Sometimes the news just needs to be good. There are so many battles to fight. Fort Sanders seems to falling before our very eyes as Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center seeks to destroy three more historic homes. I’d intended to write about that, but Jack Neely covered it beautifully, as he always does. UT seems set to destroy 1302 White Avenue despite the fact that a family owns it, has poured money into it and wants to continue to live there. It’s actually one of the Fantastic Fifteen even as UT plans to take it away from the family and knock it down. You can sign the petition asking that it be spared by going here. The Pryor Brown Garage demolition is up for discussion tonight at the City Council Meeting. It would be a good meeting to attend.
But this is about the good things happening. Last week was filled with that sort of thing. Monday night I attended the monthly social of City People at Rick Terry Jewelers. Having a jeweler downtown for the last year marked a significant milestone for the downtown resurgence. It’s hard to imagine a vibrant urban environment without certain types of retail. I’ve mentioned a great independent book store in the last few days. A jeweler seems like another necessary bedrock for a successful urban area.
Urban Woman and I have had beautiful work done at the downtown store. City People is also a great organization doing great work to promote downtown and I have to say the crawfish were amazing (thanks to Patty Terry). Asher was charming, as always.
Thursday evening there were far too many things to do. A great start-up business event was held at the Standard, a red-carpet event at the Tennessee Theatre included a film sponsored by Mobile Area Medical, the Daylight Building hosted Daylight Nights, their monthly block party, Preservation Pub hosted Socia!lize for Justice to benefit the Amplifier Newspaper. All this followed an Eat Street feature on the Sweet and Savory Food Truck. It’s a lot. And with the exception of Daylight Nights (an urban guy has to eat!), I missed it all. So what did I do?
I stopped into the KMA for their preview event of the opening of the Main Floor. The full opening happens this coming Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, an exhibition of student art. The event featured a view of the completely resurfaced entry and lobby. Food and drink were provided, the student art displayed and David Butler, Executive Director of the Museum, addressed the crowd, thanking them all for their support. Many of the benefactors of the museum, as well as architects and others responsible for the renovations were present.
Then I dashed to the Bijou Theatre only to catch the last few minutes of Tuomi Joshua Forrest, Executive Vice-President of Partners for Sacred Places give the keynote address. As stated on the Knox Heritage web site, “Partners for Sacred Places was founded in 1989 by a national task force of religious, historic preservation, and philanthropic leaders. Since then, Partners has served several thousand congregations and other local organizations and represents the needs and concerns of over 100,000 older, community-serving sacred places . . . Tuomi Joshua Forrest has offered technical advice and consultation to thousands of congregations of all faiths on the care and active community use of their historic religious buildings since joining Partners in 1997.” Mr. Forrest also led a workshop on Friday I would have loved to attend.
The main focus of the evening was to present the Preservation Awards, the centerpiece of which is the Fantastic Fifteen. Represented are fifteen properties or projects which exemplify the best in preservation across our area. Here they are in photographic form (such as they are – these are photographs of slides and don’t do the properties justice):
Finally, special awards were given in several categories indicated on the slides below:
