Events

Knoxville’s history in the present: Current occasions of historical interest

In person History Talks at Maple Hall: Every Second Tuesday of the month at 6:00 p.m.

History Happy Hours (Virtual Talks on Zoom): Every Third Thursday of the month at 6:00 p.m.

You can also view past History Happy Hours through our Engage Page.

 

HIstory Happy Hour at Maple Hall: Urban Renewal

  At Maple Hall Bowling Alley (Upstairs Bar)

Our monthly presentation at Maple Hall will feature guest speaker Camren Lewin, University of Tennessee graduate student, sharing what she has learned in her studies of Urban Renewal and its complicated era. (Much of the acreage she’ll be talking about is visible out the windows of the restaurant.)

Free program. Food and drinks available for purchase.

This predominantly Black community, east of downtown (shown here circa 1940), was most severely affected by the Urban Renewal era, 1959-1974. (David Harris Photograph Collection/KHP.)

PARTNER EVENT: Land of Everlasting Hills Book Talk & Signing

–   At East Tennessee Historical Society

Join us at the East Tennessee History Center on Sunday, November 16 at 2:00 p.m. for a book release event, hosted by the East Tennessee Historical Society, for Land of Everlasting Hills: George Masa, Jim Thompson, and the Photographs that Helped Save the Great Smoky Mountains and Blaze the Appalachian Trail by Ren and Helen Davis.

Learn more at: https://www.easttnhistory.org/programs-events/

Paul James’s biographical essay on Jim Thompson, that appeared in KHP’s Knoxville Lives II (2022),  provided background information for this new book.

Read Paul’s book review:

Land of the Everlasting Hills (University of Georgia Press, 2025) by Ren and Helen Davis is a new, large-format book featuring stunning photographs from the 1920s and ‘30s, many used to assist the creation of a national park in the Great Smoky Mountains. At the heart of the book is the parallel and interconnected stories of two photographers, both very different men, who shared a passion for outdoor natural photography and a genuine love for the captivating mountains that straddle the state line between North Carolina and Tennessee. This book certainly covers new ground.

Born in Japan, George Masa came to the United States where he settled in Seattle around 1906, and a decade later drifted east to Asheville, N.C., where he took a menial job at the illustrious Grove Park Inn. The book shows us how the ever-restless Masa seized any opportunity he could to realize his dream of becoming a successful professional photographer. Although a well-liked Asian man, he faced widespread discrimination that punctuated his working years, thwarting his career at various turns. But it was his discovery of the Smoky Mountains that would light up his heart and where he would forge a life-long friendship with author and early conservationist Horace Kephart. Yet some aspects of Masa’s life still remain unknown.

Over the mountains in Knoxville, Tenn., another photographer, just as talented but from a stable, notable family, Jim Thompson was already well established as a versatile commercial artist, known for his quality portraits of buildings, street scenes, and poignant events. He was also exploring the Great Smoky Mountains, at a time when they were a remote and forbidding place to most, and began to photograph wildflowers and the landscapes of those rolling hills.

The lives of these photographers would begin to intertwine in the mid-1920s as they continued to help national park efforts, employing their photographic expertise and an ever-growing knowledge and understanding of the mountains, forming a friendship on naming committees as well as the location of a new, rugged pathway that would become known as the iconic Appalachian Trail.

What’s also a boon for the reader is the recognition of sometimes lesser-known heroes, particularly Paul Fink, an early authority on the Smokies, who would forge an enduring link between Masa, Kephart and Thompson, all the while deftly moving the park movement ever forward.

Parts of Masa’s and Thompson’s stories may have been told before, but never really like this. The Davis’s new volume, part biography and part coffee table book, tells their stories with both economy and style then presents us with page after page of stunning photographs, each one reminding us, whether a seasoned hiker or a weekend traveler, how these mountains were decimated during the dollar-driven days of the lumber boom; onward during the fragile national park movement era that could have crumbled many times when faced by any number of political, legal, and financial roadblocks; and finally the tourism era when Masa and Thompson’s photographs became hand-colored penny postcards designed to attract visitors to a new outdoor destination—the Great Smoky Mountains National Park—the most visited national park in the country. Their stories are well told and beautifully illustrated.

Paul James, Knoxville History Project, Oct. 10, 2025

PARTNER EVENT: Bearden History Fair

–   At Central Baptist Church

Save the date for the new Bearden History Fair on Saturday, April 18 2026, organized by the Friends of Cavett Station.

KHP will have a booth all day and Jack Neely is scheduled to speak about our book, Historian Bearden: The 200-year History of Knoxville’s Fourth Creek Valley at 2:00 p.m. More details to follow or contact beardenhistoryfair@gmail.com

KNOXVILLE WALKING TOURS

Historian, poet, and storyteller Laura Still helps you live the stories of pioneers, soldiers, outlaws, and even fictional characters who walked these streets before you. Learn more about Laura and her story on our Knoxville Walking Tours Page.

Knoxville has a rich history full of colorful characters and famous, and infamous, figures whose lives have been the inspiration for books, movies, and works of art. Take a stroll through history in beautiful downtown Knoxville while listening to true tales of the heroes, heels, and hardened criminals that are part of the hidden lore of this unique East Tennessee town. A portion of ticket proceeds are donated to KHP.

Masks are now optional for most tours. The tours are all outdoors, your guide is vaccinated, and the current CDC guidelines say it’s safe to give our faces some fresh air. We’re still keeping the groups small and if you’d still prefer to play it extra-safe, we’re happy to mask up.

Bring a mask in case we run into crowded sidewalks or you need to go inside somewhere. Most buildings downtown will require them. Your guide carries extras. More details on COVID-19 and Knoxville walking Tours here.

 

We’ve reduced our minimum group size to 3 adult tickets / $60 so you don’t need a big group. For couples, that means paying $10 extra per ticket, but you get Laura’s undivided attention and you can ask her anything about Knoxville and its history. She never runs out of fascinating stories!

To book, just give Knoxville Walking Tours a call at (865) 309-4522

 

Tour Descriptions:

Side Street Shadows Ghost Tour

Hear more tales of ghostly history as you follow storyteller Laura Still on the Side Street Shadows tour. Find out who haunts the Farragut, how a gunfight on Cumberland nearly started a war, and where you might meet the courteous spirit of a scholar or the grumpy ghost of a violent rebel. Details & Tickets

Shadow Side Ghost Tour

Brave souls who enjoy a chill can join us for a trip into Knoxville’s shadow side. The city’s history of blood-stained streets echoing with gunfire is full of restless spirits. Visit their haunts and hear local legends of ghostly apparitions. Details & Tickets

Shadow Side 2: Ghosts of the Old City

Red Summer, drunken brawls, hot lead, and blood on the tracks. Knoxville’s Old City used to be known as the bowery, where victims of murderous brawls, dealdly shoot-outs, and horrific train crashes haunt the old buildings and back alleys along with the ghost of a musician who hasn’t quite faded away. Details & Ticket

Walk the streets of a city torn in two by divided loyalties and then get an overview of the fighting from the observation deck of the Sunsphere. Spies, bridge burners, miracle shots, betrayal, and battle. Details & Tickets

Gunslingers

Family feuds and wanted outlaws. You’ll relive the days when Knoxville was the wild west and Gay Street was the OK Corral. Details & Tickets

Early Years

Step back over two centuries and visit Knoxville’s founders as you listen to the stories of the settlement of White’s Fort and establishment of the capital of the Southwest Territory at the headwaters of the Tennessee. Details & Tickets

Musical History

The Knoxville story has always been set to music, from the time when the poetic rhythms of the native Cherokee tribes still echoed in the hills and the ballads of the Scots-Irish settlers were sung around campfires on the riverbanks. Immigrants from all over the world brought new instruments and tunes to enliven the song and make Knoxville home to musicians of every genre. Details & Tickets

Literary Heritage

Home of Cormac McCarthy, Nikki Giovanni, James Agee, and more. You’ll visit the scenes that inspired them and walk in the footsteps of their characters. Details & Tickets

The Civil War in Knoxville

It’s been over 150 years since the battle of Knoxville, one of the most sharply divided cities during the civil war. Occupied by both sides with recruiting offices set up on Gay Street on the same day, Knoxville was home to spies, street fights, and family feuds that outlasted the war. Visit the downtown sites and then get an overview of the battles and fortifications from the observation deck of the Sunsphere. Details & Tickets

Knoxville Botanical Gardens

Ten years before Tennessee became a state, David Wessels Howell planted an orchard and garden on land where the Cherokee still roamed. This was the beginning of a family business that would span two centuries, from the frontier days through the Civil War and the industrial age to modern times. Now the Howell family’s legacy has been preserved as a public garden spanning 47 acres, with walking trails and hand-laid stone walls that cross through sunny meadows and leafy glades among an astonishing variety of trees and plants. Come walk with us and hear its stories and secrets. Details & Tickets

Old Gray Cemetery

Just north of downtown Knoxville, Old Gray Cemetery is a little-known historic jewel. Founded in 1850 as part of the rural park cemetery movement, it became a popular destination for carriage rides and picnics in its early days. Join us for a guided tour of notable interments and hear stories of statesmen, soldiers, scholars, and spirits. Details & Tickets