…back to our look around the “Old City” neighborhood of Knoxville Tennessee. A total of 33 acres of the area has been listed as the Southern Terminal and Warehouse Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.
This area really expanded when, in 1869, the 2 rail lines serving Knoxville merged to create the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad. Over the next few years, the railroad built or bought over 2,500 miles of track in the southeast United States. That led to a wholesaling and industrial boom in Knoxville, with many of the factories and warehouses building facilities in what is now the “Old City” area.
The photo
above shows Knoxville’s old Southern Railway Depot, and it’s part of the
Historic District. It was built in 1903.
Passenger train service ended here in
1970. Located at 300 – 306 West Depot
Avenue, it’s now a special event venue and it’s also the home of the Blue Slip
Winery.
What is
now the Old City, was not only the home of many factories and warehouses, it
was also the most diverse area of Knoxville.
In 1919 a lynch mob stormed the county jail in search of Maurice Mays, a
biracial man who was accused of murdering a white woman. Unable to find Mays, (the Knox County Sheriff
had anticipated problems and has transferred Mays to Chattanooga), they looted
the jail, stealing confiscated liquor and many firearms. What followed was a pitched battle with the
residents of a predominantly black neighborhood. The Tennessee National Guard, using machine
guns, eventually dispersed the rioters from both sides of the conflict. No one knows just how many people were killed
in this riot…with estimates ranging from 2 or 4 to as many as ‘hundreds’. To learn more about this tragic historical event,
you can go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knoxville_riot_of_1919.
This is Boyd’s Jig and Reel, which bills itself as an authentic Scottish music and Whisky pub. It is located in the heart of Knoxville’s Old City neighborhood. Given the Scottish connections in Laurie and Bonnie’s family…complete with relatives in Scotland…and my Scottish connection through my stepfather’s family, we had to stop by and check out the pub.
As I mentioned
in my last post, this area of Knoxville was just a bit ‘rough’ in its early
days. By the early 1900s, Central
Street, where Boyd’s Jig and Reel is located, was known as the ‘Bowery’…in ‘honor’
of a similar rough and tumble area in New York City. In 1900 this area was described as being
occupied “by 90%” of Knoxville’s criminal element. Saloons, whorehouses, cocaine parlors,
gambling dens and poolrooms lined the street.
An adjacent street that no longer exists but which ran parallel to
Central Street, became a ‘red-light district’ known as “Friendly Town”. Fights and shootouts were not unusual. One shootout involved outlaw Kid Curry, a member
of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch. He shot 2
Knoxville police officers.
In 2011, Jenny Boyd opened Boyd’s Jig and Reel. She is the wife of Randy Boyd, an industrialist, former candidate for Governor of Tennessee and the owner of the Tennessee Smokies Baseball Team. Jenny Boyd’s goal in opening this pub was to preserve and promote Appalachia and Scotland’s shared musical heritage. Jenny can frequently be found playing the fiddle, mandolin or banjo at Jig and Reel’s weekly Old Time jam sessions.
FYI, Boyd’s
Jig and Reel has a huge selection of Scotch whisky available for its customers…more
than 800 varieties. It was mid-afternoon
on a weekday when we stopped by and there were very few customers.
Boyd’s Jig and Reel definitely has that ‘pub’ feel…reminiscent of some of the larger pubs our little group visited when we toured Scotland and Ireland a few years back. The décor is all about Jenny Boyd…as she selected and covered the walls with items appropriate to Scotland’s pubs.
In addition
to other musical and social events at Boyd’s Jig and Reel, there are a number
of what is called “Regular Sessions”.
These include “Old Time Jam” (Appalachian music), Irish Sessions,
Scottish Sessions, Bluegrass Jam, and a Celtic Jam for Beginners plus of
course, Scottish Country Dance.
It hadn’t been that long since we’d had those tamales at Good Golly Tamale but who can drink beer without an appropriate accompaniment?! First we ordered a starter of warm Highland Gaelic Ale Beer Cheese and lightly Salted Pretzels. ($10.00) The pretzels were OK but the beer cheese lacked the expected ‘authority’.
Bill and I each ordered a ‘Scotch Egg’. ($9.00) The egg is wrapped in a sausage and breadcrumb mixture and it’s served with spicy Colman’s English mustard. You could order the eggs hot or cold…and we opted for the latter. Our choice may have been a mistake as neither one of us liked our Scotch egg. Too much breading with little sausage flavor to cut the taste of the cold egg… The best Scotch Egg I've ever had was at the Tilted Kilt in Clarksville Tennessee. See https://tiltedkilt.com/.
Of
course, we can’t judge the food at Boyd’s Jig and Reel by a couple of mid-day
snacks. The full dinner menu is quite
extensive with a number of Scottish pub appropriate offerings. These include: Seafood Chowder; Smoked Salmon;
Steak and Ale Pie; Haggis, Neep and Tatties; Bangers and Mash, and; Shepherd’s
Pie.
Boyd’s
Jig and Reel is located in Knoxville’s Old City neighborhood at 101 South
Central Avenue. Website: https://jigandreel.com/.
…and now
I once again digress…
What the heck!!! As Laurie and I headed out shopping a couple of days ago, we had to stop and take this picture. This arrangement for that truck mounted crane lifting joists for a new home just doesn’t look right…or safe either. How in the heck did the workers raise up the front of the truck and stack those wooden blocks underneath? When they’re done they have to reverse the procedure. What would the worker’s comp insurance carrier or OSHA think if they spotted this? Oh well, we didn’t hear any sirens so the operation must have been completed without any serious injuries…
Just
click on any of the photos to enlarge them…
Thanks
for stopping by for a visit!
Take
Care, Big Daddy Dave
Ah, the face of Knoxville sounds like a wonderful and new place to me, after living there in the 90s. Will have to check it out sometime!
ReplyDeleteThe pub sounds really interesting...I like Scotch eggs, but they have to be homemade :-) How could those wooden blocks support that truck? Not to mention that they ain't even properly stacked...
ReplyDeleteJig and Reel looks like a place I'd like to visit and I'm sure the Boyd family and there friends will get richer when the stadium is built. The truck looks dangerous for sure - I wonder if they could lift the truck front with the crane.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your posts and photos on Knoxville. If you go back there, please be careful. While doing research for my current post on gun violence in TN I found out that the per capita homicide rate there is above the state level (Knoxville is 18.7 per 100,000 people compared to Tennessee’s average of 9.9 and a national rate of 6.5.) In addition property crime is sky high in Knoxville, higher even than Memphis, the 2023 index for Knoxville is 81.5 compared to the US average of 35.4, even New York City is lower with an index of 24.9. Of course the whole state of Tennessee in 2022 was the 3rd in the country in violent crimes per 100,000 according to the FBI (673 per 100,000 people compared to 399 nationwide.) I was going to write these statistics in my current post and my daughter who lives in Brentwood, TN asked me not to do that. She has a problem getting au pairs as they are afraid to come and stay here – not that I think they might read my blog. Now with Smith and Wesson building that huge plant in Maryville and the open carry gun law (and Gov. Lee is trying to lower it to 18 instead of 21 years old and include long guns) I bet Knoxville’s problems will keep increasing. Too bad, as it looks it could have been a nice place to visit if it were safe.
ReplyDeleteThen also, you are also lucky to have family visiting you in Tennessee. I invited some cousins to come to Nashville and they politely refused, said they were too afraid of so many guns here, and asked me to go and visit them instead. Also friends from Maine refused, as the crime rate there is 1.1 !!
Vagabonde, You are right about the statistics re: crime in Knoxville...but the areas with the most crime tend to be in the disadvantaged parts of the city...and the ready availability of guns in Tennessee and elsewhere certainly contribute to the problem. But, in the 14 years we've lived here, we've never had any problems in the Market Square or Old Town area or anywhere along the western part of the city. In our village of 8,000 plus just south (25 minutes) from Knoxville, I can recall one actual break in style burglary and a few thefts of items left exposed in unlocked vehicles or on porches. We have never had any family or friends decline to visit us or even to visit Tennessee for that matter, due to crime rates. Some friends have actually moved here without hesitation. FYI, We don't agree with Tennessee's lack of restrictions or actions regarding guns, licensing or training. Take Care, Big Daddy Dave
ReplyDelete