Stories

Researched narratives from Knoxville’s past
Venerability
May 12, 2022
So what’s Knoxville’s oldest restaurant Now? Some years ago, soon after the final closing of the venerable Regas Restaurant, I wrote a column in Metro Pulse pondering...
Knoxville’s World’s Fairs Before 1982
March 1, 2022
Part of the lore of the 1982 World’s Fair, then and now, was that little ol’ Knoxville had the gumption, or arrogance, or naivete, to put on a world’s fair. The Wall...
The Elopement of Hugh and Laura Ann
February 14, 2022
There are some names you see in Knoxville that you don’t see as much in other cities. The name Cansler is one. In Mechanicsville, there’s a Cansler Street, and on University...
Seeing Our Shadow
February 2, 2022
The Evolution of Our Oddest Holiday   I had a much more serious subject in mind for this month’s column, but couldn’t find the data I needed in time to complete it. To make...
The Great Bee Hive
December 21, 2021
Some people and things you might have seen one century ago, at Christmastime   It had been a dramatic year, one that had seen perhaps the only racially prompted lynch-mob...
Matilda X
November 10, 2021
The doctors and patient who pioneered a new surgery on Gay Street If you browse around 19th-century graveyards as much as we do, and do some quick math, you’ll find an alarming...
Ayres Hall at 100
September 16, 2021
And the Electrical Wizard of St. Charles Avenue Ayres Hall is a century old this year, and maybe, finally, it’s as old as people always thought it was. Actually, some newcomers,...
More Deadly in Purpose
August 2, 2021
  A sexual assault, a downtown lynch mob, and a sheriff’s forceful response One century ago this month, an angry crowd gathered on Gay Street at Hill Avenue. Their...
The Printer’s Devil
July 27, 2021
This is a story of a kid who was scared of a graveyard. It’s also the story of the founder of a major American institution, a cultural leader who changed a whole profession,...


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