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Shoebox Collections

The Knoxville History Project Continues Series of Little-Known Photographs Submitted by Locals

The following images were shared by members of the community with the Knoxville History Project as part of an ongoing effort to expand what we know visually about the history of culture of the city. 

If you have interesting old photographs of your own, from any era, we would love to hear from you. Please contact Paul James at the Knoxville History Project at 865-337-7723 or Paul@KnoxHistoryProject.org. 

Learn more at KnoxvilleHistoryProject.org/Knoxville-Shoebox.

Blount Mansion

The 1792 frame house that is known today as Blount Mansion is Knoxville’s only National Historic Landmark. The building, still serving as a private residence, was perhaps only a century old when this photograph was taken in the late 1800s. Across from the house, on the corner of Hill Avenue and State Street, is a rather surprising hill or mound. The neighborhood’s topography was flattened by the time of construction of the Andrew Johnson Hotel in the 1920s.  Also visible on the street is perhaps an original gaslight. Streetlamps fueled by gas were first introduced in the 1850s, and Knoxville had some gas street lamps as late as the 1890s. Shared by Lynn Tarpy and Blount Mansion.

Island Home Avenue

In the early 1800s, Moses White, son of the city’s founder James White, owned property in South Knoxville including a small Island in the river upstream from the city.  That property was later known as “Williams Island” after the subsequent owner, Col Thomas Williams, who then sold much of the land to Massachusetts-born Perez Dickinson, a cousin of poet Emily Dickinson. Dickinson moved to Knoxville in 1829 where his brother-in-law, Joseph Estabrook, was the principal of the Knoxville Female Academy, and later became the President of East Tennessee College (now UT). Dickinson became a wealthy merchant and banker in Knoxville. 

The Italianate mansion seen here, built during the 1870s, was part of a 200-acre model farm that featured formal gardens surrounded by rolling hills. A long driveway led to the estate’s front gate, which was topped with eagle finials. The house now is occupied by the Superintendent of the Tennessee School for the Deaf, which moved to the property from downtown in the 1920s. Shared by Cindy and Mark Proteau.

East Vine Street House

This house, formerly 1106 East Vine Avenue, was once part of the Black community that was drastically changed by Urban Renewal efforts in the 1950s and ‘60s. The photograph was taken as part of a visual record of poor neighborhoods in the 1930s just east of Downtown. Close to this house was a dance hall and the public high school for African Americans. These, and many other Black-owned businesses, as well as thousands of houses, were displaced by Urban Renewal. Shared by Cindy and Mark Proteau.

State Capitol Building

It has long been claimed that this home, once known as Anthony’s Tavern, downtown at the corner of State Street and E. Cumberland Avenue, served for a time as the first Capitol Building of Tennessee. That’s hard to prove, and likely lost to time, as Knoxville was the new state’s capital only before 1818 when it moved to Murfreesboro and later Nashville. However, around the state’s first centennial in 1896, Knoxvillians looked to it as the former capital building. What is fact is that the state’s Constitution was signed by 55 delegates, including chair William Blount, at federal Indian Agent Col. David Henley’s office not far from here at Gay Street and Church Avenue. The Constitution was signed 225 years ago on February 6, 1796 and became official several months later with President Washington’s signature on June 1, now recognized as statehood day. Shared by Alec Riedl.

Knoxville Holidays & Festivals Book

St. Patrick’s Day on March 17, celebrated extravagantly by Knoxville’s Irish immigrants by the 1850s, is just one holiday celebrated by Knoxvillians over the years that is featured in Holidays & Festivals, one story collection in an ongoing series produced by the Knoxville History Project. Like music, literature, and cuisine, holidays can tell us much about our culture, and how it has evolved. Holidays & Festivals highlights local traditions surrounding Valentine’s Day, Memorial Day, Halloween, Christmas, as well as Veterans Day, Emancipation Day on the Eighth of August, and more.

The Knoxville History Project is a local educational nonprofit with a mission to research, preserve and promote the history and culture of Knoxville. KHP gives talks, presentations, writes books, and engages the public online through stories, oral history conversations, driving tours and much more. Learn more at KnoxvilleHistoryProject.org. 


 


 

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