While
Dawn Marie was visiting us in September, we decided to explore downtown
Knoxville, focusing especially on Market Square, and the longtime social nexus
of the city. Of course, a nice lunch was
part of the plan…but that will be the subject of a subsequent posting…
These
photos were taken from one end of Market Square… The square is lined with
restaurants, music venues and shops.
There is also a water play park for children. The fact that parking is free after 6 p.m. at
the 3 nearby city-owned Market Square, State Street and Locust Street garages
is a real plus.
Market
Square gets its name from the Market House that once stood in the center of the
square. Farmers from Knoxville’s
surrounding areas would bring their wagons into the Market House to sell their
wares. The southern end of the square
holds the bell from the old Market House and also features a statue
commemorating Tennessee's role in the fight for women's suffrage.
It’s
significant to note that TripAdvisor.com ranks Market Square as the second best
attraction in Knoxville! 1,720 reviews
rank the square as Excellent or Very Good vs. 18 rating it as Poor or
Terrible. Only the Tennessee Theatre is
ranked higher than Market Square!
The
northern end of Market Square is anchored by these 2 restaurants…but these 2
are only a sample of the variety on the square itself or within a radius of 3
or 4 blocks. Although we haven’t eaten
at either location, for your convenience websites for these 2 dining options
can be found at http://www.markethousecafe.com/sample-page/ and at
http://www.bluecoastgrill.com/. However, the restaurant that we chose for lunch is
located at the south end of the square.
The
entire Market Square area serves as an important venue for various activities,
special events and live entertainment.
Featured events include the Concerts on the Square series, Shakespeare
on the Square and, in the appropriate seasons, a huge Farmer’s Market and Ice
Skating on the Square.
The Market
Square Farmer’s Market is a project of Nourish Knoxville. The open-air farmers’ market is a “producer
only market”, with all products being made, grown or raised by our vendors all
within a 150 mile radius of the market. Products
vary by the season and include ornamental plants, vegetable and herb starts,
produce, dairy, eggs, honey, meats, baked goods, jams/jellies, coffee, and artisan
crafts.
This
covered concrete and brick platform at the south end of the square is actually
the stage that’s used for plays, music offerings and other presentations.
This
past weekend, Market Square was transformed into a free outdoor movie
theater. In addition, during the day on
Saturday the Farmer’s Market was offering fall season produce and many other
items. At the same time, the square was the
center of HOLA, a celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month…
Laurie
and I took turns taking photos of each other with Dawn Marie at the foot of the
Tennessee Women’s Suffrage Memorial.
Note the fierce look projected by the ladies!
This life-size,
bronze statue featuring three Tennessee suffragists was completed in 2006. It features Lizzie Crozier French of
Knoxville, Anne Dallas Dudley of Nashville, and Elizabeth Avery Meriwether of
Memphis.
Focusing
on the Knoxville member of the trio, Margaret Elizabeth "Lizzie"
Crozier French (1851 – 1926) was an American educator, women's suffragist and
social reform activist. Among other
accomplishments, she was one of the primary leaders in the push for women's
rights in Tennessee in the early 1900s, and helped the state become the 36th
state to certify the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which
gave women the right to vote, in 1920.
Tennessee’s ratification put the amendment over the top to become the
law of the land!
To
learn more about these Tennessee women's suffrage pioneers, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lizzie_Crozier_French, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Dallas_Dudley, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Avery_Meriwether.
Located
at the south end of Market Square, Krutch Park brings a little bit of nature to
the downtown Knoxville’s landscape! Winding walking trails take visitors past a
small cascading waterfall, a gentle stream, gardens, art sculptures and benches
where you can just relax.
Art in
Public Places is an annual exhibition featuring large-scale sculptures that are
displayed in Knoxville’s downtown public spaces as well as at McGhee Tyson
Airport and in Oak Ridge Tennessee. Every
year new sculptures are chosen for display…
Laurie
took this photo of a happy Dawn Marie in Krutch Park…
As we
wandered along beyond Market Square itself, we stopped into this little coffee
and chocolate shop. Unfortunately we
were too full to partake of any of this luscious looking chocolate…but Dawn
Marie did pick up a cup of coffee. We
will have to re-visit this little nook of comfort!
Cleverly,
this coffee and chocolate shop has been named “Coffee and Chocolate”! Website: http://www.coffeeandchocolate.com/.
The
first building that I noticed as we came out to Gay Street was the Riviera
Theater. It looks like it might be old…but
then again it looks a bit too ‘clean’ to be old.
As it
turns out, the original Riviera Theatre was opened here in 1920. It was operated
by Paramount Pictures Inc., but it was closed in 1976 and then demolished in
1988. This ‘new’ Regal Riviera Stadium 8
was built on the original site, opening in August 2007. The fact that a downtown 8-screen movie theater
exists is proof that people are moving downtown and that the center of
Knoxville is alive!
Just
down Gay Street from the Riviera Theater is the Number #1 TripAdvisor.com attraction
in Knoxville…the Tennessee Theatre.
Listed
on the National Register of Historic Places and honored as the Official State
Theatre of Tennessee, "Knoxville's Grand Entertainment Palace"
reopened in 2005 after a $25.5 million restoration process. With its magnificent architecture and stunning
décor, the Tennessee Theatre offers visitors the rare opportunity to step back
in time. The original opening day for
the Theatre was on October 1, 1928. I’m
embarrassed to admit that after living in the area for more than 7 years,
we still haven’t made our pilgrimage to the Tennessee Theater.
With acts as varied as Bonnie Raitt, ZZ Top, Bob Dylan and the Moscow Ballet, the Tennessee Theatre is on our ‘bucket list!
This is
a partial street view north up Gay Street.
The Theaters are both south on Gay Street from where we walked over from
the south end of Market Square. With its
restaurants and shops, Gay Street is an integral part of what’s happening in
downtown Knoxville.
Since
its development in the 1790s, Gay Street has served as the Knoxville’s principal
financial and commercial thoroughfare, and has played a primary role in the
city's historical and cultural development.
The street contains Knoxville's largest office buildings and oldest
commercial structures. Several buildings on the street are listed on the
National Register of Historic Places. To
learn more about the interesting history of Gay Street, you can go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_Street_(Knoxville).
The Skybox
Bar and Grill on Gay Street is pure Knoxville!
This is a hangout for ‘Vols’ fans… If you live anywhere in East
Tennessee, you are a University of Tennessee Volunteer’s sports fan. Especially during football and basketball
season, Vols fans are everywhere and our local newscasts are full of team news
and projections. A losing season or even
the loss of a big game casts a pall over the city…especially if the teams are
beaten by a Southeastern Conference rival!
Skybox
Bar and Grill’s website is at http://www.skyboxknox.com/.
How
many cities have a wall painting honoring a famous moonshiner?!! In Artist Alley just east of Market Square
before Gay Street, there is an alleyway full of different wall paintings or
murals. Popcorn Sutton’s tribute was
close to the entrance to the alley. To
see other wall art in the alley, go to http://insideofknoxville.com/tag/artist-alley-revamp-project/.
Marvin
"Popcorn" Sutton, (1946 – 2009) was an American Appalachian
moonshiner who was born in Maggie Valley, North Carolina and was raised, lived
and died in the rural areas around Maggie Valley and nearby Cocke County,
Tennessee. He wrote a self-published
autobiographical guide to moonshining production, self-produced a home video
depicting his moonshining activities, and was later the subject of several
documentaries, including one that received a Regional Emmy Award.
Sutton committed
suicide in 2009 rather than report to federal prison after being convicted of
offenses related to moonshining and illegal firearm possession. Since his death, a new company and an associated
whiskey brand have been named after him. To learn more, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popcorn_Sutton.
From
Market Square and Gay Street, we drove over to and through Knoxville’s Old City
area. Like downtown, it is burgeoning
with activity with shops, restaurants, galleries and the like popping up
everywhere. The ‘Old City’ is located at
the northeast corner of the city's downtown area.
Originally
this neighborhood was part of a raucous and vice-ridden section of town known
as "The Bowery." The Old City
is not the oldest section of Knoxville...but was given that name in recent
history. Most of the neighborhood was
not part of Knoxville until the 1850s, when the arrival of the railroad
encouraged the city to annex the area.
This is
the former Patrick Sullivan’s Saloon in the Old City area. Patrick Sullivan, who lived in this building
with his family, converted it to a saloon in 1888 after the family moved out. At the time, Sullivan’s Saloon was an anchor
of a saloon district called the Bowery, which included as many as 20 saloons
along a half-mile stretch of Central.
The area catered mostly to travelers and working-class men.
The
saloon operated from 1888 until 1907, when the city banned saloons. After that,
the building hosted other businesses, including a boarding house, a bordello,
an upholstery business, and most notably Armetta’s Ice Cream, which flourished
here in the 1920s and ‘30s. The building
was once again reborn as Sullivan’s Saloon on St. Patrick’s Day 1988. That operation has since closed down.
This
classic old building has been refurbished and it’s now The Lonesome Dove
Western Bistro, an upscale restaurant serving gourmet cuisine to include a
variety of wild game, steaks, seafood, etc.
Website: http://lonesomedoveknoxville.com/.
One more photo of a couple of buildings in the old town area… It’s hard to
visualize now but by the early 1900s, Central Street was lined with saloons and
brothels. Violent crime and prostitution
continued to be a problem into the 1960s and that caused many of the
neighborhood's businesses to flee the area.
Today many buildings are being refurbished and converted into
businesses, apartments and lofts…
In
1985, most of the Old City neighborhood's historic buildings were listed on the
National Register of Historic Places as part of the Southern Terminal and
Warehouse Historic District. Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Terminal,_Knoxville,_Tennessee.
Here is
one last photo of an iconic Knoxville landmark…the Sunsphere. Laurie
took this picture as we headed out of downtown via a short detour through World’s
Fair Park. The Sunsphere was constructed
for Knoxville’s 1982 World's Fair and during that time, it served as the symbol
for the Fair. The Sunsphere was also home to a full service restaurant and an Observation
Deck, the latter still being open to the public today.
FYI…
The 1982 World's Fair was formally
known as the Knoxville International Energy Exposition; with the theme of the
fair being "Energy Turns the World."
The Fair opened on May 1, 1982 and closed on October 31, 1982…after receiving
over 11 million visitors! To learn more
about the Fair, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_World%27s_Fair.
Just
click on any of the photos to enlarge them…
If
you’ve actually read all the way through this long posting,
congratulations! Thanks for stopping by
and learning a bit about Knoxville!
Take
Care, Big Daddy Dave
What an interesting city to visit, I've only driven through it but wish we had stopped and looked around. If all those good reviews are an indication, Market Square sounds like a fun attraction with lots of good things. The moonshiner wall is unique for sure and the saloon/restaurant building has great old architecture. Thanks for the tour, Dave and have a good rest of the week!
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had a good day exploring Ktown.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great city, Dave! I love all your photos and really enjoyed this tour! Thank you so much for sharing and I hope you are having a great week. :)
ReplyDeleteKnoxville looks like a very nice place to visit. We've never been and now I regret that we never visited. Love the pictures of all of you. Happiness radiates from your faces.
ReplyDeleteSam