Since the Knoxville History Project began in 2014, people from across the city have asked us, “would you be interested in seeing this old photograph?” The question and resulting conversation almost always reveals something new, and in just over three years we have accumulated hundreds of digital images that we use in educational programs and publications and make available to historical researchers.
Most families have a “collector” – someone who likes to save things – in a shoebox box under the bed or perhaps in a closet, filled with old photographs, newspaper clippings, and assorted memorabilia and ephemera drawn from their lives and sometimes representing multiple generations. Old family photos might show interesting scenes or buildings downtown or in the suburbs. Old maps and brochures can reveal fascinating details about streets, businesses, and cultural events. Posters, flyers, photos from shows have fascinating stories to tell about Knoxville’s musical history.
We are thrilled to launch a new series with West Knoxville Lifestyle to not only share gems from the collection, but also to encourage readers to dig out their own shoeboxes and share new historical treasures with us and fellow readers.
We are interested in all eras from Knoxville’s past, including more recent times. Surprisingly, it’s often hardest to find photos of places and events in living memory—after about 1950—than it is to find them from eras longer ago.
And we’re not asking you to part with your treasures. We can copy or scan your originals—we can help with that in our downtown office—and provide you with digital files in return. Here are three gems to kick off the series. We look forward to hearing from you.
1. The familiar Westmoreland waterwheel at Westland and Sherwood Drive isn’t just a suburban developer’s quaint touch. When it was built, this was out in the country, beyond the reach of city-supplied water and electrical lines. Prominent attorney Daniel Clary Webb had it built in 1923 to pump water for his family—the youngest member of which was Robert Webb, later founder of Webb School. Anticipating the residential popularity of this acreage along Fourth Creek, Webb enlisted idealistic young architect Charles Barber to design it, ensuring it would be a landmark. It’s one of several stories in our new Historic Bearden book. Sally Guthrie shared this photograph showing two women who may be her own mother, Margaret Monroe, and her aunt, Lucile Monroe.
2. Perhaps our most surprising find is this, a photograph of jazz legend Louis Armstrong leading his band at Chilhowee Park’s Jacob Building in 1957. In those days, Black audiences enjoyed the concert on the main floor, while whites were allowed as “spectators” in the mezzanine. This show got national attention because during the Clinton High desegregation crisis, it was interrupted by a bombing. No one was hurt, and the show went on. It’s believed that Armstrong’s show was targeted because he was traveling with a mixed-race band; his drummer was white. Art scholar Martin Lang, who found the only known images of the show at a recent estate sale, shared them with KHP.
3. Staub's Theatre, originally Staub's Opera House, on Gay Street was one of the wonders of Knoxville's Victorian era, a European-style auditorium with multiple balconies and a ceiling fresco. Built in 1872 by Swiss immigrant Peter Staub, it welcomed audiences for more than 80 years. Perhaps it was gratitude for this landmark that Knoxville elected Staub mayor soon afterward. In 1886, Staub was appointed consult to Switzerland, whereupon his son, Fritz Staub, became manager of the theater. In its time, Staub's presented hundreds of stars of the New York stage, including George M. Cohan, W.C. Fields, Ethel Barrymore, Nellie Melba, Lillie Langtry, and Sarah Bernhardt, as well as lecturers like Frederick Douglass. This ticket for an unknown show, saved by an unknown attendee, probably dates from around 1910. Later known as the Lyric, by the mid-20th century it was hosting more wrestlers and country musicians than opera singers. In 1956 it was demolished to make way for a modern department store that was never built. This vintage postcard shared by Alec Riedl and the ticket shared by Bradley Reeves.
4. In the 19th century, mail delivery in Knoxville was limited. To get their mail, many Knoxville-area residents had to visit the general post office downtown at the Custom House on Market Street. Formal mail carriers started making daily rounds of the city in the 1880s. Rural mail delivery started soon after the turn of the century. This ca. 1910 photograph, shared by Beth Wolf, of Emory Park’s “Station A” Post Office shows a healthy staff of suburban mail carriers, supervised by James A. Ashe (shown front and center, behind the little boy, his son, John), who a quarter-century earlier had been one of Knoxville’s very first mail carriers and rose to the rank of assistant postmaster.
5. Historic Knoxville: A comprehensive and engaging guide for both visitors and residents, Historic Knoxville offers a wide-ranging guided tour to scores of places and institutions relevant to the city's little known but endlessly fascinating history.
