Knox County Courthouse

As Knox County reopens for business, we thought we'd show this cheerful springtime postcard of the old 1885 courthouse, shown as it was in the 1930s. In nice weather, the courthouse windows would be open, and interesting trials would sometimes draw a crowd to listen on the lawn. In this centennial year of Women's Suffrage, we may remember this as the site of a dramatic talk by San Francisco-born suffragist Maud Younger, who in November, 1917, spoke to an enthusiastic crowd of 500, defying a sheriff's order to keep her out of the courthouse itself--after she'd also been banned from the Market House. She gave her full speech from the courthouse steps. This setting has changed little since this photograph was taken, except that the trees are bigger. Shared by Adrienne Webster from the Lib Cooper Knoxville Postcard Digital Collection.