allowed to vote in most Northern states. Brownlow was

ruthless and mowed over his opponents, and may have been a provoking factor in the formation of a radical reaction called the Ku Klux Klan, which regarded Brownlow among its primary enemies. But with his actions, along with his enemy President Andrew Johnson’s orders, Tennessee avoided the era of military reconstruction inflicted on most of the South.

As one of East Tennessee’s first Republicans, Brownlow helped to establish that party’s unusual stronghold in the Knoxville area.

Throughout this time, and later as a U.S. senator, Brownlow and his wife, Eliza, maintained their home on East Cumberland Avenue, near downtown Knoxville.

Happy Birthday Knoxville!

Since 1887 and a mule drawn wagon in Market Square until today we are now 5 generations strong in the moving and storage business and we want to thank the community for their support over our 130 years in business!

1540 Amherst Rd, Knoxville, TN 37909

(865) 584-8545 www.gouffon.com

18

Celebrating 110 years 1906-2016 • Orders are electronically received from our

customers and salesmen using the Electronic Toolbox Catalog and point of sale systems.

• Over 55,000 SKU’s are stocked in our warehouses.

• Our customers include Trustworthy Hardware

stores, independent hardware stores and lumber yards, Sentry Hardware stores, and Priced Right Everyday stores.

• House-Hasson has two major distribution centers: Knoxville and Prichard, West Virginia.

• Both Knoxville and Prichard are full-service

House-Hasson Hardware is in its second century of serving customers.

Today House-Hasson is America’s Largest Independent Regional Hardware Distributor.

warehouses.

• House-Hasson Hardware Company was

founded in 1906 by Mr. C.S. Hasson and Mr. Sam House. House-Hasson started with 13 salesmen who came from the old C.M. McClung Company of Knoxville, Tennessee.

• House-Hasson Hardware was known

as “Knoxville’s Exclusively Wholesale Hardware House.”

• House-Hasson Hardware has grown

through sales expansion and acquisition of four other companies.

• Since 1980 House-Hasson has undergone four major expansions of its Knoxville, Tennessee location.

• Today House-Hasson serves dealers in

Tennessee, 17 states, the Caribbean and beyond.

• The original building was built in 1906 on what

was known as Asylum Street. Deliveries were made by horse and wagon and by train. The street address was later changed to 757 Western Avenue.

19

No. 10

1869

Electing African-Americans to Office David Brown and Isaac Gammon Win Seats on City Council

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n 1869, Knoxville elected two black men, David Brown and Isaac Gammon, to its Board of Aldermen.

Gammon was a former slave, known to some wags as “One-Eye Ike.” They formed two of 19 members of the Board of Aldermen. The city was about 43 percent black. If representative were proportional to the population, about eight of those 19 aldermen should have been black. But considering most Knoxvillians, and in fact most white Americans, were not used to blacks being regarded as equals, it was revolutionary.

Gammon and Brown, who reported to work when the Board of Aldermen met in the original City Hall building, on the north end of Market Square—about where the stage is

today—were among the first blacks elected to public office in the South.

Newspapers make it clear that life was not easy for them, and they had to endure some taunting. Gammon served just one term in office, Brown was re-elected for a second term. Attorney W.F. Yardley, who later ran for governor, followed. A few years later, slave-turned-entrepreneur Cal Johnson took his turn on the board. Knoxville had some black representation on City Council for most of the next 40 years, with once as many as three aldermen.

However, early in the early 20th century, when City Council got much smaller, with only five members, it lost its minority representation. Black City Council members would have to wait until the second civil-rights era, the

time of desegregation, to return to Knoxville’s main governing board.

Meanwhile, a related development was at least as pioneering. In the 19th century, few Northern cities hired black policemen. In early 1870, months after Knoxville’s first black alderman, Knoxville hired its first black cop—the first of several temporary policemen— until black policemen became a permanent part of the force in 1882 when Moses Smith became the first to hold that position as a permanent job.

As late as 1910, Knoxville was the only city in the Southeast with black policemen—though as was the case elsewhere in the early days, they were discouraged from arresting whites.

Black policemen have been part of the Knoxville Police Department ever since.

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No. 11

A Little College Becomes a Big University

1869

The Morrill Act, and the Knoxville Exception

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about the Republican initiative and Knoxville’s new advantage. Resentful legislators insisted that the federal largesse should be shared or surrendered altogether. A bill to scuttle ETU’s federal good luck passed the state Legislature, but was vetoed by the governor on legal grounds.

The Morrill Act also introduced, for the first time, wording insisting “no citizen of this State…shall be excluded from the privileges of said University by reason of his race or color.” ETU’s leadership considered that order, which if obeyed would have made it extraordinarily unusual in either the North or the South, but finally opted to subsidize black applicants’ education at Nashville’s private black college, Fisk.

Our local college’s Morrill status gave Knoxville’s university a major advantage that almost tripled its enrollment. It was arguably the single biggest factor in finally establishing Knoxville’s little college as the University of Tennessee, the state’s flagship public university, in 1879.

It may be the reason that everything interesting that has happened at UT, academic and otherwise—which would call for another list—happened in Knoxville. university of tennessee

Couretsy of the Calvin M. McClung Digital Collection

hen Civil War trenchwork still marred East Tennessee University’s Hill, and the few academic buildings on top still more the scars of shelling, some wondered whether the old college, which had recently enrolled only 120 students anyway, would even survive. However, it was just then that the college leapt ahead of several dozen peers to become something more than a modest community college.

The U.S. government’s Morrill Act, first proposed in the 1850s and finally passed in 1862, intended to offer federal aid to colleges in the practical studies of agricultural, engineering, and military science, through grants of federal land, was a major boost to higher education. However, because the act finally passed during the Civil War, it credited only colleges in Unionist states. Most former Confederate state colleges would not be recipients of Morrill funds until the 1890s, and then with emphasis on colleges that offered instruction to minorities.

Thanks to Republican maneuvering that made a case that Knoxville’s little university wasn’t just another secessionist school, ETU got Morrill land-grant status just as if it were a Northern school, by a special act of Congress in 1867.

It was a big deal, putting Knoxville’s previously regional community college head and shoulders ahead of its peers. It was so significant that UT named a series of three successive campus buildings “Morrill Hall,” indirectly in honor of Vermont congressman Justin Smith Morrill, co-founder of the anti-slavery Republican Party, who sponsored the Morrill Act. ETU’s unusual designation came about as former Confederates across the state were recovering the right to vote, suspended in the years just after the war—and many of them in Middle and West Tennessee weren’t happy

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No. 12

1875

A College for Blacks The Origins of Knoxville College

knoxville college

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ounded by the United Presbyterian Church, Knoxville College became part of the first generation of colleges for blacks. Most of its original students were former slaves. In the early days, it was a “Normal School,” an academy for training teachers without bestowing collegiate degrees. It was the only school of its nature in the region, and black students traveled hundreds of miles, from other states, to attend Knoxville College.

As years went by, KC evolved into a respected liberal-arts college for blacks. By the 1940, KC claimed to have graduates in nearly every American city. Among them were many prominent civic leaders, like attorney Henry G. Marsh, who became the first black mayor of Saginaw, Mich.—one of the nation’s first black mayors.

KC’s national importance is obvious in the caliber of black leaders who came there to speak: Frederick Douglass came twice, Booker T. Washington at least three times, as well as W.E.B. Dubois, Mary McLeod Bethune, George Washington Carver.

Athletes Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson spoke there, as did sometimes controversial comedian Dick Gregory.

The biggest crowd in KC’s history, however, was in 1960, when Martin Luther King spoke outside there, his only public visit to Knoxville. By that time, KC students were already taking a leading role in desegregating the lunch counters of downtown Knoxville.

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YOU HAVE NOT BEEN DOWNTOWN UNLESS YOU HAVE BEEN TO SCRUFFY CITY The Market House which stood on historic market square since 1854, when the first farmer's market opened.

Flames destroyed the Market House Dec. 6, 1959

23

No. 13

1883

Roots of New Genre Take Hold The Knoxville Music Festival of 1883, and a Surprise

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noxville’s classical-music reputation emerged just after the Civil War, driven by immigrants who missed good orchestral music.

One was Gustavus Knabe, from Leipzig, Germany. A former member of Mendelssohn’s orchestra—and a friend of Robert and Clara Schumann—Knabe had come to the German-immigrant community of Wartburg before migrating to Knoxville, where he founded the Knoxville Philharmonic Society, rendering a small orchestra for special occasions.

Swiss immigrant Peter Staub had been a planner of another rural immigrant community, Gruetli, but came to Knoxville when that didn’t work out,

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staub’s opera house

Sept. 25 - Oct. 1, 2016

Couretsy of the Calvin M. McClung Digital Collection

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and set about to build an opera house, at the southeast corner of Gay Street and Cumberland Avenue.

These classical-music initiatives met a demand in the rapidly growing city. By 1883, Herr Knabe and others were convinced Knoxville was ready for a large opera festival, as a few other American cities, like Cincinnati, enjoyed.

The first Knoxville Music Festival, in May 1883, drew several major stars of the day, including Viennese soprano Emma Juch. And, held both at Staub’s Opera House and at Chilhowee Park, it drew thousands of visitors—some of whom came mainly to see the associated jousting tournament. Future festivals would draw other major performers and even composers, like Victor Herbert.

That first festival ended with an unscheduled surprise that may have had a bigger long-term impact than the major stars’ arias did. At Staub’s Opera House, some older men, disgruntled with the opera festival in general, took to the stage, and began sawing away on fiddles, “songs from before the War,” they said—the Civil War, of course. Some of the opera crowd remained seated, amused by the unexpected prank, and curious about what would happen next. What they witnessed was a fiddling contest, and what may have been the first country-music concert in history.

Although the songs were old, it was extraordinarily unusual—maybe unprecedented—to listen to folk music in a formal auditorium setting.

It stirred more comment than any other event of that year’s festival.

The impromptu show was likely the spark that generated an annual fiddling contest that emerged on Market Square about that time, known as the “Old Time Fiddlers’ Convention.” Organized for years by “Squire” Frank Murphy, it overlapped with the early radio era, and gave Knoxville a head start in the country-music game.

1902

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No. 14

1884-85

Big Business Sets Up Shop White Lily, Brookside Mills, C.M. McClung

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Couretsy of the Calvin M. McClung Digital Collection

white lilly flour

n the mid-1880s, thanks to the area’s natural resources, a large and growing labor force, and constantly improving railroad connections, major local industries were suddenly building factories in Knoxville. J. Allen Smith flour company, later to be known as White Lily, and Brookside Mills, a major textile weaving mill about a mile north of downtown, popped up along the tracks on the north side of town almost simultaneously. The C.M. McClung Co. was a major wholesale company that did much of its business by mail order, becoming in effect a Sears, Roebuck for a multi-state region. Soon, C.B. Atkin was claiming to be the world’s largest producer of hardwood mantels.

These were major employers, and that was important enough for Knoxville. But what boosts them beyond, to the realm of broader significance, is that they were industries whose products developed a reputation well beyond the region. Numerous other factories sprang up about the same time, including marble mills, which by the late 19th century bestowed Knoxville with a nickname: the Marble City.

Knoxville had always had a few mills, but by the 1880s, it was a city of heavy industry that employed tens of thousands of men, women and children in as many as 40 factories at once.

brookside mills 26

BISTRO AT THE BIJOU THE BACK STORY...

225

years of a scruffy little city

Did you know?

The Bistro is a modern restaurant in the oldest restaurant space in Knoxville. Meals were being served in the old hotel building that stands at the corner of Gay Street and Cumberland Avenue since 1817, but by the 1850s, this big room was known as the Lamar House Saloon and Restaurant. The Lamar House was proud of its selection of whiskeys, brandies, wines, and beers, as well as ice, shipped in daily on trains from the north, and among its early bartenders was John Hodgson, brother iof author Frances Hodgson Burnett. But they also served food, as the Bistro does today. In 1869 proprietor John Scherf also declared his saloon included “a Restaurant equal to any in the state.”

▲ Market Square circa 1900’s

▲ Gay Street circa 1800’s Gay Street today c

It’s hard to believe it’s been 225 years. Hey, you hardly Currently home of The Bistro located in the oldest restaurant space in Knoxville. Carrying on the tradition of fine food and drink since 1817.

look a day over 200. And we’ve really enjoyed the past 30 years as a Knoxville based marketing and advertising firm. We’ve been a part of helping local, regional and national businesses grow while watching the city we love grow into a place we’re proud to call home.

So, congratulations Knoxville. We’re excited to see what the next century or two brings for our scruffy little city.

807 South Gay Street Knoxville, TN 37902 (865) 544-0537 www.thebistroatthebijou.com

| asenmarketing.com 27

Mail-Order Design George Barber’s Architecture Flourishes

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george barber

eorge Barber was a talented young architect based in DeKalb, Ill., near Chicago, and already becoming known for his imaginative designs of Victorian homes, when he got some surprising advice. At age 34, he moved south for his health. Barber established his practice in Knoxville in 1888. Here he worked harder than ever, designing scores of local houses, elaborating imaginatively on the latest Queen Anne styles.

Although Knoxville already had successful and accomplished architects, notably the Baumann Brothers, Barber was Knoxville’s fi rst architect to develop a national reputation, He sold his distinctly identifiable designs to a national clientele by way of a mail-order catalogue. Today, Barber houses are cherished across the nation, even on the West Coast, in states Barber himself never visited.

Knoxville, not surprisingly, boast more of Barber’s work than any other city. The neighborhood Parkridge, where the Barber family lived, has more Barber houses than any other neighborhood.

George Barber died in 1915, just as his talented son, Charles Barber, was getting a solid start with the establishment of his own firm, BarberMcMurry, which thrives today as Knoxville’s oldest active architectural firm. barber ad Couretsy of the Calvin M. McClung Digital Collection

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No. 16

1913

Making Conservation a National Ideal The National Conservation Exposition

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bandstand conservation. It has been claimed to be the world’s first exposition that was oriented more toward the future than the past, but it was certainly the first one with an environmental theme, even if it was mostly pragmatic

Couretsy of the Calvin M. McClung Digital Collection

Liberal arts building

Couretsy of the Calvin M. McClung Digital Collection

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noxville hosted a couple of big Appalachian Expositions in 1910 and 1911, with lots of amenities, and an electric streetcar to Chilhowee Park, where there were new white exposition buildings, inspired by the ones a few years before in Chicago.

Among them was a Negro Building, designed and built by folks from Knoxville College. A “Fine Arts” pavilion attracted art from the great American impressionists. And there were rides and shows, and some pretty serious business from the big industries. Knoxville had an idea that it was pretty good at hosting expositions.

In 1913, the preservation and wise use of natural resources was still a new idea. But Knoxville threw a party that fall dedicated to those ideals.

Over a period of two months, the city welcomed more than a million visitors to Chilhowee Park, where people ate hot tamales, watched motorcycle races, danced to an Italian band, and maybe learned something about

in that regard. Its chairman was the famous conservationist Gifford Pinchot, who advocated sustainable forestry.

It seemed an issue of urgent and practical concern. For decades, to feed the national market for lumber and furniture, the Smoky Mountains and other areas had been clear-cut by lumber companies, with an eye for profit but not for the future. By 1913, even Knoxville’s own lumber barons were starting to lose sleep about what they’d done, and how long they could keep doing it. They made common cause with lovers of art and music and walks in the woods, and others concerned about pollution of various sorts, and reformers inspired by speeches by Booker T. Washington, Helen Keller, and William Jennings Bryan. All of them found things of interest at the NCE. Coming as it did just before World War I, the exposition was as quickly forgotten as any dream. We can only speculate about its impact, the fruit of connections made there, and what it may have inspired. But several of its participants banded together again a decade later to help found a famous national park.

In The Garden Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum opened its Visitors Center on Aug. 14, 2015.

Located off the beaten path, at 2743 Wimpole Avenue in East Knoxville, the 47-acre refuge is the largest publicly accessible garden in the city’s history. Founded in 2001, when the Aslan Foundation made the original purchase of the property, it looks much older. That’s because it’s actually the old campus of Howell Nurseries, the sprawling plant store which traced its origins to the 1700s. (The mysterious round stone buildings aren’t as old as they look, though; mainly ornamental, they were built in the 1940s.)

America’s most famous landscape designer was Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903), who designed Central Park in New York and the grounds at Biltmore near Asheville. In 1893, he was in Knoxville working on a project about which little is known to this day. He may have planned a clifftop park that was never completed, but there’s evidence he had some influence on Circle Park.

Savage Garden, on Garden Drive near Fountain City, was the dream of English-born industrialist Arthur Savage (1872-1946). Built in 1917, it reflects the Asian motifs and art-nouveau stylings of its era.

Since 1986, it has been subject of an ongoing restoration effort. It’s private property, but sometimes used by the next-door Montessori School.

Public gardens have been growing in popularity recently, but gardens have deep roots here. At The Knoxville Botanical Garden & Arboretum the time of the Civil War, Knoxville used Old Gray PHOTO BY CHARLIE FINCH Cemetery as a public garden. Founded in 1850 and In the 1920s, newspaper publisher Alfred planted with flowers and shrubbery, it was part of Sanford (1875-1946) hired Olmsted’s sons, the an international garden-cemetery movement, and Olmsted Brothers, to design an ambitious a site for afternoon strolls and even Sunday afternoon picnics. arboretum stretching from Kingston Pike to the river, just east of Cherokee Boulevard. Sanford’s goal was to have one example of every tree indigenous to The novel The Secret Garden is set in England, but its author, Frances Tennessee. It thrived for only 20 years. After Sanford’s death, the land was Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) lived in and near Knoxville for several years in subdivided into lots, but a few original trees remain. her youth. Her memoir about a secluded place she called the Bower, in the vicinity of what became Knoxville College, suggests it may have been an In the late 1920s, idealists with the City Planning Commission proposed inspiration for the secluded formal garden imagined in the book. terraced gardens downtown from Main Street down to the river. The Depression, combined with a revolt against city taxes, scuttled the idea.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, several of Knoxville’s wealthiest established elaborate formal gardens that were used for parties and wedBulgarian-born industrialist Ivan Racheff believed industrial sites, even dings. Several of them, built on the city’s steep hills, were terraced. Little steel mills, should be beautiful. He became president of the Knoxville Iron remains of most of them. The building at the corner of White Avenue and Works, and in 1947 established Racheff Gardens, a walled garden that is still 16th Street is believed to have been the 1870s home of English gardener well-kept in Lonsdale and often open to the public.

Michael Hoey, who tended the gardens of the huge Cowan mansion on Cumberland Avenue. Nothing remains of the mansion or its gardens, just Beginning in 1983, UT transformed its Agriculture Experiment Station, the gardener’s cottage. Danish-born landscape architect Jens Jensen which had been of interest mostly to agriculture students, into UT Trial (1860-1951) came to Knoxville in the 1920s to design gardens here. BaltiGardens, now known simply as UT Gardens, which has developed into an more-born Garafilia Van Deventer, who was married to cement tycoon Hugh eye-catching and well-used public attraction.

Van Deventer, hired Jensen to make a garden of distinctive design off Lyons Bend. Few old gardens are maintained as originally planned.

Meanwhile, the Knoxville Botanical Garden and Aboretum frequently hosts receptions, outdoor musical performances, and afternoon strolls.

Source: Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection

The Knoxville History Project, a new nonprofit organization devoted to the promotion of and education about the history of Knoxville, presents this page each week to raise awareness of the themes, personalities, and stories of our unique city.

Learn more on www.facebook.com/knoxvillehistoryproject • email jack@knoxhistoryproject.org 31

No. 17

1924-61

Bringing Music to the People

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t the time they planned their tall, new headquarters on Gay Street in 1924, Sterchi Brothers Furniture claimed to be the largest furniture company in the world. That claim is hard to prove, but it’s not outlandish. Sterchi’s was a big chain, with 60 stores mainly in the South, and they sold a whole lot of furniture, broadly defined, including pianos, kitchen appliances, and an especially interesting piece of furniture called the phonograph. They’d been around, but because wealthy people owned them, early records were marketed to a wealthy audience: opera, hymns, symphony music, patriotic brass-band marches.

As phonographs got cheaper, Sterchi’s was keen to expand the market, and figured working people would get interested in phonographs if there were working people’s recordings available. In 1924 Sterchi’s began sponsoring folk musicians’ trips to New York, where (a quarter century before Nashville had any recording reputation) the best

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crazy tennesseans recording studios were located.

Sterchi’s sponsored some hillbilly musicians who’d soon be famous, like Uncle Dave Macon, the banjoist from Middle Tennessee, but also talent closer at hand: previously obscure

Couretsy of the Calvin M. McClung Digital Collection

sterchi brothers furniture

Couretsy of the Southern Folklife Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The National Promotion of Country and Other Popular Music

downtown Knoxville buskers like Charlie Oaks, George Reneau, and the singing duo Mac and Bob, blind guys who performed for nickels on the downtown Knoxville sidewalks.

So before Bristol’s “Big Bang of Country Music” in 1927, Sterchi’s created at least a muffled boom.

Several of those who made records enjoyed a brief vogue, but then returned to the streets. Sterchi’s remained interested in this newly available working man’s music, and was intimately involved in the planning and promotion of Vocalion’s St. James Hotel sessions of 1929 and 1930, recently released in an interpretive box set as The Knoxville Sessions.

On it, thanks to an old 78 found in Australia, we hear the voice of J.G. Sterchi himself, telling his story.

A second wave of national influence came on the air waves. By the mid-1920s, Knoxville stations WNOX and WROL were broadcasting live music. Most of that music was orchestral dance music, jazz, and popular music, including Hawaiian music, which was all the rage. It was an era that loved novelty. There was

orthopHonic victrola only a little in the way of country. By 1931, Cas Walker, the ambitious young grocer from Sevier County, sponsored Walker’s Jug Band, just half an hour on Friday evenings on WROL. In the mid-1930s, country gained a head of steam, throttled forward by a newcomer from Chicago. On WNOX Lowell Blanchard started a daily variety show called the Mid-Day Merry-Go-Round, at about the same time a local fiddler named Roy Acuff, who had formed a large, charismatic band called The Crazy Tennesseans, was bringing in crowds too big for their venues.

Over the next 25 years, Walker and Blanchard enjoyed an unlikely rivalry, the hard-nosed scrapper from the hills and the plump show-biz impresario from Chicago, trying to beat each other to the next big thing.

Blanchard’s show, which came on every day, tended toward the mainstream, often offering pop, jazz, classical, and lots of comedy. Walker offered politics and groceries and, eventually, bluegrass—a new form in the mid-1940s, untested and not for everybody. Between the two of them, they made Knoxville a conduit for live music, launching several careers toward the big time, under a wide umbrella of styles. Among their alumni were Chet Atkins, who often preferred to think of his improvisational guitar as jazz, and the Everly Brothers, who in Knoxville began leaning hard toward rock ’n’ roll, and finally Dolly Parton, who never minded being called country.

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33

No. 18

1923

The Nation’s Most Popular Park Is Created The Great Smoky Mountains National Park Movement

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David chapman and hikers on Mt. Chapman sections that had been turned into stumps, and making safe trails.

Together, Chapman, the Davises, and hundreds of others marshaled a combination of state funding, local donations, and a major grant from the Rockefeller family to establish a park open to the public in 1930, but not

Couretsy of the Calvin M. McClung Digital Collection

mt. l Econte

Couretsy of the Calvin M. McClung Digital Collection

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he story goes that it started when Annie Davis, a Knoxville socialite, got back from a trip out west in 1923 and thought the National Park model would be a perfect fit for the embattled Great Smokies. The idea of making a park in the Smokies was a good deal older, but the Bryn Mawr alum made so much progress on the idea it seems just to let her own the concept.

Wife of iron and coal company executive Willis Davis, she befriended other lovers of the Smokies, like pharmaceutical executive David Chapman and members of the Knoxville Automobile Club, some of whom owned automobiles just so they could go to the Smokies. Running mainly on that issue, Davis—who wouldn’t have been able to vote a few years earlier— was elected to the state Legislature in 1925, Knox County’s first female elected official. There she pushed the park project, including a bill eventually signed by Gov. Austin Peay calling for a major state purchase of land in the mountains. Meanwhile, a generation of idealists turned their attentions to the park, raising money, mapping the region, volunteering to replant the

formally dedicated by President Roosevelt, standing on the podium at Newfound Gap with David Chapman, until 1940. It became the nation’s most popular national park.

For a generation, Knoxville neglected itself to help birth an astonishing new gift to the world. The Smokies spurred the city to build the Henley Street Bridge, connecting to brand-new Chapman Highway, named for the Father of the Smokies, David Chapman. Knoxville established its airport near the Smokies. For several years, Knoxville advertised itself as the Gateway to the Smokies; Knoxville was where America stayed when it was in the mood for a day trip up there. City business profited, for a while, as restaurants prospered and Smokies souvenir shops popped up downtown.

But by the 1960s, there were thousands of hotel rooms in Blount and Sevier Counties, closer to the park. It became easiest to drive to the Smokies on the highways, without coming through Knoxville business districts at all. The city’s connection to the Smokies became mainly historical.

No. 19

Forming a Southern Football Powerhouse

1932

Birth of the SEC

GARDEN CENTERS

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36 points, total, on the Vols. Most opponents didn’t score at all.

As the regular season closed, the giant Southern Intercollegiate Conference held a fateful convention at the home of one of their more talked-about members, in downtown Knoxville.

The conference at the Farragut Hotel in early December was attended by scores of big shots in Southern sports: university presidents, athletic directors, and coaches from all 23 institutions in the conference. It had become obvious that the conference was a big, unwieldy thing, and in a given season any member team was unlikely to face as many as half of the other members. After some emotional arguments, flares of temper, and, if we can believe the reports, tears, they agreed to create a new, nimbler

conference of just 13 schools, called the Southeastern Conference.

Since then, the SEC has been one of America’s most dependably exciting conferences, breeding, in recent years, more national champion teams than any other.

Couretsy of the Calvin M. McClung Digital Collection

I

t’s hard to determine whether a successful run of football seasons is ever “historic.” Every game, somebody wins. There are hundreds of football programs in America, and about half of them win more than they lose. Several teams have won more national championships than the Vols have. But you can’t deny the size of that stadium and the willingness of people to pack it.

If the University of Tennessee’s program ever stood out, in a way that might inspire a sportswriter to use the phrase “Tennessee football” to describe a particular style of play, it was during the reign of the guy the stadium is named for.

By age 40, Maj. Robert Neyland was becoming famous for his defensive strategies. During the 1932 season, 10 other teams combined had scored only

UT football practice 1935

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No. 20

1933

A New Kind of Government TVA Comes to Town

O

Couretsy of the Calvin M. McClung Digital Collection

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norris dam

Couretsy of the Calvin M. McClung Digital Collection

houses flooded by lake norris

f course, the Tennessee Valley Authority was a development largely imposed from outside of Knoxville: conceived by a senator from Nebraska, ordained by a president from New York, implemented by a chairman from Ohio. It happened to coalesce in Knoxville partly because it was the closest city to the agency’s first dam project, Norris.

But the general idea had local champions even before the New Deal (notably via eccentric attorney John R. Neal)—and one of TVA’s three original directors, Harcourt Morgan, was a longtime Knoxvillian, as were hundreds of the agency’s original staffers. It also became instantly one of Knoxville’s biggest employers, roughly 3,000 white-collar staffers, most of them downtown.

TVA brought cheap hydroelectric power to the valley, and probably more importantly, ended the flooding that regularly ran people out of their homes, even in Knoxville, and caused ruinous erosion that had left thousands of acres of East Tennessee barren. It intended to be even more than that for the valley, offering resources for farmers, from new fertilizers to insect control, and even providing frameworks for urban and industrial planning, creating the town of Norris as a model for what all towns could be. (Its pedestrian-oriented town-center design might be called “new urbanist” today.)

For intellectuals of a certain stripe, it also made Knoxville one of the most exciting places in the world.

Benton MacKaye, the founder of the Appalachian Trail, moved to Knoxville to work for TVA and found Knoxville one of the most “stimulating” places he’d ever lived. Most of the people he found so fascinating were other people who’d come here to work for TVA, but there were others, like local attorney Harvey Broome, who (along with some TVA folks here) founded the Wilderness Society, one of the most influential radical

organizations of the 20th century.

Several remarkable people came here to work. David Lilienthal, attorney from Wisconsin who later became the first chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, came here to be a TVA director. A few years later, so did James Pope, a former mayor of Boise, recently U.S. Senator from Idaho, who must have startled his constituents when he moved to Knoxville in 1939 to work for TVA. TVA itself seemed radical in its early days, controversial among Republicans (Eisenhower famously called it “creeping socialism,” and, as Ronald Reagan was launching his career as a conservative politician in the early ’60s, he demanded that it be sold to private interests). But to idealists it was a way to introduce large-scale planning within a democratic framework, almost an experiment in a new kind of government for a new era. Especially during its dynamic early years when it was famous around the globe, TVA drew an astonishing variety of intellectuals—philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, architect le Corbusier, Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru—just to witness it in action. Travel author John Gunther, who infamously called Knoxville “the ugliest city…in America” in 1947, was awed by TVA. And the presence of TVA, a government-controlled energy source, was a major reason for the location of an unprecedented weapons effort.

During the war that broke out when TVA was only eight years old, the Knoxville area drew the Clinton Engineer Works, later known as Oak Ridge National Laboratory. They needed lots and lots of dependable power for the urgent Manhattan Project.

TVA became something like an enormous utility, still America’s largest—albeit one with extraordinary flood-control capacities, creating reservoirs that become recreational lakes, in a region that never had lakes before. Inevitably perhaps, TVA left its ambitious world-changing idealism behind, but it put its mark on an idealistic generation.

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No. 21

Revolutionizing Waste Management

1936

The Dempster Dumpster

M Couretsy of the Calvin M. McClung Digital Collection

dempster equipment co.

ake fun of it, go ahead, but hardly anything has changed the world for the better more so than the Dempster Dumpster, first introduced in Knoxville. People use the term the world over without thinking about it, but the Dumpster was named for George Dempster (1887-1964), industrialist, inventor, and civic leader who served Knoxville as city manager in the late 1920s and 1930s, leading massive projects like the Henley Street Bridge and McGhee Tyson Airport. He became mayor in the 1950s. Son of immigrants from Scotland and Ireland, he studied law with the legendary John R. Neal, and with his brother Tom went to work on the new Panama Canal, developing an appreciation for moving massive

amounts of material fast. He and his brothers formed Dempster Brothers, Inc., a machinery company. Dempster held 25 patents, but none as famous as the Dumpster, which for decades was manufactured in the Dempster plant in North Knoxville.

When Dempster set out four Dumpsters behind buildings along Gay Street between Church and Union in November 1936, it was an “experiment.” The word “Dumpster” had never previously existed. It was first described in the media as “a patented bucket contrivance for hauling garbage, gravel, sand, and other materials.” The original Dumpsters were much smaller than the modern ones, but operated by the same principle, with trucks equipped to

pick them up and dump them.

It may be a case of a major liability leading to an asset: visitors to Knoxville in the ’30s remarked about how filthy the city was, with both soot and out-of-control trash heaps. Knoxville was also a natural for equipment like that, which was useful in the rock-quarry industry.

The experiment apparently worked. Within three months, representatives from Nashville, Louisville, and Washington were making trips to Knoxville to behold this new wonder. And within a year, there were 60 Dempster Dumpsters in Knoxville alone, as state government contemplated a major purchase.

The world followed, and it has been a tidier place ever since.

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No. 22

1956

A Knoxville Judge, and a Landmark Order The South’s First Public School to Desegregate, Clinton High

B Couretsy of the Library of Congress

clinton high school

orn at the end of the 19th century, Judge Robert Love Taylor— named for his uncle, a popular Victorian-era politician—was a white Southerner on the far side of middle age. Taylor had no reputation as liberal, or as a civil-rights activist. He was a Democrat, at a time when Southern Democrats predictably stood for segregation.

He’d spent most of his life in Johnson City, and moved to Knoxville in 1949 only when President Truman offered him a promotion, a recess appointment to be the chief federal judge for Tennessee’s Eastern District. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate for a permanent appointment the following year. His office was in the big marble federal build-

ing on Main Street, above the main post office. Judge Taylor was in office at the time the U.S. Supreme Court passed down the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, declaring that the time-honored principle of “separate but equal,” the rule in Tennessee and other states since before Judge Taylor was born, was unconstitutional.

When a challenge came from black students in neighboring Clinton, Judge Taylor read their complaint. It wasn’t fair, they said, to have to ride a bus all the way to the closest all-black school in Knoxville, Austin High, when there was a public high school right in their own neighborhood. And Taylor reread the Supreme Court’s recent

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time in jail, Kasper became involved in the leadership American Nazi Party, before lapsing into obscurity.

Perhaps ironically, Knoxville, where the inconveniences of segregation were not as dramatic—historically black schools were close by—remained segregated for several more years. The city’s desegregation began in early 1960, with a series of nonviolent actions led by local black activists, especially clergymen like William T. Crutcher and students at Knoxville College, coinciding with an extremely well-attended visit on KC’s campus by Dr. Martin Luther King.

Robert Booker, student-government president at Knoxville College, was among those who demonstrated and were arrested.

The demonstrations, mostly at lunch counters and movie theaters in downtown Knoxville, became the subject of a book, Diary of a Sit-In by Merrill Proudfoot. The same year, UT

admitted its first black undergraduate student, Theotis Robinson, who had been one of the downtown demonstrators. As it developed, among the leaders were UT student Avon Rollins, who would later become known throughout the South for his activism in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and KC grad Booker, a scholar of black history who was later elected Knoxville’s first black state legislator.

By 1963, most public facilities, including movie theaters, desegregated. Knoxville’s public schools, allowed (by Judge Taylor) to let the process proceed gradually, did not announce the full desegregation of its own schools until late 1964, eight years after Clinton High, and didn’t satisfy federal guidelines until 1972.

Knoxville contributed a key figure to the Black Power movement in the person of Nikki Giovanni, a scathing critic of white America who surprised some by writing with warm nostalgia about the Knoxville of her youth in poetry and essays.

Couretsy of the Library of Congress

decision. He said well, they were right. All-white Clinton High would have to desegregate and allow black students to attend classes alongside whites.

Clinton High became the South’s first public school to desegregate, and for that reason it got national attention. Taylor’s decision was alarming to segregationists across the nation, many of whom converged on Knoxville, Clinton, and Oak Ridge for demonstrations and, sometimes, violence. A Louis Armstrong show at Chilhowee Park in 1957 was bombed. In 1958, Clinton High itself was destroyed with dynamite.

Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt. And it was just the building. The still-desegregated high school was rebuilt.

John Kasper, an oddball segregationist insurgent from New York, faced federal charges for obstructing a court order in the same building where the decision to desegregate Clinton High was made, and under the gavel of Judge Taylor. After some

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No. 23

1974-2012

A New Paradigm in Women’s Athletics Pat Summitt Exalts the Game

I

t’s tempting to leave the world of college sports out of a municipal history. Most cities have teams.

They win some years, lose others.

The people who care are mainly the fans. As appalling as it might seem to fans, but there are thick histories of college football in America that hardly mention the University of Tennessee. That will never be the case with women’s basketball.

Knoxville events in that realm have made a huge difference in women’s

42

Couretsy of the UT Athletics

pat summitt

athletics as a whole.

It’s not just that Pat Summitt won eight NCAA championships; another coach has won more. Or that she coached a team to win the gold medal in the 1984 Olympic Games; somebody always wins the gold. It’s not that she has won more games than any other coach; someday, even that record will be broken.

The reason Pat Summitt will be remembered as historic is that she began making a national popular phenomenon of women’s basketball.

In fact, she may have done more than any individual in bringing any women’s team sports to national attention, as something to pay attention to, something that can’t be missed. It’s been enough to prompt the construction of an institution the world might not have foreseen the need for, before Pat: a Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

More than that, she may have helped change America’s image of the female psyche. Even during the women’s liberation era, the average American, if he or she were honest enough to admit it, had a perception of women as smart, capable, dependable, but emotionally vulnerable, and certainly not aggressive or up to challenges of endurance or competitive stress. However, repeatedly, on live national television, Pat Summitt created a new paradigm for women that may go beyond sports. She was loud, aggressive, goal-oriented, sometimes merciless. She demanded perfection and often got exactly what she wanted. People who had never known a woman like that saw it, and marveled.

Some of them were little girls who are now adults. You don’t always have to be like Pat Summitt to succeed. But it’s now an option. Summitt widened the lens of how the successful modern woman is perceived.

In 1934...

A few TVA employees pooled their money to form a safe place to bank. These founding Members encouraged their co-workers to deposit money into the Credit Union so those who needed to borrow money could do so at reasonable rates.

82 years later, Knoxville TVA Employees Credit Union still provides a safe place to bank and oers loans, products and services at reasonable rates.

Join us and go.

Upward & Forward. tvacreditunion.com Federally Insured by NCUA 43

No. 24

1982

throwing a Colorful Party The 1982 World’s Fair If you want to see How history Is being made In Tennessee You’ve got to be there!

The 1982 World’s Fair!

S

o went the familiar jingle in TV ads broadcast nationally.

In 1973, the Arab Oil Embargo sent the United States into a tailspin known as the Energy Crisis. Knoxville responded a few years later with the biggest party in its history. The city made a strong case that between TVA, ORNL, and UT, it was positioned to help the world solve its energy problems. And it was also a great place for a world’s fair. It sounded absurd at first. Knoxville was the second smallest American city ever to presume such an endeavor. Its population stagnant, Knoxville needed a shot in the arm and some way to fix that drab old railroad yard between downtown and Fort Sanders.

There were disappointments. The Soviet Union in a grand tit for tat related to Afghanistan and the 1980

Olympics. But it worked out in ways that couldn’t have been predicted by its planners. The 1982 World’s Fair became famous for the fact that mainland China, still a mysterious place to most Americans in the years just after Nixon’s attempts to connect, chose to participate for the first time since that famous fair in St. Louis in 1904. For much of America, Knoxville became a place to see China, its mysterious terra-cotta warriors, bricks from the Great Wall, and an impressive variety of artisans at work.

Some of the amazing new inventions of the fair were duds— milk that doesn’t require refrigeration and consequently tastes very weird—chocolate Coke, and the Kodak Disk camera. But those who paid close attention at the U.S. Pavilion tours got to see a touchscreen computer a decade and a half before it became a common consumer item.

The World’s Fair was also where many Americans first heard of the European Union, then called the European Economic Community. Long

44

Couretsy of the Calvin M. McClung Digital Collection

world’s fair artwork by Jerry Weintz

before the Euro, the EEC hosted, for the first time at any world’s fair, a whole pavilion alongside other international pavilions. Patiently they tried to explain their complicated long-term plan.

Visitors found our fair remarkable in another respect, too, in that it was a rare world’s fair held in a downtown area, using multiple historic buildings, from the 1905 L&N train station to several 1890s Victorian houses for modern purposes.

Unfortunately for the short attention spans of humans, by 1982 people weren’t worried much about energy anymore, the ostensible theme and motive for the big fair. But after the confusions of Vietnam and Watergate and disco, about 11 million were ready for a party. It drew Jerry Lee Lewis, Bob Hope, Slim Whitman, the Warsaw Philharmonic, Jimmy “Dyn-o-Mite” Walker, Imelda Marcos, Leon Redbone, Presidents Carter and Reagan, and, in a rare American appearance, Japan’s Kabuki Theater. It was a very strange dream. Perhaps it didn’t do much for America’s dependence on fossil fuels—in the years after the fair, in fact, per-capita consumption of oil actually rose—but it caused a stir. And though no one predicted it at the time, it may have been the second to last—the penultimate—world’s fair in U.S. history.

Was history made in Tennessee?

Perhaps not exactly the history intended. When the banking empires of Jake and C.H. Butcher collapsed three months after the fair, it was then called one of the biggest bank collapses in history. Those who weren’t affected by it were quietly proud that Knoxville had enough of a bank to collapse so grandly. In years to come, the fair was described in an interesting book by Chinese author Liu Zongren called Two Years in the Melting Pot. Today, it’s the site of the Knoxville Convention Center, the Knoxville Museum of Art, the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial, and the STEM Academy.

THANKS ROSS!

45

No. 25

1990-?

A Fresh Take on Television Scripps Networks, Jupiter, and Knoxville’s other show-business companies find a place

M

ken Lowe

46

to Ken Lowe, an executive at Cincinnati-based media company, Scripps.

Led by Lowe, a Chapel Hill grad who came here in 1994 to launch HGTV, Scripps bought Cinetel, creating a television division based in Knoxville.

Soon, the Knoxville-based subsidiary acquired the Food Network. the Travel Channel, DIY, the Cooking Channel, and others. By 2000, Bagwell’s Cinetel became known as Scripps Productions, eventually Scripps Networks Interactive, and a major player on the national cable-television market.

Meanwhile, one talented and ambitious Bagwell employee, Knoxville-raised Stephen Land, spun off on his own to create Jupiter Entertainment, an independent production company less interested in how-to shows than in narrative storytelling, creating long-running shows like City Confidential and Snapped that proved more durable than most network hits.

Other companies sprouted to meet other demands: Atmosphere Pictures, North South Productions, Lusid Media, and RIVR Media.

Meanwhile, this coincided with a

Couretsy of Scripps Networks Interactive

scripps network interactive campus

ore than half a century ago, heartened when one director or another found Knoxville useful for a shoot in a usually obscure movie, Knoxville tried deliberately to court show business, building a permanent modern sound stage to lure moviemakers to the city. It became an ROTC training center connected to West High.

Just as Knoxville had thoroughly forgotten the heady days when it dreamed of becoming a mini-Hollywood, the city developed as one of the nation’s leading television-production centers. No one saw it coming. No one, perhaps, with one exception.

By all accounts it started with Ross Bagwell Sr., a cameraman from Monroe County who’d worked on TV in Hollywood and New York—he thought he had what it took to produce his own shows, back home in East Tennessee.

In the early 1980s, his Knoxville-based production company, Cinetel, scored an early success with an early madefor-cable series, I-40 Paradise, a truck-stop sitcom with country music.

His work in Knoxville was impressive

few other extremely unusual national video projects in town, like Whittle Communications’ Channel One, a national educational television network distributed to schools on a closed circuit; and Cyberflix, a pioneering CD-ROM video game company experimenting with interactive video narratives. Both ended their Knoxville presence by the late ’90s, but may have played a part in raising the city’s profile in the fast-changing video business at a critical time.

And all of this was happening while a New Tazewell grocer started small and slowly built an empire.

Based in Knoxville by 1993, Regal Cinemas was one of the world’s largest movie-theater chains by 1999. If it had nothing to do with the TV-production empire that rose simultaneously, it makes for an interesting coincidence.

At present, Ross Bagwell, who once worked for Jack Paar and is now well beyond a typical retirement age, is still at it, involved in other endeavors in recent years, including RIVR Media, of which his daughter, Dee Haslam, is in charge. Their large studio center in Bearden witnessed work on a recent feature film. Something, Anything (2014), shot in Knoxville and directed by Paul Harrill via the associated company Nest Features, earned national critical acclaim despite its limited release.

None of it’s exactly like anything else out there. Knoxville’s array of No-Coast projects renders the claim that the city is the nation’s fourth-biggest—or, by some estimates, even third-biggest—television-production center, credible. At this point, some believe Knoxville’s influence is discernible on the cable-TV landscape.

Jupiter’s Land says Knoxville work profits from its closer connection to America’s heartland, and the local show-biz community’s perspective offers a “fresh point of view” often lacking in products from the big cities, where formulas often rule.

Things To Come

What’s Next?

2240?

thinkstock.com

T

hese aren’t the only reasons Knoxville matters, of course.

So what’s number 26? Maybe it has already happened, or maybe it’s still happening. Appraising recent events presents a challenge. Some developments on this list, seemed little more than oddities when they were emerging. Even when it was on the radio every day, few journalists paid much attention to the emergence of popular country music as it was happening. Architect George Barber is more famous by name today than he was when he was during the 75 years after his death. History requires the perspective that comes with distance.

Today Knoxville is proud of its downtown, even as we’re aware that most downtowns are reviving in one way or another. Knoxville’s seems different, and is in some ways, lacking quite as much of a comprehensive plan from a government or corporation or philanthropy, it’s been organic, and to a greater extent than we deserve, maybe, serendipitous. Still, maybe it will be remembered as presenting America with a slightly different paradigm.

We might consider Big Ears, AC Entertainment’s music festival held more springs than not since 2009.

Little if anything in Knoxville history has drawn such immediate international acclaim. It is, by some critics’ assessments, the best assemblage of interesting new music in America. It’s just hard to tell, seven years in, how much influence it has, or will have.

These days, technological advances often involved multiple developments in multiple places. Will university advances in green technology result in a clean car or a clean building? Will it have something to do with the promise of proton therapy to cancer patients? Will the loyal sympathies for Pat Summitt’s struggles result in the first effective treatment for Alzheimer’s?

That would be something else to be proud of. If the past is any guide, though, chances are it’ll be something we’re not expecting at all.

Beauford Delaney (Knoxville 1901-1979 Paris), Scattered Light, 1964. Oil on canvas, 36 5/8 x 28 3/4 inches, Knoxville Museum of Art, purchase with funds provided by the Rachael Patterson Young Art Acquisition Reserve, 2015. © Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator

D IScOv E R KN Oxv Il l E’S R Ic h v I S uAl lEg Acy

FREE ADMISSION 1050 World’s Fair Park Drive Knoxville, TN 37916 865.525.6101 knoxart.org • info@knoxart.org 47

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Movies

A&E

Courtesy of Viaje Films

Sea Chantey

Slow cinema meets a slow boat in Dead Slow Ahead

BY LEE GARDNER

T

hings you will see when you watch Dead Slow Ahead: an ocean squall athwart a ship’s bow under a bruised-black sky. The abstract dance of loaders and cranes dumping untold tons of coal into a cargo hold, their shining lights and ponderous movements giving them the feel of robots bent on some arcane task. Crewmen emptying a gaping hold full of wheat, one bucket, one shovel at a time. The same crewmen drinking and singing karaoke in a dark cabin while one of their number wiggles a flashlight back and forth in a feeble approximation of nightclub festivity. An anonymous dusty shore, washed out by a hazy light, sliding slowly past. The ever-spinning prop shaft, deep in the ship’s dark guts, lit up in red like the infernal spindle of the world.

The list of things you will not see, or hear, includes characters, plot, voice-over or title cards, much dialogue, or a traditional narrative.

Filmmaker Marco Herce joined the crew of the bulk freighter Fair Lady for some of their travels, recorded

what he experienced, and assembled the sights and sounds into a feature-length cinematic tone poem that is unlike most anything else you’ll see onscreen this year.

Which is not to say it’s unlike any film you may have seen recently. Dead Slow Ahead’s obvious antecedent is Leviathan, the breakout 2012 experimental doc about life aboard a North Atlantic fishing vessel, along with other projects that have likewise come out of Harvard University’s Sensory Ethnography Lab (Sweetgrass, Manakamana, The Iron Ministry).

These are all observational documentaries in the strictest sense, cinematic immersion in their time and setting devoid of blatant agenda or framing.

Dead Slow isn’t as abstract or borderline hallucinatory as Leviathan, but it shares a similarly bleak atmosphere and a subtle focus on the brutal rigors of oceangoing labor.

(The title also serves as a warning about the pace.)

Herce finds beauty throughout the Fair Lady, from its dank bowels to the

sculptural ribs of its holds to the mid-ocean vistas of its pitching decks.

But his camera eventually finds its way to the voyages of its largely Filipino crew. At one point, a jumpsuit-clad hand turns a wheel that activates another wheel just a few feet away, an enormous pulley spinning so furiously that it could easily rip the man to pieces. When the ship springs a leak and fouls a cargo of grain, the crew winds up emptying the dregs of it by hand—in some shots, they’re antlike figures on the face of a Sisyphean task.

Off-shift, they eat in a dingy mess and drink and sing in bare-bones revelry.

As the film winds down, Herce listens in as they call home, telling their wives they love them, asking after their kids, and, in one case, discussing maybe missing the birth of a new child while still out to sea.

Dead Slow Ahead takes advantage of a cacophony of shipboard sounds, many of which, stripped of their source, sometimes come off like the latest release from some esoteric drone project. But in one case, Herce

shows footage of a crew member giving his all into a karaoke mic while the soundtrack carries not his singing, but a grim collage of industrial screeches. It’s the most obvious spot where the director seems to editorialize through his choices, but not the only one.

The Fair Lady’s crew members seem glum and taciturn, but then Herce never asks them a question on camera or catches conversations among them that aren’t about the immediate work at hand. The brooding skies the camera captures are gorgeous, but one wonders if the dramatic clouds kept blue skies and sunbeams at bay the entire voyage, which is how it appears. The phone calls the director records may capture the men’s distance from loved ones, but none of them sound particularly distraught about it. While Dead Slow Ahead has no stated agenda, it nonetheless manages to feel a little pedantic about the nature of this work in a way that the more immersive Leviathan never did.

That said, Dead Slow Ahead offers an often stunning glimpse into a floating world that few of us will ever see. ◆

WHAT

The Public Cinema: Dead Slow Ahead

WHERE

Pilot Light (106 E. Jackson Ave.)

WHEN

Tuesday, Oct. 4, at 7:30 p.m.

HOW MUCH Free

INFO

publiccinema.org

September 29, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 21

MUSIC

Thursday, Sept. 29 TOUGH OLD BIRD WITH THE GET RIGHT BAND • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else.

JUBAL • Scruffy City Hall • 6PM • Part of Wayne Bledsoe’s weekly Six O’Clock Swerve show on WDVX. • FREE MATTHEW MCNEAL • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • FREE CHEAP TRICK • Niswonger Performing Arts Center (Greeneville) • 7:30PM • Since the 70s they have been blending elements of pop, punk and even metal in a way that is instantly catchy and recognizable. • $55-$275 SHOVELS AND ROPE • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • It’s not all that unusual for musicians to talk the talk about taking a less-is-more approach to their work – but it’s rare indeed for artists to really walk the walk, and apply that philosophy across the board. Over the better part of a decade, Shovels & Rope have done just that, cutting unnecessary frills from their songs, not to mention the very way they live their musical lives. • $25 DENZEL CURRY WITH BOOGIE • The Concourse • 8PM • When Denzel Curry reflects on meeting Andre 3000, one of his personal idols, he remembers a piece of advice from the sage Atlanta rapper: “Don’t get bored.” After a wild year in his already lengthy career, it’s a guideline the young Florida rapper has distilled into a philosophy.

The 21-year-old Curry was part of this year’s XXL Freshman Class, an important but often controversial roundup of who’s next in hip-hop. But for those who have spent a lot of time on SoundCloud, Curry was already a familiar name. All ages. Visit internationalknox.com. • $15-$18 MEGAN JEAN WITH THE WEEPING WILLOWS • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM THE 9TH STREET STOMPERS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM SECRET CITY CYPHERS • The Open Chord • 8PM • This is Knoxville’s premier open mic-style event that allows m.c.s, poets, singers, musicians, dancers, comedians, visual artists, and others to not only have a place to showcase their talent, but a place to network with other artists and build their fan base. You can choose to perform either with a backing track or with our live band.

Please remember the 3 Secret City Cypher rules: no disrespecting women; no violence; and limited vulgarity.

All ages. • FREE STONE KOLED • Wild Wing Cafe • 8:30PM • FREE GAMENIGHT WITH GROUNDHOG AND NIGHT GALLERY • Pilot Light • 10PM • Full of chiming, cleverly orchestrated guitars, elaborate song structures, and warm, open-hearted vocals that somehow never sound treacly, Gamenight’s 2013 album, Pets Pets, is redolent of ’90s indie-rock influences. 18 and up. • $5 THE GET RIGHT BAND • Preservation Pub • 10PM THE FUTUREBIRDS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM CYRUS PIREH • Pilot Light • 7PM • Pireh is a guitarist and experimental composer based in New York and Minnesota. 18 and up. • $5 Friday, Sept. 30 THE PHILLIP FOX BAND WITH THE WEEPING WILLOWS • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE THE FARMER AND ADELE • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlin22

KNOXVILLE MERCURY September 29, 2016

burg) • 7PM • FREE MIC HARRISON WITH JOSH SMITH • Royal Oaks Event Center (Maryville) • 7:30PM • Together, Harrison and the High Score developed a combination of high octane honky tonk and power pop rock ‘n’ roll that has wowed audiences from Bonnaroo to Boston. • $15 • See Music story on page 20.

FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown and Goose • 8PM • Live jazz featuring a mix of original music, early jazz and more. • FREE CEREUS BRIGHT • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • Cereus Bright finds its muse—and its name—from the Cereus flower: a white desert flower that blooms only at night. • $18.50 • See Spotlight.

THE TENNESSEE STIFFLEGS • Laurel Theater • 8PM • The Tennessee Stifflegs play old-time and western swing with a keen sense of showmanship and musical integrity.

Visit jubileearts.org. • $11 MORNING FATTY WITH VESSEL AND FUTURE THIEVES • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM DEE DEE BROGAN • The Open Chord • 8PM • Born and raised in South Carolina, Dee Dee now makes her home in Tennessee. Since she could speak, she has been using her voice to touch people’s lives, and is now proud to debut her first solo album, Dee Dee Brogan December Five and Twenty. All ages. • FREE ILLITERATE LIGHT • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 9PM PORCH 40 • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM JACK’D UP • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 9PM MAMA LOUISE • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • A tribute to the Allman Brothers.

DEVAN JONES AND THE UPTOWN STOMP • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE URBAN SOIL WITH THE PARTIALS • Preservation Pub • 10PM BEAR GRILLZ WITH MIDNIGHT TYRANNOSAURUS AND IRELL • The Concourse • 10PM • Proving that opposable thumbs or a basic grasp of the human language are not necessary prerequisites for EDM domination, allow us to introduce to you Bear Grillz. 18 and up. • $10-$20 KID CONGO POWERS AND THE PINK MONKEY BIRDS WITH DADDY DON’T • Pilot Light • 10PM • Legendary guitar stylist Kid Congo Powers (the Gun Club, the Cramps, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) and his longtime cohorts create a cocktail of fuzz guitars, New Orleans drum beats, soulful strut bass lines, and sonic ambrosia from beyond. 18 and up. Visit thepilotlight.com for advance tickets. • $10 ALIVE AFTER FIVE: THE ANDY “T”-NICK NIXON BAND • Knoxville Museum of Art • 6PM • The Andy “T” – Nick Nixon Band is a six-member blues band from Nashville that plays Chicago-, Texas-, and New Orleans-style blues and R & B. • $10-$15 THE PHILLIP FOX BAND • Preservation Pub • 8PM • 21 and up.

Saturday, Oct. 1 THE YOUNG FABLES WITH THE WILDER ADKINS BAND • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE JUNIOR BOYS WITH EGYPTRIXX AND BORYS • Pilot Light • 7PM • Before there was Clap Your Tapes And Say Art Brut, there was Junior Boys: the proto-blog success story. • $12-$15 JOE LASHER JR. • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • FREE SCOTTY MCCREERY • Niswonger Performing Arts Center (Greeneville) • 7:30PM • At the age of 17, Scotty McCreery

Photo by Texure Photo

CALENDAR

Thursday, Sept. 29 – Sunday, Oct. 9

CEREUS BRIGHT Bijou Theatre (803 S. Gay St.) • Friday, Sept. 30 • 8 p.m. • $18.50 • knoxbijou.com or cereusbright.com

With the band still reeling from a fire that destroyed their rehearsal space a few weeks ago, Cereus Bright’s upcoming concert at the Bijou Theatre may have extra poignancy. The Knoxville Americana band is ready to show the love to the fans who donated close to $15,000 to help them recover from the loss of their recording equipment (and all the worldly possessions of the two band members who had been living in the building and who still don’t have new homes).

Frontman Tyler Anthony says fans and other musicians have been supportive with not only money but furniture and space. The Black Lilies, for instance, who had a similar experience earlier this year when their van and gear was stolen in Texas, offered to share their rehearsal space.

“It’s our reminder of the Knoxville community and that this is really home for us,” Anthony says.

“We live in a funny age of music, where a lot of the way people interact with music is through the digital streaming world. And it’s hard to know how much people care until something like this happens. … It will make the show more meaningful.”

Fortunately, the band—which takes its name from a flower that blooms in the desert—was touring to promote its first album, Excuses, when the fires were set. Most of their stock of new CDs was in the charred building but survived.

“That was a huge surprise,” Anthony says. “The cardboard box that had them was covered in soot, but they were still intact, thanks to the beauty of plastic wrap.”

The five-piece band’s distinctly Southern vocal style and thoughtful lyrics are matched with a burst of energy contributed by the three newest members, who have jazz backgrounds; their songs combine a sense of longing with a driving beat. The guitar and mandolin have bell-like clarity, through which founding members Anthony and Evan Ford weave their own harmonies.

Anthony says he’s excited to come back to the Bijou after a self-imposed two-year hiatus.

“Part of why we waited as long as we have was we felt like we owed it to our fans to have a new show,” he says. “Some of the people in Knoxville were there at the first shows,” when Anthony and Ford were a folky two-man duo. “They’ve been listening to us for four years—people who walked that journey with us and have seen us be kind of immature. Now we’re in a place to really show off the creativity and talent of the whole band.”

With opening act Swear and Shake. (S. Heather Duncan)

25

Spotlight: Coheed and Cambria

CALENDAR quickly established himself as one of country music’s hottest stars. 18 and up.

AARON KIRBY AND SOUTHERN REVELATION • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 9PM VALLIE NOLES WITH MAE BETH • The Open Chord • 8PM • All ages. • $7 CYPHER: A HIP-HOP SHOW • The Birdhouse • 9PM • Open mic for the first half of the night, then two featured artists to close out the night. 18 and up.

LIVE AT FILLMORE • Scruffy City Hall • 9PM • A tribute to the Allman Brothers.

YANKEE ROSE • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 9PM THE WILL YAGER TRIO • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE PHIL AND THE PHATNOTES • Paul’s Oasis • 9:30PM THE YOUNG FABLES • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE MASSEUSE WITH PERMAGROOVE • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

Sunday, Oct. 2 SHIFFLETT’S JAZZ BENEDICT • The Bistro at the Bijou • 12PM • Live jazz. • FREE SUNDAY JAZZ BRUNCH • Downtown Grill and Brewery • 12:45PM • Knoxville’s coolest jazz artists perform every Sunday. • FREE J. LUKE • Wild Wing Cafe • 6PM • FREE BLACKFOOT WITH SOMETHING WICKED AND JOSIAH AND THE GREATER GOOD • The Open Chord • 7PM • If there’s one thing Rickey Medlocke can’t do, it’s sit still. The Blackfoot cofounder and Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist is constantly looking for ways to challenge his creative impulses, and his latest pet project has been to shepherd the next-generation incarnation of his beloved Blackfoot. • $15-$20 WE CAME AS ROMANS WITH COUNTERPARTS, FIRE FROM THE GODS, HEARTSICK, AND THE CREATURES IN SECRET • The Concourse • 7PM • Tracing Back Roots most notably showcases vocalist Dave Stephens in a new light, with the incorporation of his clean singing for the first time ever. In addition to his signature powerful, yet articulate, screams, Stephens now also displays rich melodic tones and gritty textures, that perfectly balances the soaring, smooth croons of co-vocalist Kyle Pavone. Musically the album expands on the anthemic, inspiring quality of the band’s recently released single “Hope”, offering sweeping guitars interlaced with delicate synth interludes and explosive percussive elements. All ages. • $15-$18 BLITZEN TRAPPER AND REAL ESTATE WITH KACY AND CLAYTON • Bijou Theatre • 7:30PM • Blitzen Trapper is an experimental folk rock band that hails from Portland, Oregon. They combine classic rock with Americana sounds to create folk rock with big riffs. Real Estate is a rock band from Ridgewood, New Jersey. They play hazy indie rock with beachy vibes. • $22 THE LONETONES • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8PM • FREE ROBINELLA • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 7PM ELECTROCHEMICAL WITH THE TONY GREY COSMIC DUO • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

Monday, Oct. 3 MIGHTY MUSICAL MONDAY • Tennessee Theatre • 12PM • Wurlitzer meister Bill Snyder is joined by a special guest on the first Monday of each month for a music showcase inside Knoxville’s historic Tennessee Theatre. • FREE LORI WALKER MADSEN WITH JUNE STAR • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and

national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE BENYARO • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • Benyaro is Ben Musser’s indie-acoustic soul and roots project, which in his words, he “formed to expand the boundaries of acoustic music and serve as a vehicle for my distilling artistry.” • FREE THE ANDREW DUHON TRIO • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Andrew Duhon is a songwriter from New Orleans, a teller of stories with an undeniable voice, weighted and soulful.

JORDAN ESKER AND THE 100 PERCENT • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

Tuesday, Oct. 4 ASHLEIGH CHEVALIER WITH ROB ROBINSON • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE COHEED AND CAMBRIA WITH SAVES THE DAY AND POLYPHIA • The Mill and Mine • 7PM • The Color Before the Sun, the eighth studio album from progressive post-hardcore visionaries Coheed and Cambria, finally sends this band of space cadets crashing down to Earth.

• $28-$103 • See Spotlight on page 25.

GANGSTAGRASS • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • FREE LEON BRIDGES WITH LIANNE LA HAVAS • Tennessee Theatre • 8PM • The river of soul music flows on deep and strong, and 26-year-old Leon Bridges is immersed in its life-giving current. The Forth Worth, Texas native and Columbia Records artist released his debut album, ‘Coming Home,’ in June of 2015 to critical and public acclaim. • $35-$49 VAMOS! • Pilot Light • 9PM • 18 and up. • $5 THE GREAT SHAPES • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

Wednesday, Oct. 5 BIG EARS 2017 PREVIEW • The Mill and Mine • 7PM • This event features ethereal singer and composer Julianna Barwick and harpist Mary Lattimore (who was a special guest at this year’s Big Ears iteration). The evening will also include a word from film partners at The Public Cinema, along with exciting peeks into the Big Ears documentary, still very much a work-in-progress by the team at Rock Fish Stew Institute of Literature & Materials.

• FREE BOO RAY • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE KJO JAZZ LUNCH: A TRIBUTE TO DEXTER GORDON • The Square Room • 12PM • In a career that spanned more than 40 years, Dexter created an immediately recognizable sound, distinguishable by his large, dark tone, unique sense of swing, and playful melodic sense. In this special program, saxophonist Jamel Mitchell will draw from Gordon’s iconic recordings. Visit knoxjazz.org. • $15 FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown and Goose • 6:30PM • Live jazz featuring a mix of original music, early jazz and more. • FREE AUGUST BURNS RED WITH ERRA, SILENT PLANET, AND MAKE THEM SUFFER • The Concourse • 7PM • Since their formation in 2003, the local upstart from Lancaster, PA has evolved into one of the biggest names worldwide in the modern metal scene. • $22 TENNESSEE SHINES: WILD PONIES • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7PM • How does one describe those precious moments in life when we are able to transcend our small daily

FREE! Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with fun for the whole family Saturday night: salsa music by the incredible Jimmy Bonilla Orchestra.

Sunday: Parade of Nations at 3:15 pm Heritage booths • Authentic food vendors • Folk dance presentations For kids: a ventriloquist, music and a science show by Dr. Hazari Ballet Folklórico Mexicano, Carlos Santana music by Soul Sacrifice, Mariachi Olimpico, and the amazing Marcel Portilla Band.

September 29, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 23

CALENDAR self-interests, and can somehow hold onto those rarified breaths of the deeper human experience? Radiant, the new Wild Ponies album, explores those moments with alternating delicacy and raucous abandon. • $10 SCOTT LOW • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • With a wide ranging background stretching from jazz to punk to southern rock, Low pulls from all the things that have shaped him. • FREE THE JEREMY WRIGHT TRIO • The Bistro at the Bijou • 7PM • Live jazz. • FREE NEW KINGSTON • Scruffy City Hall • 9PM LETTUCE WITH MICHAEL MENERT • The International • 9PM • For more than two decades, Lettuce have brought a new vitality to classic funk, matching their smooth and soulful grooves with a hip-hop-inspired urgency and mastery of beat. Visit internationalknox.com. 18 and up. • $18-$20 NEW RADIO DIALECT • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

Thursday, Oct. 6 HOLLIS CREEK REVIVAL • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE HANDSOME AND THE HUMBLES • Scruffy City Hall • 6PM • Part of Wayne Bledsoe’s weekly Six O’Clock Swerve show on WDVX. • FREE SAM BURCHFIELD AND MICHAEL LOGEN • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • From folk, to funk, to southern soul — Sam and his band capture it all. • FREE

Thursday, Sept. 29 – Sunday, Oct. 9

DAVE COLEMAN AND THE COAL MEN • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM DESTROYER WITH ZACHARY CALE • Pilot Light • 9PM • Destroyer’s latest incarnation often appears to take sonic cues from a distinctly British (usually Scottish, to be precise) strain of sophisti-pop: you might hear traces of Aztec Camera, Prefab Sprout, Orange Juice, or The Blow Monkeys. These songs merge a casual literary brilliance with intense melodic verve, nimble arrangements, and a certain blue-eyed soul sadness. 18 and up. • $12-$15 THE DEAD 27S • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Sometimes the stars and planets align and things that can be difficult come surprisingly easy. Such is the case with the formation of Dead 27s. After playing a few casual gigs, the obvious chemistry could no longer be ignored.

OLD SALT UNION • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

Friday, Oct. 7 NO FUSS AND FEATHERS WITH UNCLE SHUFFELO AND HIS HAINT HOLLOW HOOTENANNY • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE WEDNESDAY 13 WITH ONE EYED DOLL AND THE THINGS THEY CARRIED • The Concourse • 6:30PM • Plus Deconbrio and La Basura Del Diablo. 18 and up. Visit internationalknox.com. • $15-$18 THE DEER • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • FREE TIM LEE 3 ROCK ‘N’ ROLL HAPPY HOUR • Pilot Light • 7PM •

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY September 29, 2016

Knoxville band Tim Lee 3 and their offspring alt duo, Bark, have announced a four-week series of early shows at Pilot Light culminating in the TL3’s 10th Anniversary/ record release party for the group’s fifth full-length recording, Tin, Man, on Oct. 28. The first of the four events takes place on Oct. 7 and features the Greg Horne Band and R.B. Morris, who will perform a set backed by Horne and the TL3. • $5 THE NITTY GRITTY DIRT BAND • Clayton Center for the Arts (Maryville) • 7:30PM • Now in their fifth decade together, the iconic and profoundly influential Nitty Gritty Dirt Band continues to add to their legendary status. • $32-$52 FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown and Goose • 8PM • Live jazz featuring a mix of original music, early jazz and more. • FREE BLACK JACKET SYMPHONY: THE BEATLES’ REVOLVER • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • The Black Jacket Symphony returns to the Bijou Theatre to perform The Beatles’ “Revolver” album in it’s entirety. Visit blackjacketsymphony.com. • $28 JACK HERRANEN • Laurel Theater • 8PM • Just back from Bolivia and Argentina, Jack will be highlighting songs written in south Knoxville, in particular tunes penned in his home base of Vestal—songs that draw upon workers’ history and agrarian folkways, and current struggles for dignity and justice. • $11 MUTLU WITH THREE MILE SMILE • The Open Chord • 8PM • Mutlu is a soulful, singer-songwriter. A Philadelphia native and first-generation American of Turkish descent, Mutlu has already built a substantial fan base in his hometown, while winning widespread praise for his prior releases. All ages. • $12-$15

KINCAID • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 9PM PALE ROOT • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 9PM VINCENT AND YAGER • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE THE NINTH STREET STOMPERS • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE RUSSIAN TSARLAG • Pilot Light • 10PM • Providence, R.I., garbage-sculptor Russian Tsarlag, aka Carlos Gonzales, has been trucking his moldy fruit cart of sewage-pop and bad acid storytelling across the American wasteland since longer than most people have had an email account. 18 and up. • $5 Saturday, Oct. 8 THE DIGS WITH BOB DELEVANTE • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE PAT REEDY AND THE LONGTIME GONERS • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 4PM • FREE SAM LEWIS • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 7PM • $10 DAVE COLEMAN WITH BOB DELEVANTE • Royal Oaks Event Center (Maryville) • 7:30PM • Dave Coleman, leader of the Coal Men, has been cited as a next-generation Tony Joe White, an artist known for writing soulful and thoughtful songs. • $15 TRANSPARENT SOUL WITH SHADOWED SELF AND CLOCKWORK ASYLUM • The Open Chord • 8PM • All ages. • $7

CALENDAR EXIT 60 • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 9PM THE BURNIN’ HERMANS • Scruffy City Hall • 9PM HAROLD NAGGE AND ALAN WYATT • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE THE JON MASON PROJECT • Paul’s Oasis • 9:30PM FOUR LEAF PEAT • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • Knoxville’s finest purveyors of traditional Irish music. • FREE 40 OZ. BURRITO WITH WHITE NOYZE AND JAHIMSA • Preservation Pub • 10PM • A tribute to Sublime. 21 and up.

Sunday, Oct. 9 SHIFFLETT’S JAZZ BENEDICT • The Bistro at the Bijou • 12PM • Live jazz. • FREE SUNDAY JAZZ BRUNCH • Downtown Grill and Brewery • 12:45PM • Knoxville’s coolest jazz artists perform every Sunday. • FREE J. LUKE • Wild Wing Cafe • 6PM • FREE

HOWIE DAY • The Open Chord • 7PM • With hits like “Collide” and “She Says” Howie Days emotionally resonant lyrics and inventive melodies have earned him both critical praise and a legion of devoted fans. He is known for his energetic, heartfelt shows, where he connects with audiences through the strength of his songwriting and his quirky sense of humor. • $17-$20 SKILLET WITH SICK PUPPIES AND DEVOUR THE DAY • The International • 7:30PM • Skillet recently made headlines when their last album, Awake, became one of just three rock albums to be certified platinum in 2012. All ages.

UNIVERSAL SIGH • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

OPEN MIC AND

COHEED AND CAMBRIA The Mill and Mine (227 W. Depot Ave.) • Tuesday, Oct. 4 • 7 p.m. • $28 • themillandmine.com or coheedandcambria.com

With The Color Before the Sun, their poignant eighth album, Coheed and Cambria set aside their galactic sci-fi concept series, the Amory Wars, to explore unexpected terrain: the heart. The prog-punk-metal-pop quartet, best known for extended epics, blazing guitar solos, and behemoth album titles like Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness, made a radical shift toward the personal, as mastermind/frontman Claudio Sanchez directly chronicled topics like romantic devotion, the fears and joys of fatherhood, and the anxieties of life as a touring musician.

by Arthur Miller An enduring masterpiece on the evils of mindless persecution and the terrifying power of false accusations.

But The Color Before the Sun is far from a confessional folk album or a nauseating evolution into rock “maturity”—it’s just the most earnest and accessible album in the Coheed catalog. It’s also the most eclectic. Backed by the formidable core of lead guitarist Travis Stever, bassist Zach Cooper, and drummer Josh Eppard, Sanchez veers from hushed acoustic balladry (“Ghost”) to power ballads (“Colors”) to kaleidoscopic pop (“Peace to the Mountain”).

The band will be joined by emo veterans Saves the Day and instrumental prog-metal act Polyphia. (Ryan Reed) Photo: Lauren Pennline, Grant Goodman, and Jenny McKnight; by Elizabeth Aaron September 29, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 25

CALENDAR SONGWRITER NIGHTS

Monday, Oct. 3 BARLEY’S OPEN MIC NIGHT • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM Tuesday, Oct. 4 PRESERVATION PUB SINGER/SONGWRITER NIGHT • Preservation Pub • 7PM OLD-TIME JAM SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Hosted by Sarah Pirkle. • FREE Wednesday, Oct. 5 TIME WARP TEA ROOM OLD-TIME JAM • Time Warp Tea Room • 7PM • Regular speed old-time/fiddle jam every Wednesday. All instruments and skill levels welcome.

SCHULZ BRÄU OPEN MIC NIGHT • Schulz Bräu Brewing Company • 8PM • Every Wednesday. • FREE BRACKINS BLUES JAM • Brackins Blues Club • 9PM • A weekly open session hosted by Tommie John. • FREE Thursday, Oct. 6 IRISH MUSIC SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Held on the first and third Thursdays of each month. • FREE Sunday, Oct. 9 EPWORTH MONTHLY OLD HARP SHAPE NOTE SINGING • Laurel Theater • 6:30PM • Visit jubileearts.org. • FREE SING OUT KNOXVILLE • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 7PM • A folk singing circle open to everyone. • FREE

Thursday, Sept. 29 – Sunday, Oct. 9

DJ AND DANCE NIGHTS

Saturday, Oct. 1 ASCEND • The International • 9PM • Ascend is Knoxville’s interactive dance experience. Take it to the next level with us every Saturday night with the best music of today and your favorite throwbacks. 18 and up. • $5-$10 HEADROOM • The Concourse • 10PM • After More than six years of bringing parties to festivals, burns, and clubs, Headroom is back again. Expect a massive banging sound system, lasers, and the area’s finest DJs from Knoxville’s most diverse underground crew. Featuring Alex Falk, J Mo, Gregory Alan Tarrants, and Borg. 18 and up. • $5 Saturday, Oct. 8 ASCEND • The International • 9PM • Ascend is Knoxville’s interactive dance experience. Take it to the next level with us every Saturday night with the best music of today and your favorite throwbacks. 18 and up. • $5-$10 REWIND DANCE NIGHT • The Concourse • 9PM • Hits from the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, and ‘00s. Visit internationalknox. com. 18 and up. • $5

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Thursday, Sept. 29 SCRUFFY CITY ORCHESTRA • First Baptist Church • 7PM • A

Bach or Basie?

Your music, your choice.

Your classical and jazz station.

new venue for musicians from the greater Knoxville metropolitan area. Scruffy City Orchestra kicks off with regular rehearsals on Thursdays beginning Aug. 25.

Conductors are Mat Wilkinson and Ace Edewards.

Prospective members, especially string players, are encouraged to contact Alicia Meryweather at ScruffyCityOrchestra@gmail.com for more information. • FREE Sunday, Oct. 2 KNOXVILLE OPERA GOES TO CHURCH: A CELEBRATION OF TALENT • Overcoming Believers Church • 5PM • The 8th annual concert will feature the Knoxville Opera Gospel Choir, local soloists, and international Knoxville Opera guest artists. Visit knoxvilleopera.com. • FREE Thursday, Oct. 6 SCRUFFY CITY ORCHESTRA • First Baptist Church • 7PM • A new venue for musicians from the greater Knoxville metropolitan area. Scruffy City Orchestra kicks off with regular rehearsals on Thursdays beginning Aug. 25.

Conductors are Mat Wilkinson and Ace Edewards.

Prospective members, especially string players, are encouraged to contact Alicia Meryweather at ScruffyCityOrchestra@gmail.com for more information. • FREE Friday, Oct. 7 KSO POPS SERIES: ‘PET SOUNDS LIVE - A TRIBUTE TO THE MUSIC OF THE BEACH BOYS’ • Tennessee Theatre • 8PM • 50 years ago, the Beach Boys made history with Pet Sounds- a groundbreaking effort that inspired the

Beatles’ Sgt Pepper, and was voted second in Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Pet Sounds will be faithfully reproduced in its entirety with a second half of the Beach Boys’ greatest hits including “I Get Around” and “Barbara Ann.” Saturday, Oct. 8 FANDANGO! • Pollard Technology Conference Center (Oak Ridge) • 7:30PM • The most exciting new group on Chicago’s musical scene, Fandango! is a toe-tappingly spicy mix of Latin, Spanish, Sephardic, Balkan, and classical sounds founded by four multi-award-winning, globe-trotting virtuosi who hail from Spain, the USA, former Yugoslavia, and the UK, and who have played, separately and together, on the world’s most prestigious stages. • $25 Sunday, Oct. 9 OAK RIDGE COMMUNITY BAND AND WIND ENSEMBLE: MUSIC OF EUROPE • Oak Ridge High School • 3:30PM • This concert begins the 2016-2017 season. For more information, visit www.orcb.org or call 865-482-3568. • $5

THEATER AND DANCE

Thursday, Sept. 29 CIRQUE ITALIA • West Town Mall • 7:30PM • Come experience the magical world of Cirque Italia, the first traveling water circus in the U.S., featuring a 35,000 gallon water-tank stage and performers from around the

Building a legacy with Dave Ramsey (A Benefit For Historic Ramsey House)

Friday October 14, 2016 at 6:30 pm The Foundry

747 Worlds Fair Park Drive

Doors open at 6:30 for “Meet & Greet” | Silent Auction Items Dinner and Dancing 7pm-10pm Mr. Ramsey will be speaking on “Building a Legacy.” He is the nationally known expert on how to take control of your finances and stay debt free.

The guest emcee will be Sam Venable, Knoxville’s very own advisor on anything and everything.

Peruse the Silent Auction and bid on that special item from one of our quality area merchants. After dinner the big band sound of the Streamliners will provide music from the 40’s and early 50’s with sounds of Count Basie and Duke Ellington, for your dancing or listening pleasure. *There will be a prize for the best dressed 40’s attire. (40’s attire encouraged but not required)

Tickets for the benefit are $100 per person.

For more information or reservations please call 865-546-0745 or email judy@ramseyhouse.org Historic Ramsey House 2614 Thorngrove Pike, Knoxville, TN 37914 www.ramseyhouse.org

FIX THIS BASTARD 26

KNOXVILLE MERCURY September 29, 2016

WUOT_Ad_4.625x5.25_ClassicalJazz_KnoxMerc.indd 2

9/17/16 5:00 PM

CALENDAR world—contortionists, clowns, acrobats, aerialists, and more. Animal free. Visit cirqueitalia.

KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 7PM • The magic and mystery of the Great Lion Aslan and the struggle with the White Witch are what four children find when they inadvertently wander into an old wardrobe and arrive in Narnia. The war in Narnia is consuming the magical animals of Narnia, and only Aslan can bring about peace. Sept. 23-Oct. 9. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘THE CRUCIBLE’ • Carousel Theatre • 7:30PM • Arthur Miller’s searing play chronicles the historical events in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

The fear and accusations of Salem may be an aberration of the American Dream, but it has lent its name to later witch hunts that recur from time to time in the ongoing American story. Sept. 28-Oct. 16. Visit clarencebrowntheatre.com.

Friday, Sept. 30 CIRQUE ITALIA • West Town Mall • 7:30PM • Come experience the magical world of Cirque Italia, the first traveling water circus in the U.S., featuring a 35,000 gallon water-tank stage and performers from around the world—contortionists, clowns, acrobats, aerialists, and more. Animal free. Visit cirqueitalia.

KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 7PM • Sept. 23-Oct. 9. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘THE CRUCIBLE’ • Carousel Theatre • 7:30PM • Sept. 28-Oct. 16. Visit clarencebrowntheatre.com.

Saturday, Oct. 1 CIRQUE ITALIA • West Town Mall • 2:30PM, 5:30PM, and 8:30PM • Come experience the magical world of Cirque Italia, the first traveling water circus in the U.S., featuring a 35,000 gallon water-tank stage and performers from around the world—contortionists, clowns, acrobats, aerialists, and more. Animal free. Visit cirqueitalia.

KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 1PM and 5PM • Sept. 23-Oct. 9. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre. com. • $12 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘THE CRUCIBLE’ • Carousel Theatre • 7:30PM • Sept. 28-Oct. 16. Visit clarencebrowntheatre.com.

WORDPLAYERS: AUDITIONS FOR A WOMAN CALLED TRUTH • Erin Presbyterian Church • 3PM • The WordPlayers announce auditions for A Woman Called Truth, which will tour East Tennessee in February. For what to prepare and more information, please see www.wordplayers.org or call 865-539-2490. • FREE GO! CONTEMPORARY DANCE WORKS: TRANSCENDANCE • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7PM • GO! Contemporary Dance Works’ presents Transcendance, an evening of contemporary and classical works surpassing all expectations, traveling beyond the limits of an ordinary experience in dance. Tickets may be purchased online at www. gocontemporarydance.com or by calling 865-539-2475.

Sunday, Oct. 2 CIRQUE ITALIA • West Town Mall • 2:30PM, 5:30PM, and 8:30PM • Come experience the magical world of Cirque Italia, the first traveling water circus in the U.S., featuring a 35,000 gallon water-tank stage and performers from around the world—contortionists, clowns, acrobats, aerialists, and more. Animal free. Visit cirqueitalia.

KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 3PM • Sept. 23-Oct. 9. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘THE CRUCIBLE’ • Carousel Theatre • 2PM • Sept. 28-Oct. 16. Visit clarencebrowntheatre.com.

WORDPLAYERS: AUDITIONS FOR A WOMAN CALLED TRUTH • Erin Presbyterian Church • 3PM • The WordPlayers announce auditions for A Woman Called Truth, which will tour East Tennessee in February. For what to prepare and more information, please see www.wordplayers.org or call 865-539-2490. • FREE THEATER AND DANCE • October 2 • GO! Contemporary Dance Works: Transcendance • Clarence Brown Theatre • 3PM • GO! Contemporary Dance Works’ presents Transcendance, an evening of contemporary and classical works surpassing all expectations, traveling beyond the limits of an ordinary experience in dance.

Tickets may be purchased online at www.gocontemporarydance.com or by calling 865-539-2475.

Wednesday, Oct. 5 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘THE CRUCIBLE’ • Carousel Theatre • 7:30PM • Sept. 28-Oct. 16. Visit clarencebrowntheatre.com.

Thursday, Oct. 6 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 7PM • Sept. 23-Oct. 9. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘THE CRUCIBLE’ • Carousel Theatre • 7:30PM • Sept. 28-Oct. 16. Visit clarencebrowntheatre.com.

Friday, Oct. 7 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 7PM • Sept. 23-Oct. 9. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘THE CRUCIBLE’ • Carousel Theatre • 7:30PM • Sept. 28-Oct. 16. Visit clarencebrowntheatre.com.

OAK RIDGE PLAYHOUSE: ‘IT’S ONLY A PLAY’ • Oak Ridge Playhouse • 8PM • It’s opening night of Broadway’s newest play, and the wealthy producer is throwing a lavish party at her Manhattan townhouse. Downstairs the celebrities are pouring in, but the real action is upstairs in the bedroom, where a collection of theatre insiders (including the excitable playwright, the unstable director, and the pill-popping leading lady) await the reviews.

Toss in an acerbic theatre critic and an insecure TV actor, and you have a hilarious recipe for the narcissism, childishness, and just plain irrationality that infuse the theatre. Oct. 7-16. Visit orplayhouse.com.

Saturday, Oct. 8 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 1PM and 5PM • Sept. 23-Oct. 9. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre. com. • $12 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘THE CRUCIBLE’ • Carousel Theatre • 7:30PM • Sept. 28-Oct. 16. Visit clarencebrowntheatre.com.

OAK RIDGE PLAYHOUSE: ‘IT’S ONLY A PLAY’ • Oak Ridge Playhouse • 8PM • Oct. 7-16. Visit orplayhouse.com.

Sunday, Oct. 9 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 3PM September 29, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 27

CALENDAR • Sept. 23-Oct. 9. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘THE CRUCIBLE’ • Carousel Theatre • 2PM • Sept. 28-Oct. 16. Visit clarencebrowntheatre.com.

OAK RIDGE PLAYHOUSE: ‘IT’S ONLY A PLAY’ • Oak Ridge Playhouse • 2PM • Oct. 7-16. Visit orplayhouse.com.

COMEDY AND SPOKEN WORD

Friday, Sept. 30 HAL HOLBROOK: MARK TWAIN TONIGHT! • Tennessee Theatre • 8PM • Holbrook has shown us Mark Twain the social critic, whom George Bernard Shaw called “America’s Voltaire.” The show doesn’t stop evolving.

Three new numbers have added another hour to its revolving repertoire of material: one on the Christian Bible, another from the feuding clans in Huckleberry Finn killing each other off, and another on the fate of the laboring class in America. • $54-$79 Sunday, Oct. 2 UPSTAIRS UNDERGROUND COMEDY • Preservation Pub • 8PM • A weekly comedy open mic. Visit scruffycity.com.

Monday, Oct. 3 FRIENDLYTOWN • Pilot Light • 7:30PM • A weekly comedy night named after the former red-light district near the Old City. Visit facebook.com/friendlytownknoxville. 18 and

Thursday, Sept. 29 – Sunday, Oct. 9

up. • FREE Tuesday, Oct. 4 CASUAL COMEDY • Casual Pint (Hardin Valley) • 7PM • A monthly comedy showcase at Casual Pint-Hardin Valley featuring a mixture of local and touring comedians.

EINSTEIN SIMPLIFIED • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM • Einstein Simplified Comedy performs live comedy improv at Scruffy City Hall. It’s just like Whose Line Is It Anyway, but you get to make the suggestions. Show starts at 8:15, get there early for the best seats. No cover. • FREE OPEN MIC STAND-UP COMEDY • Longbranch Saloon • 8PM • Come laugh until you cry at the Longbranch every Tuesday night. Doors open at 8:30, first comic at 9. No cover charge, all are welcome. Aspiring or experienced comics interested in joining in the fun can email us at longbranch.info@gmail.com to learn more, or simply come to the show a few minutes early. • FREE Wednesday, Oct. 5 TYLER SONNICHSEN AND DUSTIN MEADOWS • Pilot Light • 9PM • 18 and up. • $5 Friday, Oct. 7 FIRST FRIDAY COMEDY • Saw Works Brewing Company • 7PM • A monthly showcase featuring local and touring stand-ups comics. • FREE THE OOH OOH REVUE • Cocoa Moon • 10PM • We are classy cabaret, song, dance, comedy and bedazzling burlesque every First Friday. The show features some of Knoxville’s best and emerging talent: singers, dancers, comedians, spoken word poets, burlesque artists and so much more.

It’s a variety show where each cast member brings a different sizzling act each month to entertain, delight, surprise and more. Visit oohoohrevue.com. 18 and up. • $10 Sunday, Oct. 9 UPSTAIRS UNDERGROUND COMEDY • Preservation Pub • 8PM • A weekly comedy open mic. Visit scruffycity.com.

FESTIVALS

Friday, Sept. 30 OAK RIDGE CIVIC MUSIC ASSOCIATION OKTOBERFEST FUNDRAISER • Willow Ridge Garden Center and Landscaping (Oak Ridge) • 5:30PM • Join fellow music and beer lovers for a festive event that will include delicious German cuisine catered by Carmella Catering, plenty of craft ales, a selection of fine wines, and exciting silent and live auction items, all in support of the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association. Tickets can be purchased by calling the ORCMA office at (865) 483-5569 or by visiting Willow Ridge Garden Center. All proceeds benefit the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association. • $65 GREEKFEST • St. George Greek Orthodox Church • 11AM-10PM• The 37th installment of this fall fest will feature the usual excellent Greek traditional music, dance, and food. • $2-$3 Saturday, Oct. 1 HOLA FESTIVAL • Market Square • 7-10PM • The area’s biggest and best celebration of Latin and Latin American

culture. • FREE GREEKFEST • St. George Greek Orthodox Church • 11AM-10PM• The 37th installment of this fall fest will feature the usual excellent Greek traditional music, dance, and food. • $2-$3 KNOXVILLE 225TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION • Market Square • 10AM • Enjoy free performances by Ensemble Knox, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s String Quartet, Knoxville Opera, and Marble City Opera. There will also be 20 booths for local arts and culture organizations to host children’s activities and promote their events, and local artists will sell their handcrafted wares including pottery, glass, and painting. Visit Knoxville is providing free cupcakes at this celebration in the Krutch Park extension.

At 10:30 AM and 12:00 PM in the Museum of East Tennessee History, the Archives of Moving Image and Sound are showing a one-hour film containing archival footage of downtown Knoxville throughout the 20th century, rare films of the UT Vols at the 1940 Rose Bowl and 1941 Sugar Bowl, historic events, home movies, local musicians and more. • FREE Sunday, Oct. 2 ARTS AND CULTURE ALLIANCE GAY STREET BRIDGE DINNER • Downtown Knoxville • 5:30PM • The Arts & Culture Alliance invites guests to enjoy a truly unique dining experience on the Gay Street Bridge at Knoxville’s once in a lifetime celebration of the City of Knoxville’s 225th Birthday. www.knoxalliance.com/dinner-on-the-bridge. • $225 HOLA FESTIVAL • Market Square • 11AM-6PM • The area’s

TRANSCENDANCE TRAN not your ordinary dance experience...

Lisa Hall McKee, Artistic Director

Saturday, October 1 - 7:00 pm Sunday, October 2 - 3:00 pm* Clarence Brown Theatre Penny 4 Arts performance

THIS SPACE BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

JOIN US IN SUPPORTING THE KNOXVILLE MERCURY! 12 MARKET SQUARE 7240 KINGSTON PIKE #172 KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE 37902 KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE 37919 865-637-4067 865-584-1075 theTomatoHead.com 28

KNOXVILLE MERCURY September 29, 2016

Advanced Tickets $15 Adults $12 Students & Seniors At the Door: $20 & $15

WWW.GOCONTEMPORARYDANCE.COM for more information call 865.539.2475

CALENDAR biggest and best celebration of Latin and Latin American culture. • FREE GREEKFEST • St. George Greek Orthodox Church • 11AM-8PM• The 37th installment of this fall fest will feature the usual excellent Greek traditional music, dance, and food. • $2-$3 SLOW FOOD TENNESSEE VALLEY/CONSULATE OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA WINE TASTING AND CULINARY EVENT • 5:30PM • Slow Food Tennessee Valley is honored to partner with the Consulate of the Republic of Slovenia in hosting their Fifth Annual Wine Tasting and Culinary Event at the home of Lydia Pulsipher and Mac Goodwin. Join us for a unique opportunity to sample wines and food traditions local to another part of the world. Visit brownpapertickets.com/event/2603625, call 865-524-9954, or email macgoodwin@me.com. • $70 Monday, Oct. 3 KNOXVILLE FOUNDERS DAY LUNCHEON • The Foundry • 11:30AM • The Historic Homes of Knoxville are pleased to invite the public to celebrate the founding of the City of Knoxville 225 years ago. Bill Landry, host of WBIR’s The Heartland Series, will be the featured speaker. Proceeds from the luncheon will benefit the Historic Homes.

Purchase tickets through www.hhknoxville.com or by calling 865-523-7543 by September 26. • $50 Wednesday, Oct. 5 BIG EARS 2017 PREVIEW • The Mill and Mine • 7PM • This event features ethereal singer and composer Julianna Barwick and harpist Mary Lattimore (who was a special guest at this year’s Big Ears iteration). The evening will also include a word from film partners at The Public Cinema, along with exciting peeks into the Big Ears documentary, still very much a work-in-progress by the team at Rock Fish Stew Institute of Literature & Materials.

• FREE Thursday, Oct. 6 2016 CUP OF HOPE LUNCHEON • Jackson Avenue Terminal • 11:30AM • The third annual Cup of Hope Luncheon is a domestic violence awareness event that will coincide with Domestic Violence Awareness month and benefit the Salvation Army’s Joy D. Baker Center. Guests will be able to participate in a silent auction and fun shopping experience to benefit the women and children of the shelter. Our guest speaker will be Rebekah Lyons, author of Freefall to Fly: A Breathtaking Journey Toward a Life of Meaning. For more information, please call 865-971-4937 or visit www.salvationarmyknoxville.org. • $40 Friday, Oct. 7 LEGACY LUNCHEON FOR THE PARKS • University of Tennessee • 11:30AM • Summiting the second highest mountain in the world and building an international outdoor apparel company both require managing risk and Rick Ridgeway, this year’s Legacy Luncheon for the Parks speaker, knows about both. Ridgeway, vice president of environmental affairs for outdoor apparel leader Patagonia, is often recognized for his accomplishment of making the first American ascent of K2. Ridgeway will join in celebrating a year of accomplishments for Legacy Parks Foundation at their annual outdoor luncheon along the banks of the Tennessee River on UT’s Cherokee Farm.

Call 865.525.2585 or visiting legacyparks.org.

Saturday, Oct. 8 TENNESSEE MEDIEVAL FAIRE • 11AM • The first annual Tennessee Pirate Fest is on the horizon. This daytime family-friendly costume-play event is being produced by Darkhorse Entertainment, LLC, and will be held at the

Tennessee Medieval Faire site in Harriman--just 30 miles west of Turkey Creek. Patrons will feel transported to the fictional town of Port Royale in the Tortugas, circa 1700-1800’s. Visit TNPirateFest.com. • $13 HISTORIC PARTRIDGE NEIGHBORHOOD HOME TOUR • 1PM • This tour features a variety of homes with a focus on Barber-designed houses as part of Knoxville’s 225th birthday bash. Learn about history as you tour beautiful historic homes and experience the Parkridge community.

More information is available at historicparkridge@ gmail.com, or 865-406-4364. • $10-$12 FESTIVALS • October 9 • Tennessee Pirate Fest • Tennessee Medieval Faire • 11AM • The first annual Tennessee Pirate Fest is on the horizon. This daytime family-friendly costume-play event is being produced by Darkhorse Entertainment, LLC, and will be held at the Tennessee Medieval Faire site in Harriman--just 30 miles west of Turkey Creek. Patrons will feel transported to the fictional town of Port Royale in the Tortugas, circa 1700-1800’s. Visit TNPirateFest.com. • $13

FILM SCREENINGS

Thursday, Sept. 29 SCHULZ BRÄU FILMNACHT • Schulz Bräu Brewing Company • 9PM • A free weekly movie screening—check social media for the week’s entry. 21 and up. • FREE Friday, Sept. 30 MOVIES ON MARKET SQUARE • Market Square • 8PM • Knox County Public Library’s Movies on Market Square is gearing up for its 13th season of family-friendly outdoor movies in the heart of downtown Knoxville. On six consecutive Friday nights, from Sept. 9-Oct. 14, bring the whole family to see a free movie. The lineup includes The Fox and the Hound (Sept. 9); Legally Blonde (Sept. 16); Up (Sept. 23); Night at the Museum (Sept. 30); Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Oct. 7); and Ghostbusters (Oct. 14).

Shows start at dusk. Visit knoxlib.org. • FREE Monday, Oct. 3 UT OUT FILM SERIES: BEFORE STONEWALL • University of Tennessee • 6PM • Before Stonewall pries open the closet door--setting free the dramatic story of the sometimes horrifying public and private existences experienced by gay and lesbian Americans since the 1920s. Part of UT’s OUT Film Series at the John C. Hodges Library. • FREE FILM SCREENINGS • October 3 • The Birdhouse Walk-In Theater • The Birdhouse • 8:15PM • A weekly free movie screening. Visit birdhouseknoxville.com. • FREE Thursday, Oct. 6 ABORTION: STORIES WOMEN TELL • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 5:30PM • Abortion: Stories Women Tell offers an intimate window into the lives of women who have had abortions through their personal stories. After the film we’ll be discussing how the film relates to Tennessee and what we can be doing to defeat abortion stigma and increase abortion access. • FREE SCHULZ BRÄU FILMNACHT • Schulz Bräu Brewing Company • 9PM • A free weekly movie screening—check social media for the week’s entry. 21 and up. • FREE Friday, Oct. 7 MOVIES ON MARKET SQUARE • Market Square • 8PM • Visit knoxlib.org. • FREE

SPORTS AND September 29, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 29

CALENDAR RECREATION

Thursday, Sept. 29 CYCOLOGY BICYCLES THURSDAY MORNING RIDE • Cycology Bicycles • 10AM • Visit cycologybicycles.com. • FREE NORTH KNOXVILLE BEER RUNNERS • Central Flats and Taps • 6PM • Meet us at Central Flats and Taps every Thursday night for a fun and easy run leading us right through Saw Works for a midway beer. • FREE FLEET FEET GROUP RUN/WALK • Fleet Feet Sports Knoxville • 6PM • Visit fleetfeetknoxville.com. • FREE CEDAR BLUFF CYCLES BEGINNER ROAD RIDE • Sequoyah Park • 6:20PM • Visit cedarbluffcycles.net. • FREE CEDAR BLUFF CYCLES THURSDAY NIGHT RIDE • Cedar Bluff Cycles • 6:20PM • Visit cedarbluffcycles.net. • FREE IJAMS OWL PROWL • Ijams Nature Center • 7PM • You may think you know the trails at Ijams, but they become a whole new experience at night. Our fearless trail guides will lead you on an adventure in which owls hooting, coyotes howling, and strange rustlings in the brush are wonderful possibilities. Please call (865) 577-4717, ext. 110 to register. Visit jams.org.http://ijams.org/events/ • $5-$8 BEARDEN BIKE AND TRAIL LAPS ON CHEROKEE BOULEVARD • Bearden Bike and Trail • 6PM • Visit beardenbikeandtrail.com. • FREE RIVER SPORTS GREENWAY RIDE • River Sports Outfitters • 6PM • Visit riversportsoutfitters.com. • FREE-$10 Friday, Sept. 30 RIVER SPORTS FRIDAY NIGHT GREENWAY RUN • River Sports Outfitters • 6PM • Greenway run from the store every Friday

Thursday, Sept. 29 – Sunday, Oct. 9

evening. Work up a thirst then join us for $2 pints in the store afterwards. riversportsoutfitters.com. • FREE Saturday, Oct. 1 WALK TO END ALZHEIMER’S • University of Tennessee • 8AM • The Alzheimer’s Association of Eastern TN is hosting a Walk to End Alzheimer’s, a two-mile walk that with kid’s zone, DJ, photo booth, cookout and pet corner.

Proceeds from this event will go to the 24/7 Helpline (800.272.3900), research, educational programs, and support groups. Teams can register at alz.org/tn or call Sunny Biden at 865-684-8585 or email sbiden@alz.org.

THE GREAT LLAMA RACE • World’s Fair Park • 10AM • This event brings together local celebrities to not only race llamas but to raise awareness about Casa de Sara’s mission to bring health care and education to impoverished and at-risk children in Bolivia and around Knoxville. We will have various music and dance performances, food vendors, games, and more, including a new 5K race for humans only. Visit thegreatllamarace. com. • $5 WEST BIKES SATURDAY RIDE • West Bicycles • 8AM • Visit westbikes.com. • FREE BIKE ZOO SATURDAY MORNING RIDE • The Bike Zoo • 9AM • Visit bikezoo.com. • FREE RUNNER’S MARKET SATURDAY GROUP RUN • Runner’s Market • 9AM • Visit runnersmarket.com. • FREE CATALYST ADAPTIVE CLIMB • River Sports Outfitters • 10AM • Join us the first Saturday of every month as we climb with Catalyst Sports. This event is for anyone with physical disabilities. All ages are welcome to come and

climb our rock wall. • $10 SMOKY MOUNTAIN HIKING CLUB: APPALACHIAN TRAIL MAINTENANCE • Smoky Mountain Hiking Club • 8AM • The October work trip will take place about 1.25 miles northeast of Newfound Gap. We will work to return the trail tread to its proper location and improve water drainage in the area. Meet at Alcoa Food City, 121 North Hall Road, at 8:00 am or at Newfound Gap at 9:15 am.

Please pre-register with leader so that appropriate number and type of tools can be available. Leader: Pete Berntsen, peteberntsen@gmail.com. • FREE SPRINT FOR THE PRINTS 5K • University of Tennessee • 9AM • The University of Tennessee College of Nursing will hold the fourth annual Sprint for the Prints 5K run and walk at Circle Park. The race will benefit the college’s Student Nurses Association’s philanthropy, the Precious Prints Project. • $30 SAVING LITTLE HEARTS 5K AND FAMILY FUN WALK • Springbrook Park (Alcoa) • 9:30AM • This fundraising event is designed to provide hope for the millions of families forced to face the challenges caused by a congenital heart defect.Visit savinglittlehearts.com.

IJAMS OUTDOOR ACADEMY: ADVENTURE CANOE TOUR • Ijams Nature Center • 10AM • Join the Ijams Outdoor Academy as we explore the Tennessee River. On this trip, we’ll travel to Knoxville’s riverside adventure hot spots.

We will paddle along the shores and boardwalks of Ijams Nature Center, dip our paddle into three rivers at one time at Forks of the River, and see the new riverfront Greenway and Blueway development near Suttree’s Landing. To register, please call (865) 577-4717, ext. 110.

Visit ijams.org. • $30-$60 TOUR DE TELLICO • 8AM • Tour de Tellico is a bicycle ride traversing some of the most scenic vistas of east Tennessee through Loudon, Monroe and McMinn Counties.

Choose according to your ability either the challenging 100 Mile century, 100K, 50K or 25K. All event proceeds go directly to help people of our Rotary Club’s local charities, as well as other Tennessee, national and international charity programs. Visit TourdeTellico.com.

BIKE N’ TRI GROUP CLIMBING RIDE • Bike N’ Tri • 5PM • Join us for our group climbing ride of 30-40 miles, for intermediate to advanced riders only. • FREE Sunday, Oct. 2 CYCOLOGY BICYCLES SUNDAY MORNING GROUP RIDE • Cycology Bicycles • 9AM • Join us every Sunday morning for a two-hour intermediate group ride at a 15-18 mph average. Visit cycologybicycles.com. • FREE RUN 4 THE ARTS 5K • Carter High School • 3PM • The 5K begins at Carter High School, and follows a mostly flat course with some hills through the community surrounding the school. Visit ktc.org. • $25-$35 Monday, Oct. 3 KTC GROUP RUN • Mellow Mushroom • 6PM • Visit ktc.org.

• FREE TVB MONDAY NIGHT ROAD RIDE • Tennessee Valley Bikes • 6PM • FREE BEARDEN BEER MARKET FUN RUN • Bearden Beer Market • 6:30PM • Visit beardenbeermarket.com. • FREE BIKE N’ TRI MONDAY GROUP RUN • Bike N’ Tri • 6:30PM • Every Monday evening, join us for a social three- to

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30

KNOXVILLE MERCURY September 29, 2016

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CALENDAR six-mile group run. All runners/joggers/walkers welcome.

• FREE Tuesday, Oct. 4 CYCOLOGY BICYCLES TUESDAY MORNING RIDE • Cycology Bicycles • 9AM • Visit cycologybicycles.com. • FREE AMBC BIG GROUP MOUNTAIN BIKE RIDE • Ijams Nature Center • 6PM • Visit ambc-sorba.org. • FREE THIRD CREEK GREENWAY SOCIAL RIDE • Bearden Bike and Trail • 6PM • Visit beardenbikeandtrail.com. • FREE I BIKE KNX PINT NIGHT • River Sports Outfitters • 6PM • Join us the first Tuesday of every month to help raise money for all of the great charities we’re partnering with and support all of our wonderful sponsors, all while having a great time. Visit riversportsoutfitters.com. • FREE RIVER SPORTS SOCIAL PADDLE • Sequoyah Park • 6PM • Every other Tuesday night we will meet at Sequoyah boat ramp and do a little paddling. Bring your own boat or reserve one from us for $15. Visit riversportsoutfitters. com/events/. • FREE-$15 CEDAR BLUFF CYCLES TUESDAY NIGHT RIDE • Cedar Bluff Cycles • 6:20PM • Visit cedarbluffcycles.net. • FREE HARD KNOX TUESDAY FUN RUN • Hard Knox Pizzeria • 6:30PM • Join Hard Knox Pizzeria every Tuesday evening (rain or shine) for a 2-3 mile fun run. Burn calories.

Devour pizza. Quench thirst. Follow us on Facebook. • FREE BIKETOPIA TUESDAY ROAD RIDE • Biketopia • 6:30PM • Visit biketopia.com. • FREE FOUNTAIN CITY ROUNDABOUT • Casual Pint (Fountain City) • 6:30PM • It’s our weekly neighborhood bike ride followed by pints. Riders get $1 off pints. Visit facebook. com/TheCasualPint/. • FREE Wednesday, Oct. 5 SMOKY MOUNTAIN HIKING CLUB: SINKING CREEK BRANCH • Smoky Mountain Hiking Club • 9AM • We will hike the Sinking Creek Branch of the East Lakeshore Trail at Tellico Lake. Hiking distance is about 9 miles along Tellico Lake. Meet at Lenoir City Cracker Barrell at 9:00 am. Leader: Terry Nyenhuis, terrynyenhuis@gmail.com • FREE BIKE N’ TRI GROUP RIDE • Bike N’ Tri • 10AM • Every Wednesday, join us for a social group ride of 20-40 miles.

We’ll split into two groups to make the ride suitable for all riders. All riders welcome. • FREE FLEET FEET WEDNESDAY LUNCH BREAK RUN • Fleet Feet Sports Knoxville • 12PM • Visit fleetfeetknoxville.com. • FREE KTC GROUP RUN • Runner’s Market • 5:30PM • Visit ktc.org.

• FREE TVB EASY RIDER MOUNTAIN BIKE RIDE • Ijams Nature Center • 6PM • Check out our Facebook page or give us a call at 865-540-9979 for more info. We meet near Mead’s Quarry. • FREE AMBC CONCORD PARK MOUNTAIN BIKE RIDE • Concord Park • 6PM • Visit ambc-sorba.org. • FREE WEST BIKES WEDNESDAY BIKE RIDE • West Bicycles • 6:15PM • Visit westbikes.com. • FREE Thursday, Oct. 6 CYCOLOGY BICYCLES THURSDAY MORNING RIDE • Cycology Bicycles • 10AM • Visit cycologybicycles.com. • FREE NORTH KNOXVILLE BEER RUNNERS • Central Flats and Taps • 6PM • Meet us at Central Flats and Taps every Thursday night for a fun and easy run leading us right through Saw Works for a midway beer. • FREE FLEET FEET GROUP RUN/WALK • Fleet Feet Sports Knoxville • 6PM • Visit fleetfeetknoxville.com. • FREE BEARDEN BIKE AND TRAIL LAPS ON CHEROKEE BOULEVARD

• Bearden Bike and Trail • 6PM • Visit beardenbikeandtrail.com. • FREE RIVER SPORTS GREENWAY RIDE • River Sports Outfitters • 6PM • Visit riversportsoutfitters.com. • FREE-$10 CEDAR BLUFF CYCLES BEGINNER ROAD RIDE • Sequoyah Park • 6:20PM • Visit cedarbluffcycles.net. • FREE CEDAR BLUFF CYCLES THURSDAY NIGHT RIDE • Cedar Bluff Cycles • 6:20PM • Visit cedarbluffcycles.net. • FREE Friday, Oct. 7 RIVER SPORTS FRIDAY NIGHT GREENWAY RUN • River Sports Outfitters • 6:15PM • Visit riversportsoutfitters.com.

• FREE Saturday, Oct. 8 SMOKY MOUNTAIN HIKING CLUB: THOMAS DIVIDE TRAIL • Smoky Mountain Hiking Club • 7:30AM • After leaving cars at the entrance to the Smokemont campground, hikers will car shuttle up to the Thomas Divide trailhead on Newfound Gap Road. The hike is 14.9 miles and rated difficult due to distance. Meet at Comcast, 5720 Asheville Highway, at 7:30AM or at the trailhead at 9:30AM. If meeting at trailhead, please email note to leaders.

Leaders: Cindy Spangler, spangler@utk.edu and Ken Wise, kwise@utk.edu. • FREE WEST BIKES SATURDAY RIDE • West Bicycles • 8AM • Visit westbikes.com. • FREE BIKE ZOO SATURDAY MORNING RIDE • The Bike Zoo • 9AM • Visit bikezoo.com. • FREE BIKE N’ TRI GROUP CLIMBING RIDE • Bike N’ Tri • 5PM • Join us for our group climbing ride of 30-40 miles, for intermediate to advanced riders only. • FREE Sunday, Oct. 9 KTC CROSSKNOX 15K • Morningside Park • 8AM • The Knoxville Track Club’s annual point-to-point 15K race covers the city’s greenways, from Morningside Park to Bearden Elementary School. Visit ktc.org. • $25-$30 CYCOLOGY BICYCLES SUNDAY MORNING GROUP RIDE • Cycology Bicycles • 9AM • Visit cycologybicycles.com. • FREE SMOKY MOUNTAIN HIKING CLUB: BAKER CREEK PRESERVE • Smoky Mountain Hiking Club • 10AM • We’ll hike the new trails of the Baker Creek Preserve in South Knoxville.

Total distance is 3.3 miles. Meet at the trailhead parking lot at 1516 Taylor Road at 10:00 am. Leader: Mac Post, mpost3116@aol.com. • FREE OPEN STREETS KNOXVILLE • Bearden • 2PM • Knoxvillians are invited to walk, bike, jog or dance their way through town at Open Streets Knoxville. Sutherland Avenue, Mohican, and Homberg Drive, will be closed to all motorized traffic, allowing revelers a day of shopping, playing, exercising and socializing all on foot or two wheels. • FREE

ART

A1 Lab Arts 23 Emory Place SEPT. 2-30: Signification, an exhibition about art and language featuring work by Shannon Novak, Aaron Oldenburg, Norman Magden, Sara Blair McNally, Grayson Earle, Michael Arpino, Robert Thompson, Tracy Riggs, Elizabeth Mcnall, Beth Fox, Melanie Eichholz, Heath Schultz, Monique Grimord, Carson Grubaugh, Anna Ursyn, Peter Whittenberger, and the Bureau (Liat Berdugo, Josh Finn, Leora Fridman, and Shawn Manchester).

Arnstein Jewish Community Center 6800 Deane Hill Drive AUG. 29-SEPT. 30: Artwork by David Barnett.

September 29, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 31

CALENDAR

Thursday, Sept. 29 – Sunday, Oct. 9

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts 556 Parkway (Gatlinburg) AUG. 15-OCT. 5: A retrospective exhibition featuring artwork by Bill Griffith, former Arrowmont program director.

100 S. Gay St. SEPT. 2-30: Slot Machine, coloring pages by Stephen Reid Carcello; We the People, by Antuco Chicaiza; artwork by Emily Taylor; A Time of Recent Creativity, new paintings by Anthony Donaldson; and Cosmic Order, artwork by Eurichea Showalter Subagh Ball.

Art Market Gallery 422 S. Gay St. SEPT. 1-30: Paintings by Kathy Holland and gourd art by Jeannie Gravetti.

Ewing Gallery 1715 Volunteer Boulevard SEPT. 6-30: The Unbearable Flatness of Being, an exhibit of paintings by Sarah Emerson. Emerson will discuss her work on Thursday, Sept. 29, at 7 p.m.

Broadway Studios and Gallery 1127 N. Broadway SEPT. 2-30: All Scapes, an art competition featuring work by local artists in any -scape format: landscape, cityscape, seascape, etc.

Downtown Gallery 106 S. Gay St. SEPT. 2-30: Persona: Process Portraiture, an exhibition of work by Leah Schrager, Marcia Goldenstein, Judith Page, and Gail Skudera.

East Tennessee History Center 601 S. Gay St. APRIL 16-OCT. 30: Come to Make Records, a selection of artifacts, audio and video recordings, and photographs celebrating Knoxville’s music heritage and the 1929-30 St. James Hotel recording sessions.

Emporium Center for Arts and Culture

Knoxville Arts and Fine Crafts Center 1127B Broadway AUG. 1-OCT. 31: Whimsical Creatures, paintings and photographs by Lela E. Buis.

Knoxville Museum of Art 1050 World’s Fair Park Drive AUG. 26-NOV. 6: Romantic Spirits: 19th-Century Paintings of the South From the Johnson Collection SEPT. 12-OCT. 7: Frutos Latinos, Hola Hora Latina’s 10th annual art exhibit and contest. ONGOING: Higher Ground: A Century of the Visual Arts in Tennessee; Currents: Recent Art From East Tennessee and Beyond; and Facets of Modern and Contemporary Glass.

McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture 1327 Circle Park Drive

SEPT. 17-JAN. 8: Knoxville Unearthed: Archaeology in the Heart of the Valley. JULY 12-OCT. 19: Land, Sea, and Spirit: Alaska Native Art From the 19th and 20th Centuries.

ONGOING: The Flora and Fauna of Catesby, Mason, and Audubon and Life on the Roman Frontier.

FAMILY AND KIDS’ EVENTS

Thursday, Sept. 29 LITTLE LEARNERS • Blount County Public Library • 10:30AM • Recommended for ages 3-5. Interactive sessions focus on language acquisition and pre-literacy skills incorporating stories, music, motion, play, crafts and more. • FREE CHESS AT THE LIBRARY • Blount County Public Library • 1PM • For middle and high school students, with coach Tom Jobe. Visit blountlibrary.org. • FREE LEGO CLUB • Blount County Public Library • 4PM • LEGO Club will take place in the children’s library. Kids will complete different-themed and timed LEGO Challenges, as well as have some time for free building. The library will provide the LEGOs, so all you have to bring is your imagination. • FREE Friday, Sept. 30 S.T.E.A.M. KIDS • Blount County Public Library • 4PM • For grades K-5. Every week will be a different adventure, from science experiments to art projects and everything

in between. Materials will be limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. • FREE Saturday, Oct. 1 CHESS AT THE LIBRARY • Blount County Public Library • 10AM • For middle and high school students, with coach Tom Jobe. Visit blountlibrary.org. • FREE BLOUNT COUNTY NERD GROUP • Blount County Public Library • 3PM • Starting this summer, students can learn the basic principles of computer programming, also known as coding. By participating in the newly-formed Blount County Nerd Group, students seventh grade and up can learn skills such as making simple games, developing professional websites and creating mobile apps. Participating students are encouraged to bring their own technologies including a laptop. However, students who do not have adequate technology will be provided a laptop by the library when necessary. • FREE Monday, Oct. 3 MCCLUNG MUSEUM STROLLER TOUR: DOWN AND AROUND KNOXVILLE • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 10AM • Join us for a morning out as our museum educator leads engaging gallery tours for parents and caregivers and their young ones. FREE Tuesday, Oct. 4 LITTLE LEARNERS • Blount County Public Library • 10:30AM • Recommended for ages 3-5. Interactive sessions focus on language acquisition and pre-literacy skills incorporating stories, music, motion, play, crafts and more. • FREE

JOIN US FOR THE 37TH ANNUAL

SEPTEMBER 30, OCTOBER 1 & 2

ST. GEORGE GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH 4070 KINGSTON PIKE Friday & Saturday Sunday 11am - 10pm 11am - 8pm NE EXTE W ND HOUR ED S!

Authentic Greek Food • Delicious Greek Pastries Live Music • Traditional Greek Dancing

WEST HIGH SCHOOL SAT & SUN (All Day)

WESTERN PLAZA (Lower Lot) FRI, SAT & SUN (All Day)

LAUREL CHURCH OF CHRIST FRI & SAT (All Day) SUN after 12pm

2ND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH FRI & SAT (All Day) SUN after 12pm

* PARKING NOT AVAILABLE AT FESTIVAL SITE

32

KNOXVILLE MERCURY September 29, 2016

Photo: © Joan Marcus

PARKING

greekfesttn.com Free Shuttle Service from the following locations!

October 13, 2016 @ 7:30 PM Tickets: 865-981-8590 www.claytonartscenter.com

Thursday, Sept. 29 – Sunday, Oct. 9

Wednesday, Oct. 5 BABY AND ME • Blount County Public Library • 10:30AM • Recommended for ages 2 and under. These lapsit sessions for baby and caregiver feature short stories, action rhymes, music and pre-literacy tips and tricks for caregivers. It is also a great time for caregivers and babies to socialize. • FREE Thursday, Oct. 6 LITTLE LEARNERS • Blount County Public Library • 10:30AM • Recommended for ages 3-5. Interactive sessions focus on language acquisition and pre-literacy skills incorporating stories, music, motion, play, crafts and more. • FREE CHESS AT THE LIBRARY • Blount County Public Library • 1PM • For middle and high school students, with coach Tom Jobe. Visit blountlibrary.org. • FREE LEGO CLUB • Blount County Public Library • 4PM • LEGO Club will take place in the children’s library. Kids will complete different-themed and timed LEGO Challenges, as well as have some time for free building. The library will provide the LEGOs, so all you have to bring is your imagination. • FREE Friday, Oct. 7 S.T.E.A.M. KIDS • Blount County Public Library • 4PM • For grades K-5. Every week will be a different adventure, from science experiments to art projects and everything in between. Materials will be limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. • FREE Saturday, Oct. 8 CHESS AT THE LIBRARY • Blount County Public Library • 10AM • For middle and high school students, with coach Tom Jobe. Visit blountlibrary.org. • FREE GAMING AT BLOUNT COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY • Blount County Public Library • 2PM • Games of all kind: board games, MarioKart, Super Smash Bros., Yu-Gi-Oh!, or bring your own game to share. • FREE BLOUNT COUNTY NERD GROUP • Blount County Public Library • 3PM • Starting this summer, students can learn the basic principles of computer programming, also known as coding. By participating in the newly-formed Blount County Nerd Group, students seventh grade and up can learn skills such as making simple games, developing professional websites and creating mobile apps. Participating students are encouraged to bring their own technologies including a laptop. However, students who do not have adequate technology will be provided a laptop by the library when necessary. • FREE Sunday, Oct. 9 KMA ART ACTIVITY DAY • Knoxville Museum of Art • 1PM • Every second Sunday of each month, the KMA will host free drop-in art activities for families. A local artist will be on-site to lead hands-on art activities between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. • FREE

LECTURES, READINGS, AND BOOK SIGNINGS

Thursday, Sept. 29 MICHAEL HUTCHINS: “WIND ENERGY DEVELOPMENT AND WILDLIFE” • Howard H. Baker Center for Public Policy • 1PM • Hutchins is the director of the American Bird Conservancy’s Bird-Smart Wind Energy Campaign. • FREE Friday, Sept. 30 VOLHACKS HACK-A-THON • University of Tennessee •

CALENDAR

Volhacks is hosting its inaugural hack-a-thon Sept.

30-Oct. 2. Participating businesses will range from computing giants IBM and Cisco to social media corporations Yik Yak and Eventbrite to local powerhouses like Pilot Flying J and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The event will take place in the Min H. Kao Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building. It’s all part of a growing movement in computing to have the most proficient hackers use their skills for good.

UT SCIENCE FORUM • Thompson-Boling Arena • 12PM • The University of Tennessee Science Forum offers a weekly lecture on current science, medical, or technology developments. The UT Science Forum was established in 1933 to share scientific research with the public. It was and continues to be an excellent opportunity for students, UT professors, and the general public to learn about cutting-edge research at UT, ORNL, and other local facilities on Fridays over lunch during the UT academic year. Held in Thompson-Boling Arena Dining Room C-D. Visit scienceforum.utk.edu. • FREE PETER RAILTON: “MORAL LEARNING” • University of Tennessee • 3:30PM • While the traditional view of morality has been understood as being part of maturation or genetics, Railton argues that morality might be attained through continuous learning as people interact with their environment. This method of thinking accounts for spontaneous moral learning and action according to community norms and values. Part of the University of Tennessee Humanities Center’s 2016-17 Distinguished Lecture Series at the John C. Hodges Library. • FREE MARIA CORNELIUS: ‘THE FINAL SEASON: THE PERSEVERANCE OF PAT SUMMITT’ • Union Ave Books • 5:30PM • Reception and book launch for Maria Cornelius, author of The Final Season: The Perseverance of Pat Summitt. • FREE Saturday, Oct. 1 VOLHACKS HACK-A-THON • University of Tennessee • Volhacks is hosting its inaugural hack-a-thon Sept.

30-Oct. 2. Participating businesses will range from computing giants IBM and Cisco to social media corporations Yik Yak and Eventbrite to local powerhouses like Pilot Flying J and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The event will take place in the Min H. Kao Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building. It’s all part of a growing movement in computing to have the most proficient hackers use their skills for good.

Sunday, Oct. 2 VOLHACKS HACK-A-THON • University of Tennessee • Volhacks is hosting its inaugural hack-a-thon Sept.

30-Oct. 2. Participating businesses will range from computing giants IBM and Cisco to social media corporations Yik Yak and Eventbrite to local powerhouses like Pilot Flying J and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The event will take place in the Min H. Kao Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building. It’s all part of a growing movement in computing to have the most proficient hackers use their skills for good.

Monday, Oct. 3 ELLIOTT WEST: “THE WEST BEFORE LEWIS AND CLARK” • Howard H. Baker Center for Public Policy • 5PM • A distinguished historian will explore changes in the American West prior to Lewis and Clark’s famous 1804 expedition. The UT Department of History will host Elliott West, the Alumni Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Arkansas. His address is part of the annual Charles O. Jackson Memorial Lecture Series. • FREE UT WRITERS IN THE LIBRARY SERIES • University of

Tennessee • 7PM • The University of Tennessee’s annual Writers in the Library series features novelists, poets, and nonfiction writers from around the region and visiting writers at UT, reading from and discussing their work in the auditorium of the John C. Hodges Library. The 2016-17 schedule includes Christopher Hebert (Aug. 29); Leah Stewart (Sept. 19); Tawnysha Greene and Kristi Maxwell (Oct. 3); Angela Floury (Oct. 24); Bret Anthony Johnston (Nov. 7); Garrett Hongo (Nov. 15); Joy Harjo (Jan. 23); Austion Kodra and Linda Parsons Marion (Jan. 30); LeAnne Howe (Feb. 6); Ocean Vuong (Feb. 20); Maggie Shipstead (March 6); Kathering Smith and Tanque Jones (march 20); Bobby Caudle Rogers and Maria James-Thiaw (March 27); Manuel Gonzales (April 10); and graduate student award winners (April 17). Visit lib.utk.edu/writers/. • FREE Tuesday, Oct. 4 JAMES REYNOLDS: “IF THERE WERE AN OLYMPICS OF HEALTH CARE, WOULD THE U.S. MEDAL?” • Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • James Reynolds, MD, will present a talk entitled “If There Were an Olympics of Health Care, Would the US Medal?” at the Lunch with the League.

THIERRY J. SAGNIER: ‘THE FORTUNATE FEW’ • Union Ave Books • 6PM • Book signing and discussion with Thierry J. Sagnier, author of The Fortunate Few: IVS Volunteers from Asia to the Andes. Visit unionavebooks.com. • FREE JOHNETTA COLE: “THE CASE FOR DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION” • Holiday Inn (World’s Fair Park) • 6PM • Johnnetta Cole, director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, will speak as part of the Billie Grace Goodrich Distinguished Lecture Series sponsored by the University of Tennessee College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences. • FREE Thursday, Oct. 6 MARY HEADRICK: “INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE CLIMATE SOLUTIONS” • Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church • 7:30PM • Climate activist Mary Headrick will discuss the importance of both collective actions, and next steps attendees can take can take to effectively reduce our carbon footprint.

Friday, Oct. 7 BILL BASS AND JOHN JEFFERSON: ‘WITHOUT MERCY’ • Union Ave Books • 6PM • Book signing and reading with Dr. Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson, authors of the newest Body Farm mystery, Without Mercy. Visit unionavebooks. com. • FREE Saturday, Oct. 8 MICHAEL LLEWELLYN: THE GOAT CASTLE MURDER • Union Ave Books • 2PM • Book signing and reading with former Knoxvillian Michael Llewellyn, author of The Goat Castle Murder. Visit unionavebooks.com. • FREE SARAH LEE BLAIR: ‘DARKNESS SHIFTING’ • Union Ave Books • 4PM • Book signing and reading with Sarah Lee Blair author of Darkness Shifting: Tides of Darkness Book One. Visit unionavebooks.com. • FREE Sunday, Oct. 9 UNEXPECTED TREASURES: AN EVENING WITH LARK MASON • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 5:30PM • Join UT alumnus and Antiques Roadshow appraiser, Lark Mason for an special evening and fundraiser at the McClung Museum. Mason will give the presentation, “Unexpected Treasures and How to Find Them: Why Great Works of Art Turn Up in Odd Locations,” which will be followed by farm-to-table dinner stations interspersed throughout the galleries, delectable dessert displays, craft cocktails, and music. • $150-$800 September 29, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 33

CALENDAR CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS Knoxville’s BEST live music venue 6 nights a week!

Happy Hour 4pm - 8pm | mon - fri Huge selection of Craft, Import & Local beer Locally roasted coffee

wed sept. 28 • 8pm

Full disclosure comedy long-form improv free • all ages ( comedy )

thurs sept. 29 • 8pm

secret city cyphers!!! $5 General Admission free for performers all ages ( open mic/hip hop )

fri sept. 30 • 8pm

dee dee brogan w/ Zoe NutT free • All Ages ( Singer-songwriter )

sat oct. 1 • 8pm

Girl Power series pt.1, celebrating women in music! w/ Vallie Noles & Mae Beth $7 • All Ages ( Singer-songwriter )

sun oct. 2 • 8pm

blackfoot $15 ADV | $20 Day of all ages ( southern/classic rock ) "Coolest venue in town! Not too big, not too small. Great sound system and audio engineers. Lights show, good food, cold beer and a music store in the back. Oh, and they give lessons, too. Seriously? I still can't believe this place is real."

-Austin Hall of Sam Killed The Bear

Knoxville’s Best Musical Instrument Store

8502 KINGSTON PIKE • (865) 281-5874 openchordmusic.com

34

KNOXVILLE MERCURY September 29, 2016

Thursday, Sept. 29 AARP DRIVER SAFETY CLASS • Second Presbyterian Church • 9AM • Call 382-5822.

BLOUNT COUNTY LIBRARY RESUME HELP SESSIONS • Blount County Public Library • 9AM • For more information on the program, please call Holly Scarlett at Blount County Adult Education at 865-982-8998. Bring your job history with dates to the computer lab. • FREE GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted.

PORTRAIT AND LIFE DRAWING SESSIONS • Historic Candoro Marble Company • 12:30PM • Call Brad Selph for more information (865-573-0709). • $10 KNOXVILLE CAPOEIRA CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 6PM • Visit knoxvillecapoeira.org. • $10 THIRSTY (FOR KNOWLEDGE) THURSDAY • Old City Wine Bar • 6:30PM • Join our sommelier, Matt Burke, every Thursday in the cellar of the Old City Wine Bar for our ongoing wine education series. Free to listen and only $20-$25 to partake in the libations. • $20-$25 KNOXVILLE PERSONAL TRAINING PILATES • Beaver Creek Cumberland Presbyterian Church • 6:30PM • Call (865) 622-3103 or visit knoxvillepersonaltraining.com. • $4 COMEDY IMPROV CLASS • Broadway Academy of Performing Arts • 7PM • Contact Paul at dr.p@tds.net or 865-898-6448 for more info or to register. Walk-ins are welcome. Cost is $100 for the six classes.

BELLY DANCE LEVELS 1 AND 2 • Knox Dance Worx • 8PM • Call (865) 898-2126 or email alexia@alexia-dance.com. • $12 SUP YOGA • Concord Park • 7PM • Yoga on a SUP board?

Come join us every Thursday at the Cove. We will meet at the River Sports Outfitters building. Cost is $25 and includes board, paddle and PFD. Register at barrebelleyoga.com/class-schedule. • $25 Saturday, Oct. 1 YOGA AT NARROW RIDGE • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 9:30AM • Narrow Ridge invites you to join us every Saturday morning for yoga instruction from Angela Gibson. This class can be tailored to each individual’s ability level. For information call 865-497-2753 or email community@narrowridge.org. • FREE IMPROV COMEDY CLASS • The Birdhouse • 10:30AM • A weekly improv comedy class. • FREE UT ARBORETUM SOCIETY MOTH-ERS NIGHT OUT • University of Tennessee Arboretum (Oak Ridge) • 7:30PM • Have you ever wondered about what kind of insects are out hunting and eating while you sleep snugly in your bed at night? Come learn about these creatures with naturalist Kris Light. After an introductory program in the Visitors Center, we will venture outdoors to check the sheets to observe the insects that have been attracted by the black lights. Bring your camera, your friends and your kids as well as a magnifying glass, a flashlight and a desire to learn about these fascinating critters. This program is appropriate for all ages. For more information on the MOTH-ers Night Out program or the UT Arboretum, call 865-483-3571, visit the UT Arboretum Society website. • FREE SAFTA POETRY WORKSHOP • Sundress Academy for the Arts • 2PM • The three-hour workshop will focus on the metrics of the formal line, spotlighting received forms such as the sonnet, the Malayan pantoum, and the

Thursday, Sept. 29 – Sunday, Oct. 9

villanelle. All writers, including writers of fiction and non-fiction, are encouraged to attend. Visit sundressacademyforthearts.com. • $15-$20 FLY FISHING 101 • 3 Rivers Angler • 9AM • Call 3 Rivers Angler 865-200-5271 for more information or drop John an email at john@3riversangler.com. Visit 3riversangler. com. • FREE SUP YOGA • Concord Park • 9AM • Yoga on a paddle board, every Saturday at 9 a.m. Cost is $25, including rental, or $12.50 if you already have you own board. Visit riversportsoutfitters.com. • $12.50-$25 Sunday, Oct. 2 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE BALLET BARRE CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 1PM • This open-level barre class is designed to help students build and maintain strength, flexibility, and coordination for ballet technique.

This is a great class for beginning and experienced students alike. Visit circlemoderndance.com. • $10 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE OPEN LEVEL MODERN TECHNIQUE CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 2PM • This class is open to all. Teachers cover basic technique and vocabulary for modern and contemporary dance. The class includes floor and standing work to build proficiency in alignment, balance, initiation and articulation of movement, weight shift, elevation and landing, and fall and recovery. Instruction is adjusted to meet the experience and ability of those in attendance.

Visit circlemoderndance.com. • $10 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE IMPROVISATION CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 3:30PM • Our improv classes offer an introduction to dance improvisation as a movement practice, performance technique, and a tool for creating choreography. Class involves both structured and free improvisations aimed at developing creativity, spontaneous decision-making, freedom of movement, and confidence in performance.

No dance experience is necessary—only the desire to move. Visit circlemoderndance.com. • $10 BEGINNING BRIDGE LESSONS • Knoxville Bridge Center • 1:30PM • Contact Jo Anne Newby at (865} 539-4150 or email KnoxvilleBridge@gmail.com. • $5 ACROKNOX FOUNDATIONAL ACROYOGA • World’s Fair Park • 5:30PM • AcroKnox offers a Foundational AcroYoga Class on Sunday evenings from 5:30-6:00pm on the festival lawn at World’s Fair Park. The class is followed by the Knoxville Acro-balance, Fire, and Flow Jam. Never tried AcroYoga? Come and gain a bit of experience before the rest of the group arrives for an open jam and play time.

Visit acroknox.com. • $5 Monday, Oct. 3 BEGINNER MODERN BELLY DANCE • Broadway Academy of Performing Arts • 6PM • Tribal fusion belly dance is a modern blend of traditional belly dance infused with hip-hop, modern dance, and more to create a new, unique dance form. • $13 KNOXVILLE PERSONAL TRAINING BOOT CAMP • Beaver Creek Cumberland Presbyterian Church • 6:30PM • First class is free. Call (865) 622-3103 or visit knoxvillepersonaltraining.com. • $15 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 5:30PM • Call 865-5772021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted.

Tuesday, Oct. 4 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted.

KNOXVILLE CAPOEIRA CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 6PM • Capoeira originated in Brazil and is a dynamic expression of Afro-Brazilian culture. It is an art form that encompasses martial arts, dance, and acrobatic movements as well as its own philosophy, history, culture, music, and songs. Visit capoeiraknoxville.org. • $10 KNOXVILLE PERSONAL TRAINING PILATES • Beaver Creek Cumberland Presbyterian Church • 6:30PM • Every Tuesday and Thursday. First class is free. Call (865) 622-3103 or visit knoxvillepersonaltraining.com. • $4 HANDS-ON CHEESE-MAKING WORKSHOP • Central Collective • 6:30PM • Using everyday ingredients, you can learn to make a Crème de Ricotta that is so luscious and so delicious, you’ll never buy store-bought again. Eileen Moffatt, who learned the craft at The San Francisco Cheese School, will lead you through the hands-on process using Cruze Farms milk. Participants will taste some variations on the cheese, make their own and take some home. • $32 BEGINNING BRIDGE LESSONS • Knoxville Bridge Center • 6PM • Contact Jo Anne Newby at (865} 539-4150 or email KnoxvilleBridge@gmail.com. • $5 Wednesday, Oct. 5 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED MODERN TECHNIQUE CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 6PM • A rotation of core members and guest artists of Circle Modern Dance teach this class.

They present a variety of modern and contemporary styles, including Bartenieff and release-based techniques. This class is primarily designed for students with a basic knowledge of modern dance technique and vocabulary, but is open to any mover who is willing to be challenged. Visit circlemoderndance.com.

BEGINNER MODERN BELLY DANCE • Broadway Academy of Performing Arts • 6PM • Tribal fusion belly dance is a modern blend of traditional belly dance infused with hip-hop, modern dance, and more to create a new, unique dance form. • $13 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE OPEN LEVEL BALLET CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 7:30PM • This is a basic ballet class open to students of all levels of experience and ability. Students will learn new steps, build coordination and flexibility, and learn choreography.

Visit circlemoderndance.com. • $10 Thursday, Oct. 6 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted.

PORTRAIT AND LIFE DRAWING SESSIONS • Historic Candoro Marble Company • 12:30PM • Portrait and life drawing practice at Candoro Art and Heritage Center. $10. Call Brad Selph for more information (865-573-0709). • $10 CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY: KNIT YOUR WAY TO WELLNESS • Cancer Support Community • 1PM • Whether you are a novice knitter or an old pro, you are invited to bring your own project or join others in learning a new one. Special attention will be provided to beginners interested in learning how to knit and experience the meditative quality of knitting. Supplies provided. Call 865-546-4661. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

KNOXVILLE CAPOEIRA CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 6PM • This class is an hour of student-led training and review of Capoeira skills and exercises.

Come prepared to sweat. Visit knoxvillecapoeira.org. • $10 KNOXVILLE PERSONAL TRAINING PILATES • Beaver Creek

CALENDAR Cumberland Presbyterian Church • 6:30PM • Every Tuesday and Thursday. First class is free. Call (865) 622-3103 or visit knoxvillepersonaltraining.com. • $4 THIRSTY (FOR KNOWLEDGE) THURSDAY • Old City Wine Bar • 6:30PM • Join our sommelier, Matt Burke, every Thursday in the cellar of the Old City Wine Bar for our ongoing wine education series. Free to listen and only $20-$25 to partake in the libations. • $20-$25 COMEDY IMPROV CLASS • Broadway Academy of Performing Arts • 7PM • Paul Simmons of Einstein Simplified will be teaching a six-week improv/comedy improv class Sept. 22-Nov. 3. (There’s no class on Oct. 13.)

Contact Paul at dr.p@tds.net or 865-898-6448 for more info or to register. Walk-ins are welcome. Cost is $100 for the six classes.

BELLY DANCE LEVELS 1 AND 2 • Knox Dance Worx • 8PM • Call (865) 898-2126 or email alexia@alexia-dance.com. • $12 SUP YOGA • Concord Park • 7PM • Yoga on a SUP board?

Come join us every Thursday at the Cove. We will meet at the River Sports Outfitters building. Cost is $25 and includes board, paddle and PFD. Register at barrebelleyoga.com/class-schedule. • $25 Saturday, Oct. 8 YOGA AT NARROW RIDGE • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 9:30AM • Narrow Ridge invites you to join us every Saturday morning for yoga instruction from Angela Gibson. This class can be tailored to each individual’s ability level. For information call 865-497-2753 or email community@narrowridge.org. • FREE KNOX HERITAGE PRESERVATION NETWORK • Knox Heritage • 10AM • Preservation Network is a series of free workshops held once every month on the second Saturday. The monthly workshops feature guest speakers who are specialists in windows, flooring, roofing, stained glass, tile, plumbing, electrical, and more. For more information visit www.knoxheritage.org. • FREE ALAN SIMS: BLOGGING BASICS • Central United Methodist Church • 10AM and 1PM • Alan Sims, author of the award-winning blog Inside of Knoxville, will lead back-to-back workshops for the Knoxville Writers Guild on writing and caring for a blog and maintaining a social media presence. Sims will lead Blogging Basics from 10 a.m. to noon and a more advanced session, Branding Your Blog, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Cost of the workshop is $50, with members receiving a 40 percent discount and student members a 50 percent discount. Visit knoxvillewritersguild.org. • $50 IMPROV COMEDY CLASS • The Birdhouse • 10:30AM • A weekly improv comedy class. • FREE KNOX COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS • Bearden Branch Public Library • 1:30PM • Join Master Gardener Alice Greene to learn what to do with bulbs. Plan and plant the spring bloomers and dig up and store those tender summer bloomers like gladiola, caladium and dahlia.Call 865- 588-8813 or visit knoxlib.org. • FREE BEARDSLEY COMMUNITY FARM WORKDAYS AND GARDEN CLASSES • Beardsley Community Farm • 9AM • CAC Beardsley Community Farm Saturday Workdays are from 9 a.m.-noon, followed by a garden class from 12:15-1:30 p.m. The upcoming schedule includes “Beat the Bugs …

With Bugs” (July 23); “organic Disease Control” (Aug. 13); “Preserving the Harvest” (Sept. 10); and “Green Manure: Build Your Soil With Cover Crops” (Oct. 8). For more information visit beardsleyfarm.org, email beardsleyfarm@gmail.com or call 865-546-8446. • FREE SUP YOGA • Concord Park • 9AM • Yoga on a paddle board, every Saturday at 9 a.m. Cost is $25, including rental, or $12.50 if you already have you own board. Visit

riversportsoutfitters.com. • $12.50-$25 Sunday, Oct. 9 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE BALLET BARRE CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 1PM • This open-level barre class is designed to help students build and maintain strength, flexibility, and coordination for ballet technique.

This is a great class for beginning and experienced students alike. Visit circlemoderndance.com. • $10 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE OPEN LEVEL MODERN TECHNIQUE CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 2PM • This class is open to all. Teachers cover basic technique and vocabulary for modern and contemporary dance. The class includes floor and standing work to build proficiency in alignment, balance, initiation and articulation of movement, weight shift, elevation and landing, and fall and recovery. Instruction is adjusted to meet the experience and ability of those in attendance.

Visit circlemoderndance.com. • $10 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE IMPROVISATION CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 3:30PM • Our improv classes offer an introduction to dance improvisation as a movement practice, performance technique, and a tool for creating choreography. Class involves both structured and free improvisations aimed at developing creativity, spontaneous decision-making, freedom of movement, and confidence in performance.

No dance experience is necessary—only the desire to move. Visit circlemoderndance.com. • $10 ACROKNOX FOUNDATIONAL ACROYOGA • World’s Fair Park • 5:30PM • AcroKnox offers a Foundational AcroYoga Class on Sunday evenings from 5:30-6:00pm on the festival lawn at World’s Fair Park. The class is followed by the Knoxville Acro-balance, Fire, and Flow Jam. Never tried AcroYoga? Come and gain a bit of experience before the rest of the group arrives for an open jam and play time.

Visit acroknox.com. • $5 BEGINNING BRIDGE LESSONS • Knoxville Bridge Center • 1:30PM • Contact Jo Anne Newby at (865} 539-4150 or email KnoxvilleBridge@gmail.com. • $5

MEETINGS

Saturday, Oct. 1 SEEKERS OF SILENCE • Church of the Savior United Church of Christ • 9AM • Seekers of Silence is an ecumenical and interfaith gathering of men and women who come together to listen. We listen to presenters speak on spirituality topics; we listen to God in silent prayer; we listen to each other in small group sharing.Participants come from a variety of religious traditions. Members of several denominations as well as followers of other faiths come from all over East Tennessee to attend. All are welcome. Our meetings are on the first Saturday of each month (except July). Meetings start with 20 minutes of silent meditation, followed by a talk and small group discussions. We end with another 20-minute meditation and a shared lunch. The meetings are open to all and free of charge, although donations are accepted. Visit sosknoxville.org. • FREE AL-ANON • Faith Lutheran Church • 11AM • Al-Anon’s purpose is to help families and friends of alcoholics recover from the effects of living with the problem drinking of a relative or friend. Visit our local website at farragutalanon.org or email us at FindHope@ Farragutalanon.org. • FREE NARROW RIDGE SILENT MEDITATION GATHERING • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 11AM • Narrow Ridge invites you to join us for our Silent Meditation Gathering. The September 29, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 35

CALENDAR gatherings are intended to be inclusive of people of all faiths as well as those who do not align themselves with a particular religious denomination. For information call 865-497-2753 or email community@narrowridge.org. • FREE GERMAN TREFF • GruJo’s German Restaurant • 2PM • Whether you have lived in Germany and would like to share some memories, would like to explore your roots, practice the language, or if you are just curious and like to meet new people, this monthly meeting, held on the first Saturday of each month, is a great opportunity to have a wonderful time. • FREE Monday, Oct. 3 EAST KNOXVILLE COMMUNITY MEETING • Burlington Branch Library • 1PM • Please join us for October guest speaker Charme Allen, Knox County District Attorney General. General Allen will share information about current initiatives being undertaken by her office.

Additionally, Clarence Vaughn III will give us a brief preview of the quarterly Police Advisory Review Committee meeting to be held later in October. • FREE EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION • Skyranch Airport • 7PM • The Experimental Aircraft Association will discuss Dynamic Propeller Balancing by ACES Systems. The goals for this FAA-approved presentation are to help aviators understand the basics of vibration, and the benefits and the process of balancing your propeller. Contact: eaa17. org or Jerry Depew 865-789-0899 • FREE GAY MEN’S DISCUSSION GROUP • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 7:30PM • We hold

Thursday, Sept. 29 – Sunday, Oct. 9

facilitated discussions on topics and issues relevant to local gay men in a safe and open environment. Visit gaygroupknoxville.org.

Tuesday, Oct. 4 KNOXVILLE COMMUNITY STEP UP • Beck Cultural Exchange Center • 11AM • Do you have an incarcerated relative, friend, or loved one? Do you need a support system to keep your relative, friend, or loved one from going or returning to prison? Then come and join us! Our goal is to connect ex-offenders to established organizations offering the needed services that will provide the support and resources to prevent them from re-entry into the prison system. Membership is a one-time fee of $5.

ATHEISTS SOCIETY OF KNOXVILLE • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 5:30PM • Weekly atheists meetup and happy hour. Come join us for food, drink and great conversation.

Everyone welcome. • FREE STFK SCIENCE CAFE • Knoxville Zoo • 5:30PM • A free monthly discussion of science-related topics, hosted by the Spirit and Truth Fellowship of Knoxville. Email rsvp@ knoxsciencecafe.org. • FREE DER GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS STAMMTISCH • Los Amigos • 6PM • A weekly gathering for Germans and anyone interested in German culture and the German language. • FREE THREE RIVERS! EARTH FIRST! • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8PM • Three Rivers! Earth First! is the local dirt-worshiping, tree-hugging, anarchist collective that meets every Sunday night on the second floor of Barley’s in the back room (when its available) to organize against

strip mining, counter protest the KKK and Nazis, to clean up Third Creek and to fight evil corporations in general.

Open meeting, rotating facilitation, collective model. Y’all come. Call (865) 257-4029 for more information. • FREE Wednesday, Oct. 5 ADULT CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS/DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES • The Birdhouse • 6PM • A 12-step meeting for adults who grew up in alcoholic or dysfunctional homes.

The group offers a safe space for emotional healing.

Contact Laura at 706-621-2238 or lamohendricksll@ gmail.com for more information or visit the international ACA website at adultchildren.org. • FREE Thursday, Oct. 6 CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY FAMILY BEREAVEMENT GROUP • Cancer Support Community • 6PM • CSC is committed to providing bereavement services to those who have lost a loved one to cancer. Please contact our clinical staff before attending. Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY BREAST CANCER NETWORKER • Thompson Cancer Survivor Center West • 6PM • This drop-in group is an opportunity for women who have or have had breast cancer to come together to exchange information, offer support, education and encouragement. Bring your favorite seasonal snack to share. Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

NAACP • Beck Cultural Exchange Center • 6PM • The

®

mission of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination. Join the fight for freedom by becoming a member of the NAACP. Regular individual annual membership rates vary.

KNOXVILLE WRITERS’ GUILD • Central United Methodist Church • 7PM • The Knoxville Writers’ Guild exists to facilitate a broad and inclusive community for area writers, provide a forum for information, support and sharing among writers, help members improve and market their writing skills and promote writing and creativity. A $2 donation is requested. Additional information about KWG can be found at www.

KnoxvilleWritersGuild.org.

BLACK LIVES MATTER • The Birdhouse • 7:30PM • #BlackLivesMatter is working for a world where Black lives are no longer systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. Visit blacklivesmatterknoxville.org. • FREE Saturday, Oct. 8 CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY PROSTATE CANCER NETWORKER • Cancer Support Community • 10AM • This drop-in group is an opportunity for men to network with other men about their experiences with prostate cancer.

Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

AL-ANON • Faith Lutheran Church • 11AM • Al-Anon’s purpose is to help families and friends of alcoholics

Providing quality homes built locally in East Tennessee since 1974.

ClaytonofStrawberryPlains.com 865-933-3495

Knoxville Musicians!

Are you looking for a volunteer opportunity that would give you the chance to share your musical talent? The Joy of Music School is always in need of qualified music mentors for our growing wait list of students. If you are proficient at one or more musical instruments and have a minimum of a half hour per week to give to a child in need please visit joyofmusicschool.org or call 525-6806 for more information.

1209 Euclid Avenue Knoxville, TN 37921 (865) 525-6806 www.joyofmusicschool.org

36

KNOXVILLE MERCURY September 29, 2016

ADVERTISING EQUALS SUPPORT

Thanks to our advertisers for their help in keeping our presses running!

CALENDAR recover from the effects of living with the problem drinking of a relative or friend. Visit our local website at farragutalanon.org or email us at FindHope@ Farragutalanon.org. • FREE NARROW RIDGE SILENT MEDITATION GATHERING • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 11AM • Narrow Ridge invites you to join us for our Silent Meditation Gathering. The gatherings are intended to be inclusive of people of all faiths as well as those who do not align themselves with a particular religious denomination. For information call 865-497-2753 or email community@narrowridge.org. • FREE Sunday, Oct. 9 SKEPTIC BOOK CLUB • Books-A-Million • 2PM • The book club of the Rationalists of East Tennessee meets on the second Sunday of every month. Visit rationalists.org. • FREE

ETC.

Friday, Sept. 30 LAKESHORE PARK FARMERS MARKET • Lakeshore Park • 3PM • FREE Saturday, Oct. 1 EAST TENNESSEE RECORD AND CD SALE • Days Inn • Featuring music dealers from all over the South selling rare vintage vinyl LPs and 45s, plus CDs, music DVDs, memorabilia, and other items that can’t be found anywhere else, plus more. Buy, sale, and trade. • $2 SEYMOUR FARMERS MARKET • First Baptist Church Seymour • 8AM • FREE OAK RIDGE FARMERS MARKET • Historic Jackson Square • 8AM • FREE MARKET SQUARE FARMERS’ MARKET • Market Square • 9AM • The MSFM, a project of Nourish Knoxville, is an open-air farmers’ market located on historic Market Square in the heart of downtown Knoxville. Visit marketsquarefarmersmarket.org. • FREE KNOXVILLE’S NEXT STRONG BABY OPEN CASTING CALL • Knox County Health Department • 11AM • The Strong Baby campaign promotes healthy behaviors among Knox County families to help make sure babies are born healthy, safe and strong. Now, local parents have a chance to have their little one star in the 2017 Strong Baby campaign. The campaign is searching for little ones aged seven months to 18 months to star in the next series of Knox County ads. No talent experience is necessary.

The winning babies will appear on billboards, social media, and web banners in the coming year. Winners will be chosen by a panel of judges and announced in early November.No need to register in advance; just bring your little one to the health department on Saturday, Oct. 1.

Free parking is available across the street. If you have any questions, please call 865-215-5170 or email strongbaby@knoxcounty.org. • FREE CHAMPIONS FOR A CAUSE • Casual Pint (Northshore) • 11AM • We are hosting Holly Warlick, head coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team and the Champions for a Cause Breast Cancer Awareness Event. A portion of all beer purchases during the event will be donated to Champions for a Cause Breast Cancer Awareness. • FREE SCOTTISH COUNTRY DANCE • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 4PM • Led by Cynthia West on the first Saturday of every month.

Visit jigandreel.com. • FREE

Wednesday, Oct. 5 MARKET SQUARE FARMERS’ MARKET • Market Square • 11AM • The MSFM, a project of Nourish Knoxville, is an open-air farmers’ market located on historic Market Square in the heart of downtown Knoxville. Visit marketsquarefarmersmarket.org. • FREE OAK RIDGE FARMERS MARKET • Historic Jackson Square • 3PM • FREE UT FARMERS MARKET • University of Tennessee • 4PM • For more information about the UT Farmers’ Market you can visit the market website: vegetables.tennessee.edu/ utfm.html or find it on Facebook. • FREE Friday, Oct. 7 LAKESHORE PARK FARMERS MARKET • Lakeshore Park • 3PM • FREE Saturday, Oct. 8 UT ARBORETUM FALL PLANT SALE • University of Tennessee Arboretum • 9AM • Fall is the ideal time to add plants to the landscape. To help satisfy that need, Beaver Creek Nursery, East Fork Nursery, Riverdale Nursery, Sunlight Gardens, as well as the UT Arboretum Society’s members and friends, will offer a variety of high quality plants at this sale. To learn more about the Arboretum Society, and the UT Arboretum Endowment Fund, go to utarboretumsociety.org. For more information on the Plant Sale, call 482-6656. • FREE SEYMOUR FARMERS MARKET • First Baptist Church Seymour • 8AM • FREE OAK RIDGE FARMERS MARKET • Historic Jackson Square • 8AM • FREE MARKET SQUARE FARMERS’ MARKET • Market Square • 9AM • The MSFM, a project of Nourish Knoxville, is an open-air farmers’ market located on historic Market Square in the heart of downtown Knoxville. Visit marketsquarefarmersmarket.org. • FREE GOOD SPORT NIGHT • Central Collective • 7PM • Here’s the deal. You purchase a ticket to a mystery event. Show up to The Central Collective at the specified date and time, and be ready for anything. Past events have included: a live studio game show, an egg drop competition, a garden party in a castle, and a walking tour of North Knoxville. These are events for folks who are curious, adventurous, and like trying new things & meeting new people. Unless otherwise noted, these events are not programmed for children. Visit thecentralcollective.com.

• $20

Send your events to calendar@knoxmercury.com

Tuesday, Oct. 4 EBENEZER ROAD FARMERS MARKET • Ebenezer United Methodist Church • 3PM • FREE September 29, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 37

’BYE

R estless Nat ive

The Hideaway Cheap meals and hard characters at Holbert’s

BY CHRIS WOHLWEND

H

olbert’s Cash Grocery was one of those neighborhood spots that were common before supermarkets and fast-food behemoths drove them out of business. You could get a bottle of milk or a loaf of bread or a can of beans without having to drive to the business district.

There was Nelson’s, which was only a block east of Fair Garden School, close enough to get a Grapette after the final bell, or, if you lived in Park City, Pinkston’s on Olive Street, easy walking distance from Park Junior High School. Many also served hot dogs, hamburgers, or, sometimes, fried bologna sandwiches.

A hot dog could be had for a dime, a bologna sandwich or hamburger for a quarter. A couple of chili dogs, a bag of chips and a cold drink—what else was needed for a meal that was long on taste if short on nutrition?

At Holbert’s, I would take whatever empty soft-drink bottles I could round up and turn them in for 2 cents each. If I had enough empties, I had the price of a cold Grapette.

But the bottles had to be damage-free. The man who ran Holbert’s

would sometimes refuse to accept a soft-drink bottle, pointing out a small chip that he said made it worthless.

Once when I was in his store, he caught a kid trying to cheat him out of a penny gumball. I don’t remember the details—it might have been a penny-sized slug. He told the perp that if he ever saw him in his store again, he would call the police.

His attitude was understandable given his clientele. His store sat on top of the ridge that defined Burlington’s southern boundary, at the corner of Fern Street and Skyline Drive.

The south side of the ridge was peppered with small, run-down houses, some of which had never gotten beyond tar-paper siding. I sometimes delivered the afternoon paper on that side of the ridge, helping out one of my neighbors who had the route. Scruffy dogs could make the job chancy. Collection days often meant payment in pennies—if there was payment at all.

It was the neighborhood of a couple of boys I first met at Holbert’s: Foxx and Crowder. I didn’t know them from Fair Garden; they apparently had

BY MATTHEW FOLTZ-GRAY

38

KNOXVILLE MERCURY September 29, 2016

www.thespiritofthestaircase.com

decided to forgo formal schooling.

I never knew where Crowder called home, but Foxx lived a few doors beyond Holbert’s. And he joined us when we decided to dig a hideout into the side of a hill in the woods between our house and Holbert’s. There we could escape younger siblings and the neighborhood’s nosy old ladies.

A meeting at the hideout featured a lot of big talk, and Foxx would sometimes demonstrate how to smoke cigarettes. I don’t remember any of us taking up his dare on the cigarettes, but I do remember that he confessed that his old man was in prison for selling marijuana.

Of course he had to explain what marijuana was. He went on to helpfully tell us how his dad would empty half of the tobacco out of a Lucky Strike and replace it with pot.

He was caught, Foxx said, with an entire carton of Luckies that he had meticulously loaded.

Once I started high school, the hideout was forgotten and I only saw Foxx occasionally. He and Crowder were boxing fans and I sometimes ran into them at Golden Gloves matches at the Jacobs Building in Chilhowee Park.

But the last time I heard anything about the pair was several years later, when I was living in Kentucky, working for The Louisville Times newspaper.

I had picked up a copy of The Knoxville Journal and discovered a

story that featured Foxx and Crowder and the East Knoxville area where we had lived.

There had been a middle-of-thenight gathering in a wooded section alongside the Holston River behind the country club golf course. I knew the spot—I had camped there when I was in the Boy Scouts.

There was a bonfire and a lot of alcohol. Crowder had either jumped or was thrown into the river. He didn’t surface—his body was found the next day.

I called a Burlington acquaintance for details. “There were quite a few of them partying,” he told me.

“And they’d been going since the middle of the afternoon. It was well after midnight when he went in.”

“I’ve heard,” he added, “that they think Foxx may have shoved him in, either just horsing around or on purpose.”

Given the alcohol, the time of the night, the reputations—and rap sheets—of those present, the authorities eventually ended their investigation and Crowder’s death was ruled an accident.

By then, the site of Holbert’s, which had closed decades earlier, was a trash-strewn lot. ◆ Chris Wohlwend’s Restless Native addresses the characters and absurdities of Knoxville, as well as the lessons learned pursuing the newspaper trade during the tumult that was the 1960s. He now teaches journalism part-time at the University of Tennessee.

’BYE

BY IAN BLACKBURN AND JACK NEELY

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GERALD - is a 7 year old Rottweiler who’s a muscular, fun, show off.

He wants to be everyone’s friend and LOVES any kind of dog treat. Visit Young-Williams Animal Center / call 865-2156599 for more information.

JESSE - is a super show off, playful kitten who’s looking for a new friend and family member. His favorite past time is snuggling, as he feels like a ball of cotton. Visit Young- Williams Animal Center / call 865-2156599 for more information.

LOLA - is a cheerful, tail wagging 1 year old Mastiff, Bulldog. She enjoys playing with other dogs in the shelter and does best with a roommate. She would do well in a home with other dogs. Visit Young- Williams Animal Center / call 865-2156599 for more information.

SIR LANCELOT - is a fuzzy, affectionate, gentle two month old who’s looking for a forever playmate.

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September 29, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 39

Happy Birthday Knoxville This weekend Knoxville celebrates its 225th anniversary, in lots of ways.

We observe Oct. 3, 1791, as Knoxville’s founding date, although it was probably not considered that at the time. William Blount, signer of the U.S. Constitution, had chosen to establish Knoxville, which he named for his immediate superior, President Washington’s Secretary of War, Henry Knox, as the capital for the new Southwestern Territory.

Frontier leader James White, who had settled here five years earlier, owned most of the land that became downtown Knoxville.

White’s Pennsylvania-born son in law Charles McClung surveyed the plateau of White’s river bluff, dividing it into 64 half-acre lots, along the street grid that still defines the southern half of modern-day downtown. The area between the river and Clinch Avenue, and between Central and Henley Streets, is the original city of Knoxville. Oct. 3, 1791, was the day White held a lottery to sell his land to the first Knoxvillians, who were a mixture of people who came from hundreds of miles away, from Boston to Charleston, along with several immigrants from Ireland and other nations.

Founders Day Weekend coincides with two of Knoxville’s most popular annual ethnic festivals, both of which reflect communities with deep histories in Knoxville.

The 37th annual Greek Fest is a public party of food, drink, and music. Greek immigrants began arriving in Knoxville around 1900, refugees from war and economic crises at home. The first known Greek immigrant was a young man known in Knoxville as “Bob Alexander.” His real name was probably Konstantinos Koustoulis. By 1900, he was selling sandwiches from a cart in what’s now the Old City. He later opened his own shop at 136 South Central.

The building believed to be James White's original cabin once stood along Clinch Avenue, at the current site of the State Street Garage.

Moved to South Knoxville in the early 20th century, about the time of this photograph, it served for decades as a private residence. In 1968, it was moved to become the anchor of an authentic reconstruction of James White Fort, at Hall of Fame Drive and Hill Avenue.

Photo courtesy of the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection cmdc.knoxlib.org

On Saturday, Oct. 1, at 10 a.m., the city will host a public birthday party with cake and music, at the Krutch Park Extension.

On Sunday, Oct. 2, at 4:00, First Presbyterian, Knoxville’s oldest church, will host a Graveyard Gathering in the old churchyard on State Street at Clinch Avenue. Dating to the 1790s, the graveyard is the resting place of several of Knoxville’s founders, including White, Blount, and Samuel Carrick, who founded both this church and the college that evolved into the University of Tennessee.

Featured will be bagpipe music and a religious ceremony.

Monday, Oct. 3, the birthday itself, is the occasion of the Founders Day Luncheon—held, appropriately, at the Foundry. It’s a historic building from about 1871 that was part of the old Knoxville Iron Company, one of the city’s biggest post-Civil War employers. The luncheon, sponsored by Historic Homes of Knoxville, features speakers Bill Landry, of The Heartland Series, and Jack Neely, of the Knoxville History Project. For tickets, see hhknoxville.org.

At noon the same day, the Tennessee Theatre is hosting a special Mighty Musical Monday, a free concert featuring organists Bill Snyder and Freddie Brabson, Holston Middle’s Kids in American Show Choir, and soprano Kathryn Frady Marvel singing the world’s best-known composition about Knoxville, Samuel Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915.”

Chartered in 1939, St. George Greek Orthodox Church was once located in an old church on North Broadway. The current church on Kingston Pike was built in 1968.

Greekfest, organized in 1980, is usually held at St. George Greek Orthodox Church at 4070 Kingston Pike. For more, see greekfesttn. wordpress.com.

The Hola Festival was first conceived in the 1990s. Small in its early years, it’s now one of downtown Knoxville’s major festivals. Hola is Spanish for “hello,” and in this case it’s also an abbreviation of the phrase Hora Latino, or Latin Time.

Spanish-speaking people were once rare in Knoxville. However, one of Knoxville’s first settlers was an immigrant from Minorca, Spain. George Farragut, whose birth name may have been either Jorge Antonio Martin Farragut y Mesquida or Jordi Farragut Mesquida, was a sailor who came to America to help fight the British. A veteran of combat with the British in Savannah and Charleston, he may be America’s best-known Spanish-speaking Revolutionary soldier.

He settled in Knoxville soon after his friend, Gov. William Blount, arrived.

Farragut originally lived in an elaborate cabin downtown, in what is now World’s Fair Park, but later moved west, to the area not yet known as Concord, where he operated a ferry across the river. His son, David Glasgow Farragut, was born there in 1801.

George Farragut’s 261st birthday is this Friday, just before the Hola Festival. This year, it’s on Market Square on Saturday and Sunday.

See holahoralatina.org.

Sources: 225.visitknoxville.com & Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection

The Knoxville History Project, a new nonprofit organization devoted to the promotion of and education about the history of Knoxville, presents this page each week to raise awareness of the themes, personalities, and stories of our unique city.

Learn more on www.facebook.com/knoxvillehistoryproject • email jack@knoxhistoryproject.org