KNOXVILLE'S FIRST AUDITORIUM

by Ron Allen

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Knoxville's first building that was devoted exclusively to entertainment and theatrical performances was Staub's Opera House, opened in 1872 at the southeast corner of Gay and Cumberland. It was located at the southeast corner of Gay and Cumberland, and later was called Loew's Theater, then still later operated as the Lyric Theater, across the street from the Lamar House location. Later, the second of Knoxville's large indoor entertainment facilities was also built exclusively for such purposes, although it was initially built primarily as a skating rink, and generally is merely a forgotten footnote to local history. It was a large building with a semi circular roof that extended from Main to Cumberland, behind the Lamar House location. Some people are still around who probably remember that same building from later years, when it had been converted into the streetcar barn, before the building was eventually demolished in the early 1950's. Little has been written about this building.. This briefly describes the structure and its history.

On October 3, 1896, an article appeared in the Journal, announcing that a new auditorium was to be built on the site of the original court house, opposite the new court house that had been constructed in 1885. The property, then known as Court House Square, was reportedly to be the site of a large auditorium, with a capacity for five thousand people. The plan was that a four story auditorium that would be used for exhibits at the annual Merchant's Street Fair and Carnival, with the second and third floors providing space for meetings of "secret orders" in the city, and the top floor used by local lawyers for their offices. At that time, most of the property was owned by the YMCA, with the remaining portion owned by Knox County. The plans for the building were presented at a Chamber of Commerce meeting by Major Frierson, who also exhibited a painting of the planned structure. That auditorium never got beyond the preliminary planning stage.

Nearly four years after that article appeared in the Journal, another report appeared in the same newspaper, on February 17, 1897. According to that article, a new athletic field would be built at the old Court House site. That article suggested that the unsightly appearance of the site had therefore "been solved, as far as a very large portion of the property is concerned". That solution was to be the construction of an athletic field for the YMCA at the site, with a large fence, a cinder track, a grandstand, and baths for the athletes. The YMCA still owned a goodly portion of the property, 98 feet by 198 feet in size, and the field was to be for the exclusive use of members of the YMCA. That association planned eventually to construct a new YMCA building at the site, but had decided instead to temporarily convert the site into an athletic field. According to the newspaper article, work was to begin "at once", and the facility was reportedly to open within six months. If such a field was ever built at the old Court House site, I find no evidence of it. Obviously, the YMCA did not build the intended new building at the site. Instead, the Association moved from its previous location at Market and Wall into the old Palace Hotel building at the corner of State and Commerce, in January, 1900. Some folks around here may find it interesting to notice that more than a century ago such unfounded rumors of new downtown facilities were apparently prevalent, not dissimilar from modern times, when similar reports in recent times of such new downtown places as a baseball stadium, a planetarium, a museum, a new jail, and various other unfounded rumors of such places have come and gone, with some regularity, but rarely with fulfilment.

The old Court House location instead became the site of the Woman's Building, that structure having been removed from grounds of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition in Nashville, and reassembled at the Main Avenue site. That building was later destroyed by fire. Local entrepreneur Charles McNabb then acquired the property, together with the adjoining White House Hotel (the Lamar Hotel site). In 1905, McNabb built a large building with a circular roof on the property, extending from Main to Cumberland, behind the hotel building. The facility opened as the Charles McNabb Skating Rink. The rink was open during the "season", from September to May, as was true at Staub's Theater on the opposite corner from the hotel on Gay Street, both for the same obvious reason that in the days before air conditioning the summer heat precluded the operation of such indoor facilities during those months. Skating was originally the primary attraction at McNabb's Rink, although other activities, including the showing of silent movies, were included among the entertainment offered at the facility.

In 1907, McNabb sold the McNabb Rink and the White House Hotel. The hotel was renamed the Auditorium Hotel, and the rink re-opened on September 16, 1907, renamed the Auditorium Skating Rink, then soon it was simply called the Auditorium. Apparently, the Auditorium was briefly known as the Hippodrome, since the facility is listed under that name as one of six Knoxville vaudeville houses in the 1908 city directory. However, no advertisements for activities at the site are found under that name, and all of the advertisements I've located refer to it as the Auditorium, thus if in fact it was ever called the Hippodrome it was apparently for a short period of time. Activities at the Auditorium in 1908 included the continuation of skating, live entertainment, public gatherings, and the showing of silent movies. That year, an entertainment series called Knoxville's Great Lyceum was held at the Auditorium, including performances by the Commonwealth Ladies Orchestra, the Sprague Dramatic Club, the Litchfield Entertainers, and the Lyceum Grand Concert Band. Within a few years, the facility had closed and the building had been converted into the aforementioned streetcar barn, and that building was eventually demolished.

Another "Auditorium" was built in Knoxville in 1913, adjoining the Land Building at Chilhowee Park, in conjunction with the National Conservation Exposition held that fall. But like Staub's Theater, that facility was a performing arts facility, with a seating capacity of two thousand persons, and was not a large open indoor auditorium, as was the Auditorium. The next nearest thing to the original Auditorium did not appear again in Knoxville until the Civic Coliseum / Auditorium was constructed many years later, on Church Avenue, just east of the downtown area.

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