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On Snow Days and Rock ‘n’ Roll Reminiscences
January 27, 2016 In Other No Comment

Last week, I was stuck in World’s Fair Park with no legally advisable way to get out. Downtown construction and infrastructure repair is wreaking havoc on my parallel-parking habit. Until lately, there has always been a cheap metered spot open […]

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The Frank H. McClung Museum’s History of Surprises
January 25, 2016 In Knoxville History University of Tennessee No Comment

The University of Tennessee’s scholarly Frank H. McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture is an amenity like none other in the region. Long known for its permanent exhibits about geology, paleontology, evolution, ancient Egypt, and Native American culture, the McClung […]

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A Personal History of Knoxville’s Civic Coliseum
January 20, 2016 In Buildings 1 Comment

The Knoxville Civic Auditorium and Coliseum dilemma illustrates a challenge to preservation practice and theory. The value of historic preservation is easier to prove with smaller buildings. In any building of less than 50,000 square feet, a building with so […]

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Knoxville, 1960
January 16, 2016 In Knoxville History No Comment

Dr. King inspired his supporters here in 1960, but Knoxville’s civil rights effort began many years earlier. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke in Knoxville on Memorial Day, 1960, as the commencement speaker at Knoxville College. At the time, he was […]

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The Cal Johnson Building: New Hope for a Neglected Landmark
January 13, 2016 In Buildings Downtown Knoxville No Comment

Last month, the Rogero administration made an executive decision about one of the very few decrepit buildings left downtown. The three-story brick building on State Street known as the Cal Johnson Building now has a city-imposed H-1 overlay, a historic-preservation […]

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Save Our Cultural History: Buy an Advertisement
January 6, 2016 In Other No Comment

Last month I attended a holiday event in Holly’s 135 upstairs. As I was offering a short presentation to a dinner crowd, I was asked about a large mural on the wall behind me. Partly obscured, it appears to say, […]

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Knoxville City Council’s Bicentennial
January 6, 2016 In Knoxville History 2 Comments

The Board of Aldermen, forerunner of Knoxville City Council, began meeting 200 years ago. Although Knoxville was considered a city as early as 1791, when it was the capital of the United States government’s Southwest Territory, and home of a […]

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The Advent of Electric Illumination in Knoxville
December 23, 2015 In Downtown Knoxville No Comment

Knoxville’s first electric lights were turned on 130 years ago this week. Later, a former Knoxvillian used electric lights to change the way America celebrated New Year’s Eve. For its first 60 years or so, Knoxville depended mainly on candlelight and […]

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Andie Ray, 1967-2015
December 21, 2015 In People No Comment

This darkest season is darker with an unimagined loss. Twenty-odd years ago, Andie Ray was a familiar face at the checkout desk at Lawson McGhee Library. Even if you never saw her after that, you’d remember her. Her distinctive features […]

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