The new McDonalds, shortly after it opened on Chapman Highway, in 1961. In the background is the old Cas Walker store. (Courtesy of Alan Webb.)
Tuesday, Jan. 13, Knoxville’s 210th anniversary of elective municipal government and we’ll be talking again about South Knoxville. Or as wits of another era called it, “South America.” The subject of our biggest book project of 2026, we began groundwork on it years ago, and have already learned a lot about that huge, hilly, green, sometimes bewildering and often unruly region across the river, from industry to aviation to architecture to tourism to music, but there’s still a lot more know before we can call it done. We’ll share a few highlights of what we’ve learned, and if you know something we don’t, we hope you’ll share that. We are particularly looking for information or stories about music venues and nightclubs, distinctive restaurants, and hotels and motels during the tourism era (1930 onwards) on Alcoa Highway and Chapman Highway. We would also like to know more about the Vestal Lumber Company in particular, marble quarries beyond the obvious ones like Mead’s, and airfields and airstrips, too. As always, we’re especially interested in finding distinctively South Knoxvillian photographs. We look forward to hearing your comments.
