Market Square’s bell finally has a story. You can read it right on the brand-new plaque. For a decade, the bell, which weighs more than a ton, has puzzled visitors. Here’s a big bronze bell, with the date of 1883 […]

For years, people have speculated about the long-term prospects for the old Andrew Johnson Hotel, and as of this week, it’s finally for sale. The building has been used for more than 20 years for Knox County School offices, but […]

Three 1890s Victorian houses are likely to fall due to the University of Tennessee’s plans to build a classroom and laboratory building on White Avenue in Fort Sanders. The houses are in relatively good shape, for 120-year-old wooden houses, and […]

Chances are you’ve heard of Jim White, but you thought he was a different Jim White from that other Jim White. Though never in the spotlight, he’s all over the place. He’s an artist and an essayist and has done […]

If you find yourself ambling on North Gay, as I do when I park free under the highway, you may be in for a start. The familiar building many of us grew up with known as Regas Restaurant suddenly sports, […]

Jacksonland is a book nobody much expected—perhaps not even, until a couple of years ago, its author, Steve Inskeep. NPR’s morning host is known for his up-to-the-minute reporting of breaking news, his sometimes merciless interviews of presidents and prime ministers, […]

The century-old Christenberry house at 3222 Kingston Pike, near Sequoyah Hills, the subject of several varieties of contention over the last couple of years, no longer exists. It was demolished early Tuesday afternoon, hours before City Council’s expected passage of […]

A month ago I proffered a challenge: to name one instance in which tearing down a building 75 years old or more resulted in something better than the building that was demolished for it. Since it’s Preservation Month, as celebrated by […]

Old newspapers, legal documents, letters, and directories of various sorts are full of mundane detail. More interesting stuff about life in Knoxville more than a century ago is often elusive. Like what people ate. Archaeologists can tell us that people […]