VOL. 8 NO. 8
www.ShopperNewsNow.com |
IN THIS ISSUE
February 24, 2014
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The gov slept here …
WHERE the
JOBS ARE
UT site reveals rich history
Unity gets new owner
In our quest to discover “where the jobs are,” we found a homegrown business that has provided jobs along with compassionate community service for 35 Dr. L.C. Powell years. We also found an indomitable woman with an inspiring story. Come along.
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Read Sandra Clark on page A-10
Dem women prepare to party The oldest Democratic women’s club in America is throwing itself a party. The Knox County Democratic Women’s Club, established March 28, 1928, will celebrate its 85th anniversary year 6:30 Saturday, March 8, at the Southern Depot, in conjunction with Women’s History Month. The public is invited and descendants of charter members will be there. There will be music, heavy hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar. It’s not a costume party, but period attire will be welcome.
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Read Betty Bean on page A-4
The John D. Tickle Engineering Building at the University of Tennessee, dedicated in October, is located within yards of the site of William Blount’s cabin. Photo by Wendy Smith
By Wendy Smith The University of Tennessee’s $23.1 million, five-story, 110,000-square-foot John D. Tickle Engineering Building offers state-of-the-art laboratories, classrooms and office space for the departments of civil, environmental, industrial and systems engineering. The modern structure, built with an eye to the future, is in sharp contrast with its predecessors. When construction on the site across Neyland Drive from the UT Boathouse began in 2009, each layer of dirt pulled back revealed the site’s history, says Duane Grieve. His firm, Grieve Associates Architects, designed the building. He is also Knoxville’s 2nd district City Council representative.
No doubt you are delighted, perhaps even bubbling over, with the coming of spring sports at the University of Tennessee. What, you hadn’t even thought of Volunteer track, baseball, tennis or golf? These are the fun and games funded by football and donations. Please mark your calendar. Enjoy.
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Read Marvin West on page A-5
Residents ask fate of West Hills tree The possible fate of the West Hills Park Christmas tree provoked passionate debate at last week’s meeting of the West Hills Community Association. The cedar tree is within feet of Winston Road and is encroaching on power lines.
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Read Wendy Smith on page A-3
10512 Lexington Dr., Ste. 500 37932 (865) 218-WEST (9378) NEWS news@ShopperNewsNow.com Sherri Gardner Howell Wendy Smith | Anne Hart ADVERTISING SALES ads@ShopperNewsNow.com Shannon Carey Jim Brannon | Tony Cranmore Brandi Davis | Patty Fecco
William Blount’s cabin is visible in this 1886 bird’s-eye drawing of the city of Knoxville. The Blount cabin is northwest of the steamboat to the left of the bridge at the bottom. Photo submitted tary of War Henry Knox. Terry Faulkner says that Blount lived in a cabin located within yards of the Tickle Building while his permanent home, Blount Mansion, was under construction. His wife, Mary, didn’t want to move to the area until the fine house was completed, but the governor made do with what was likely a singlepen, or one-room, log cabin. During the 50th anniversary of the founding of Knoxville in 1842, East Tennessee College President Thomas William Humes noted that Cherokee leaders John Watts
and Double Head camped near Blount’s cabin on a “knoll between the hill on which East Tennessee University now is and the river” during the signing of the Treaty of the Holston in 1791. Blount likely purchased the cabin, which would have been one of the oldest homes in the area, Terry says. He was a charter trustee of Blount College, now UT, in 1794. He survived a conspiracy charge to be elected to the senate in 1798. He died two years later, To page A-3
Clowning around on Sutherland Ave. By Wendy Smith
Spring sports
Footings for the 1982 World’s Fair Ferris wheel were discovered, as well as an old railroad bed and the former location of Second Creek. The findings were discussed with local historians Terry and Charlie Faulkner, who discovered another former tenant –William Blount, Governor of the Territory South of the River Ohio. “We didn’t realize all that had occurred at the site,” Grieve says. Blount, who was raised in North Carolina, served in the Continental Congress and was a reluctant signor of the Constitution. After being named territorial governor by George Washington, he moved to Rocky Mount in Piney Flats, Tenn., before choosing James White’s Fort as the permanent capital of the territory. He named the new city Knoxville after Secre-
In the 1930s and 1940s, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus set up the bigtop on Sutherland Avenue at the current site of the National Guard Armory, according to David Williams of the Pond Gap Neighborhood Association. The circus arrived at the Southern Depot, and animals, equipment and performers made their way to the site via Sutherland Avenue, he says. A banner commemorating those days was hung last week, the day before the modern-day Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performed seven shows at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum. Circus clown Andrew Hicks, 23, made an appearance in honor of the new banner, which was paid for by an anonymous Pond Gap
Neighborhood Association member and installed by Knox County Commissioner Jeff Ownby. Hicks hails from Raleigh, N.C. It was his childhood dream to join the circus, so he signed up upon graduation from high school. He was pleased to visit the former bigtop site because he loves circus history. The first combined performance of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus was in 1919. The result, according to the company website, was a show that required 100 double-length railroad cars and 1,200 employees. “The bigtop was so big you just about couldn’t see from one end to the other,” says Hicks. Now, there are three touring To page A-3
Opting out: Parent says K-2 testing harms daughter By Betty Bean Jennifer
Nagel’s 7-year-old daughter spent her snow days reading a book. That might not sound like a big deal, but to Nagel, it’s almost miraculous because reading has been an ordeal for her Jennifer Nagel daughter, who has an undiagnosed learning disability. Nagel says her daughter’s teacher has been very helpful, but the school system has
not. So she started looking for solutions on her own. Almost by accident, she found a critically acclaimed series of books co-written by actor Henry Winkler and the Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity for and about dyslexic kids – who knew the Fonz has a master’s degree from Yale, and dyslexia? As of last week, Nagel’s daughter is halfway through a book about a resourceful dyslexic boy named Hank Zipzer, printed with To page A-3
ALL-INCLUSIVE
Andrew Hicks of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus poses with a banner that commemorates a former bigtop site on Sutherland Avenue. Photo by Wendy Smith
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