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.
