Culture
Recapping “Solastalgia” + Support Your Local Giant Puppets and Circus Performers!
(Ed. Note: Today’s Rare Saturday Article is by guest writer Leslie Bateman) It’s a small wonder no one crashed their car on the Clinch Avenue viaduct earlier this month, distracted by the spellbindingly bizarro scene unfolding...
Knoxville Opera Presents Pirates of Penzance
Knoxville Opera presents Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance” tonight at 7:30 pm at the Tennessee Theatre and again Sunday afternoon at 2:30 in the same venue. Tickets start at $25. Last presented by Knoxville...
Jo Sandman Exhibit at Knoxville Museum of Art
(Ed. Note: Today’s article is by contributing writer Matt Hollingsworth.) Four times a year, the Knoxville Museum of Art hosts a new exhibit, and now through November 10th, guests can explore the abstract art of Jo...
Lilienthal Gallery Presents “Street” in Conjunction With the Opening of Knox Walls (And More Tips for Your Weekend)
Lilienthal Gallery, a place known for stretching artistic boundaries in East Tennessee, continues doing so with their current exhibition, “Street.” Debuting tonight for First Friday, the exhibition runs through December offering a new perspective on street...
Business
Spellbound Vintage Opens at 716 S. Gay St.
Knoxville has another nifty vintage shop for lovers of all things cool, old and thrifted! You can find Abby Hamilton and Gracie Terry, the girls behind Spellbound Vintage and Art booths around town in pop-up markets...
Ice Cream Shoot-out on Gay Street
South Gay Street has three ice cream parlors within hailing distance of each other: Cruze Farm, Kilwins and The Phoenix Pharmacy and Fountain. The Eurythmics put it best: “sweet dreams are made of this.” When it...
Merchants of Beer to Close
The northwest corner of Summit Hill and Central Street has long offered a prominent example of the damage done to downtown in the 1970s and 1980s. Once filled with buildings, the half-acre space has offered a...
T. Ralph’s Burgers is Open Inside Kern’s Food Hall
Dustin Cochran is not new to the Knoxville food scene. He began making the famous Myrtle’s Bakehouse cookies and popping up in markets and eventually the Marble City Market Food Hall in 2021. He also...
Development
Carpenter’s Union Building Demolished, City Summit Moves Forward
Atop a hill bounded by Vine, Locust, and Cafego Place, overlooking the city, the former Carpenter’s Union Building has been demolished. Construction of City Summit will soon begin on the site, ultimately producing more homes downtown....
Vintage Cal, 167 New Downtown Homes, Announces Groundbreaking Plans
If memory serves, the first time I heard of the possibility of a second phase for Marble Alley was the first time I heard about any of it. I think it was prior to 2010 that...
Development Updates: Covenant Health Park (The Baseball Stadium) and Axle
Continuing the thread from yesterday, here’s the latest look at the other large-scale projects currently underway in the downtown area. Of the two, it’s been longer since I looked at the Axle project and the differences...
Development Updates: 200 Block of Gay Street
Here’s the latest installment in the large development projects we’re following. It’s the first since July and a lot of progress has been made in each. Today we’ll focus on the 200 block of Gay Street....
Events
Downtown Knoxville Ten Day Planner (11/3 – 11/12/2024)
If you want your event included, please make a Facebook event, invite me via the “invite” button on the event page (Alan Sims – you’ll have to friend me), and it will be included. I need...
The Pilot Light’s Annual Halloween Show Has Been Going Strong for 20+ Years
(Ed Note: Today’s article by contributing writer, Leslie Bateman.) Three-hundred sixty-four days a year, The Pilot Light devotes itself to being an incubator and oasis for original music – i.e. sorry, no cover bands. Holding space...
Zombie Walk Returns with Spooky Family Fun for a Good Cause
Zombies returned to Market Square on Saturday, October 26, bringing a spooky and fun event designed to be kid-friendly while collecting supplies for this year’s charity, Helping Mamas. Under the guidance of organizers Randall and Jennifer...
A Haunting Tour of Old Gray Cemetery – and of Knoxville History
(Ed. Note: Today’s article is by contributing writer Matt Hollingsworth.) I don’t believe in ghosts, but I must admit this one is quite entertaining. I’m listening to the spirit of Thomas O’Connor (1836-1882) played gleefully by...
Life
Public Space is Public Space: We Decide What Happens There
It’s easy to think of public spaces as immutable; set in their current uses forever. It simply isn’t so. Market Square is pedestrian space, right? But it used to serve automobile and wagon traffic around the...
Housing Affordability and Historic Preservation, Related?
It is generally accepted that America (and Knoxville) has a housing shortage and, particularly, a shortage of affordable housing. At the recent Preservation Conference hosted by Knox Heritage, keynote speaker Katlyn Cotton, Associate Principal at PlaceEconomics,...
A Walking Tour of Henley Street with Bike Walk Knoxville
Bike Walk Knoxville, founded in 2012 by Caroline Cooney, focuses on improving biking and walking in the Knoxville area, “. . . to make sure all ages and abilities in the community have safe and accessible...
Interlopers, Scalawags, and Carpetbaggers
I recently had dinner on a patio off Market Square. The food met all expectations, the early autumn Knoxville weather shined like a diamond, and I relished the sounds of a language I could not identify...