Monday, July 23, 2018

Chisholm Tavern not Chisholm Tavern?

When is Chisholm Tavern not Chisholm Tavern?  When it is on the wrong lot.

From the June 16, 1957 edition of The Knoxville News-Sentinel, we find a story that states the colonial building on Front Avenue isn't the original Chisholm Tavern built in the 1790s.



In Samuel G. Heiskell's book, Andrew Jackson and Early Tennessee History, there is a chapter on James White and the founding of Knoxville.

Here's the map of the original plan of Knoxville, with lots 32 and 17 highlighted, followed by a partial list of those that purchased the lots. 



Two images of the building from the Library of Congress.


Knoxville area historian, Kevin Bogle, has a nice write up on the Chisholm Tavern at his site, Historic Places In & Around Knoxville, Tennessee.

Another architectural mention of the Chisholm Tavern can be found at the site run by Tommy H. Jones, under the Craighead-Jackson House entry.

Friday, July 20, 2018

Old Knoxville Pharmacies

Paula Johnson, of Knoxville Food Tours, gave a very interesting brown bag lecture at the East Tennessee History Center, about the Lost Restaurants of Knoxville.

She spoke of several early and influential individuals associated with Knoxville eateries, and the restaurants themselves.  After the lecture my family and I went north on Gay Street for our first visit to the Phoenix Pharmacy and Fountain

I wanted to learn more, so I went digging  through the pamphlet, Progressive Knoxville, 1904, A Pictorial Review of the City (published in 1903 by Russell Harrison), I found three interior shots of local pharmacies.  I've also found an interior shot from the 1903 edition of Progressive Knoxville.

Peter Kern Company
Progressive Knoxville, 1904

Kuhlman's Big Cut Rate Drug Store
Progressive Knoxville, 1904

Pharmacy, F.B. Sharp
Progressive Knoxville, 1904

W.W. Hall & Co.
Progressive Knoxville, 1903
image from the C.M. McClung Historical Collection, Knox County Public Library

Monday, February 5, 2018

Some Knoxville Churches - 1905

Some religious architecture of Knoxville.

Second Presbyterian

Clinch Street Methodist Episcopal

Third Presbyterian

First Presbyterian

St. John's Episcopal



From Vol. 4, Nos. 2 & 3 North & South, June-July, 1905.

Friday, February 2, 2018

Locations mentioned in "The Great White Way"

To augment my recent post about "The Great White Way"of Knoxville, or the electric lighted signs in 1908, I assembled a rough map of where those businesses were located.

I used the 1908 City Directory to find the addresses of the businesses, then overlaid some of them on a 1903 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map.

  • Kuhlman's Drugs - 301 S. Gay Street
  • Hope Brothers Jewelers - 519 S. Gay Street
  • Hotel Imperial - 530 S. Gay Street
  • Ashe's Restaurant - 601 S. Gay Street
  • Ritter's Cigars - 603 S. Gay Street
  • Colonial Hotel - 806 S. Gay Street
  • KECO - 716 S. Gay Street
  • Kern's - 1 Market Street
1908 Locations on a 1903 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map

* NOTE - I've updated the map, using new info from Robert McGinnis on fb.

Thursday, February 1, 2018

The “Great White Way” of Knoxville

     The stranger who enters the city of Knoxville at night cannot help being impressed with the effective quality of the illumination of Gay Street, the city’s “great white way.” In the half mile which he traverses on his way from the railroad station to his hotel, he cannot fail to note that ingenuity, originality, and a certain broad spirit of civic pride are manifest in the sure sign of a city’s progress – the illumination of its streets and buildings. This fact becomes even more remarkable when it is known that it is only since the year 1905 that electric signs have been permitted by the city government of Knoxville, and that therefore practically all improvement and progress in the spectacular illumination of the city has been accomplished in the past three years.


     Going south on Gay Street, at Commerce, on come upon one of the most important signs in the city, stretching across the street – the sign Kuhlman’s, advertising the principal drug company of the city. This same name is also repeated in a large vertical sign on their store.

     “Have You Seen Smith?” – the question is blazed out at you, and of course you find yourself unconsciously asking, “Who and what is Smith?” Smith, you are informed, is the leading furniture dealer in the city – and the sign has served the purpose for which it was created.


     The store of the Peter Kern Company, purveyors of “Good Things to Eat,” is another example of the generous use of spectacular lights. Surmounting the building is a large American flag in electric lamps, and the shop is further ornamented and distinguished by two signs bearing the word “Kern’s,” one running vertically on the corner of the building and one across the sidewalk.


     Hope Brothers, jewelers, have succeeded in obtaining a most striking effect for the façade of their shop. Above and across the sidewalk is an elaborate sign displaying the name “Hope,” and underneath, “Jewelers.” This sign is fastened on the street end to the tall, dignified post-clock which further marks and advertises the name of the shop, besides being of very useful and practical services to the belated citizens of Knoxville.





     The Hotel Imperial is marked by a large sign running vertically down the building, and by another across the top of its doorway. The Colonial Hotel, with its quaint line of arches, reminiscent of foreign architecture, displays a huge horizontal sign composed of single letters spelling its name. Far down Gay Street one can see these luminous, welcoming signs; and the stranger in Knoxville has no excuse for asking, as the farmer did on entering New York by train, "Which is the way to the hotel?"


     If you are hungry, perchance, you will be more than forcefully reminded of the fact as you approach Ashe’s Restaurant, where you will be boldly confronted with the very suggestive word "Eat," exhibited in a large, staid electric sign of uncompromising appearance. This sign was originally one of three of a class, the other two being "Smoke," which is still displayed over Ritter's Cigar Store, and "Drink," which served as a potent motto for a nearby saloon before the town "went dry."

     While the photographs given in this article illustrate some of the best and most striking examples of Knoxville's spectacular illumination, they only serve to furnish a fair idea of the city's general display. All along Gay Street, which by no means belies its cheery cognomen, are gay little shops and theatres, all of which, with scarcely an exception, are brilliantly illumined at night with some form of lightsource, plentifully and effectively applied. All sorts of signs there are – little signs and big signs ; serious signs and comic signs; theater signs, hotel signs, shop signs; automatic signs; ornamental signs; even snake signs. In front of the Miller Department Store are seven of the so named "Doherty gas lights," while for the window display well-shaded electric lights are used with excellent effect.


     The electric lighting interests in Knoxville are controlled by the Knoxville Electric Company, an illustration of whose store, with its handsome electric sign, "K. E. Co." and brilliantly lighted window, exhibiting electrical apparatus and lighting fixtures, is given in this article.  It is not to electricity alone that Knoxville owes its good illumination. Since Henry L. Doherty has been in charge of the Knoxville Gas Company, the gas-lighting of the city has been of the most excellent quality. Skirting Gay Street, in front of its shops, are ornamental posts, with handsome gas lamps, which would afford Gay Street good illumination even without its generous supply of electric arcs. Since the gas lighting properties have been controlled by Mr. Doherty, much improvement has been made, not only in the plant, but in the general policy of the management of all the property. The office of the Knoxville Gas Company is now located in the downtown district, and the company has manifested in many ways a worthy spirit of progress and public benefaction. It has devoted one floor of its building to the service of church societies, in which to bold bazaars, dinners and other functions instituted for charitable purposes. They not only donate the room, but also furnish the stove and gas for cooking, and demonstrate to the public the use and convenience of the gas stove – of which, by the way. the company sold 81 carloads during the past year.



The article, The “Great White Way” of Knoxville by R.P. Williams, appeared in the The Illuminating Engineer, Vol. III, No. 3, May 1908.