WITH REMINISCENCES OF
PEOPLE, PLACES, AND EVENTS
compiled by
Ronald R. Allen
Knoxville, Tennessee
2001
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PREFACE
This was originally written in 1998, titled "A Half Century Ago", issued in an edition of only thirty copies. Most of those copies were given away to relatives, friends, and libraries. In 2001, the book was re-issued under the title "Knoxville, 1948."
A year or so ago I took another look at the book. book. Among other things, I realized that my original 'directions' for taking this imaginary walking tour through downtown Knoxville in 1948 were probably sometimes difficult to follow, if not downright confusing in some instances. I'm surprised that somebody had not called that to my attention, but that's probably because not that many people actually read the book.
In any event, I decided to correct and update the book. First, I have revised some of those 'directions', and these revisions will hopefully make it somewhat easier for readers to follow those descriptions, as they weave through the various streets on this imaginary journey along the downtown streets of Knoxville, as it existed more than fifty years ago. I've also updated some sections, included additional information in several instances, and also corrected a few errors.
Since I'm no longer going to the trouble and expense of printing any of my compilations, I've added this revised edition of "Knoxville 1948" to my web site. While the original editions included illustrations, none are included here.
Ron Allen
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INTRODUCTION
Stand at the corner of North Gay and Magnolia and look to the south along North Gay street, towards the viaduct. To your left you will see the Regas Restaurant building and its parking lot. On the right are some remaining old buildings, and an open parking lot at the northwest corner of Gay and Depot. Now imagine that in this same relatively short block of North Gay Street there are two dozen businesses, including four eating establishments and three hotels. That is exactly what was here in 1948 - - and even then some of the buildings in this block were vacant. ( In fact, just twenty years earlier, a movie theater, the Rialto, had been located on the west side in this block of North Gay.) Such concentrations of businesses was not atypical of downtown Knoxville in those days. Crossing the Gay Street viaduct in 1948, there were - - only on the western, or right side of the street, twenty-three firms in the block between Jackson and Vine. In fact, as listed in that year's city directory, in downtown Knoxville that year, there were the following business establishments : nineteen hotels, twenty department stores, eighty-four eating places (cafes, restaurants, cafeterias), thirty-seven furniture stores, fifty-six clothing stores, fourteen photographic studios, twenty-one barber shops, fifteen beer parlors, seventeen shoe repair stores, fifteen grocery stores, twenty-one jewelry stores, ten laundries, five hat shops, twelve drug stores, eight theaters, twenty-two beauty shops, and ten pool halls. Also, often in multiple locations, there were printers, service stations, book stores, arcades, funeral homes, automobile dealers, radio service shops, sporting goods stores, bus lines, office supply stores, cab companies, hardware stores, Attorneys, Doctors, Dentists, Optometrists, 5 and 10 cent stores, meat and fish markets, florists, bakeries, tailors, wholesale houses, industrial establishments, and many other businesses. (Wow!)
There were folks living in apartments and private residences in the downtown area, although it then was primarily a business-oriented section of the city. The majority of people who lived in the city were in one way or another in relatively close proximity to downtown. Those who did not live within walking distance - - which in those days to many people sometimes meant two miles or more, and not today's narrow idea of a normal walking distance (such as out to the mailbox to pick up the daily mail or newspaper). Others were within a block or two of the Knoxville Transit Lines, which by then meant the bus (due in part to the then-recent demise of a previously widely-used mode of transportation, streetcars.) Thus it was relatively easy to go downtown back then. Most everybody did.
Being raised in 'Happy Holler', my normal route to downtown as a youngster was from the north. This description of downtown Knoxville in 1948 thus comfortably begins for me at the intersection of North Gay Street and Magnolia. Since 1948, the primary street changes in or near downtown have been around Vine and Commerce, where Summit Hill has replaced a block or so of what was once Vine (west of Central), some of Western, and all of what was Commerce Street, plus the elimination of the adjoining streets that extended to the east from Central - - south of Vine - - the result of the massive Mountain View Redevelopment, including the construction of the bypass and Neyland Drive. But it mattered not how you got there, downtown was a thriving and bustling area in 1948, where virtually everybody in the city - - and many who lived in the county, outside the city limits - - came to the area on a regular basis to shop, to dine, and for entertainment. That was true despite the fact that many of the city neighborhoods at that time also had grocery stores, variety stores, movies theaters, hardware stores, cafes, and other businesses.
This guide begins at the southwest corner of Gay and Magnolia, continues southward along the west side of Gay Street to Front Street, then returns north, along the east side of Gay, eventually returning to the southeast corner of the starting point. This also includes the businesses that were located on all of the streets that adjoined Gay, westward to Broadway / Henley, and eastward to Central. In most instances, only street level businesses are listed here.
The purpose of this compilation has been to provide a reminiscence of a thriving downtown Knoxville, when things were - - to put it mildly - - different. Some people are still around today who remember the crowded sidewalks in 1948, and even those who weren't here then may enjoy this trip.
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This is 1948, of things seldom remembered from the
not-too-distant past, of places that were once here but have
disappeared from sight and memory, and maybe history, of
streetcars, of beer joints, of movie houses, of noisy trains
in and out of railroad stations, of flowers from Baum's, of shoes from
Thom McAn's, of softballs from Bowers, of shirts from the Knox, of
Greyhounds on State, of tie clasps from Georges, of plate lunches at
the Gold Sun, of vegetables from the Market House, of pawn shops galore,
of the dirty floors at the Cas Walker store, of sidewalk tamale vendors,
of streets crowded with pedestrians, of a place that all but died ...
come take the trip
________________________________
North Gay Street, West side, walking south, from Magnolia.
323 Maytag Washing Machines. I frankly don't recall this place being at the corner of Magnolia and Gay. My recollection was that the old Dixie Laundry was at this location, where - - I discovered when checking old city directories - - had indeed been located at this address, until around the end of World War Two.
321 Green's Hardware. The Green brothers, Isaac and Jacob, were married to sisters, and their hardware store was on Gay Street for many years. Long after 1948 it was still in operation, and was one of the few places in town where one could find replacements for long-outdated plumbing fixtures, small appliances, and household plumbing and electrical items. Sometimes it would take a while as one of them methodically searched through the drawers of those numerous old wooden cabinets, but most often eventually they would open a drawer that contained just the item you needed, where it had been gathering dust for years. The number of customers dwindled over the years, the Green brothers got older, and the store finally closed. But they were in operation in this block longer than most others, where today only the Regas Restaurant remains in this block from 1948.
319 Shaw & Co. Furniture and Real Estate.
317 Star Loan Company. The first of many loan companies one encountered in the first couple of blocks when entering the city from the north.
315 Vacant at war's end, this previously had been the location of Wing's Hand Laundry. Their operation had moved to Clinch Avenue in 1948.
313 American Loan Co. One of several above-mentioned loan shops in Knoxville in 1948. Isadore Brody operated the American Loan Company for many years, and continued for years to be operated by his son, Ivan. Apparently, most of these loan shops did a bustling business. I remember that some of the men from my own family, and a number of their fellow employees - all workers for the Southern Railway - frequented Brody's and similar places. Probably sometimes wages just didn't cover monthly expenses. At other times, they were likely pawning something, probably for reasons I still don't want to know about. In 1939, probably upstairs with a separate street level entrance, a place called the Savoy Hotel had been located here. Later, it was listed in city directories as a rooming house.
311 Pierce Cigar Store. The cigar has made a modest comeback in recent times, a circumstance likely being one of those actions of defiance so typical these days in the United States, often initiated for no good reason. It is doubtful that this particular fad has anything to do with the burning desire of the multitudes for these generally offensive smokestacks. But cigars were a big business back in 1948, when there were more than a dozen such establishments in downtown Knoxville, including cigar stands at the two major hotels, the Andrew Johnson and the Farragut.
(alley)
309 F. & W. Amusement (coin operated machines) Previously the Smoky Mountain Billiards had been at this location.
307 Service Café
305 Vacant. In 1944, the Recreation Billiard Parlor had been at this address, thus both this and the aforementioned then-defunct Smoky Mountain Billiards two doors away had closed by 1948. But for local pool sharks there was still a pool hall in the vicinity, down around the corner on Depot, across from the Southern Railway passenger station, at the Empire Hotel. I've looked in the dictionary for the definition of "billiards", where my confusion is only somewhat lessened in view of the fact that it is described as a game played "either by striking the balls, or hitting them into pockets." Certainly, such places as the Empire Hotel, Comer's, and McDonald's had pool tables. Years ago, when Bryant Gumble was on television's Today Show, when asked what he had been doing on the day of the assassination of President Kennedy, he said he had been in college at the time, and was playing billiards on that fateful day. (One suspects he was actually shooting pool)
303 Signal Café
301 Hotel Fairway. Over the years, many of the downtown Knoxville hotels changed names. In 1939, this one had been called the Central Hotel.
Depot intersects - walking along the north side of Depot, to Broadway
(Looking at this block today one wonders where there was room for all of the following businesses)
405 Hotel Fairway (side entrance)
407 Gay Shoe Service
409 McGee and Reiche Plumbers
411 - 417 White Stores (not one of their stores, but their wholesale meat dept., sign shop, bakery dept.)
419 Automobile Alignment Service
421 Star Sales Co.
421 (rooming house)
423-425 R. B. M. Co. service station equipment
423 Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union ; American Federation Hosiery Workers Union
The alley here, between Depot and Magnolia, was called Conner's Alley, although I doubt that many people knew that back then. At one time, private residences were located in this alley.
431-435 International Harvester motor trucks
439 J. & L. Used Cars
443 Wallace Supply Co. (warehouse)
445-447 Standard Glass Company
Broadway intersects. Walking back on the south side of Depot, to Gay
444 Southern Railway Branch, Y.M.C.A. Usually this was just called the "Railroad Y." I never really knew what the association was with the YMCA. This two story brick building was used primarily by employees and families of the Southern Railway. But it also was used by others for various other functions, including meetings of clubs and local Union meetings. Other events held here included such diversified activities as dances, bingo games and amateur boxing matches. This brick building is another example of the long list of old downtown Knoxville structures that have long since been subjected to the wrecking ball.
428 Chandler & Co. Building Supplies. I noticed recently that the old building here has now been demolished and replaced by a parking lot. When I drove by many of those spaces were filled, so I suspect many of those cars belong to those who are now working in the renovated first block of South Gay, and perhaps some who are living in those condos in the same area.
No other businesses were on the south side of Depot from here to Gay Street. A separate pavement turned down to the right past Chandlers, leading automobiles and cabs down under the Gay Street viaduct to the front entrance of the Southern Railway passenger station.
Walking south across the west side of the Gay street viaduct
In 1948, two constant odors combined to permeate the air as you walked across the Gay Street bridge. One was the pungent but not particularly unpleasant stench of coffee roasting at the JFG Coffee Company. The other was from the black smoke rising from the engines of the Southern Railway trains below, and one soon learned not to place a hand atop the concrete barrier, else it would be covered with the black soot that settled there from the engine smoke below. (I wonder what the level of "air quality" would have been atop the viaduct back then?) It's likely that anyone who ever walked across that bridge in those days could thereafter associate that combined stench with their entrance into downtown Knoxville, even if they were led there in blindfold. Sometimes - - fortunately not always - - a third odor wafted through the area, one that all but caused you to drop to your knees. It was the foul stenche that emanated from either the Lay Packing Company down on Jackson Avenue, and/or the Union Stockyards on Morgan Street, a block from Central. (both near what once was the Bowery, now called the "Old City" ) In November, 2005, they closed and rebuilt the viaduct.
Jackson intersects - walking west to Broadway along the north side of Jackson.
301 Persia Rug Company
305 Mountain Sales Co. (warehouse)
501-519 C.M. McClung. A huge wholesale house, serving not only Knoxville but many other sections in Tennessee, the south, and elsewhere. An old establishment in Knoxville, their huge catalogs were probably four inches thick, and advertised thousands of types of merchandise of all kinds. The McClung name in business activities was one of the earliest in the city. Charles McClung, the first Court Clerk, was selling and trading merchandise in Knoxville nearly four years before Tennessee became a state in 1796.
521 Crane Company. wholesale plumbing
615-619 Scruggs Equipment Co. restaurant supplies
Broadway intersects. Walking along the south side of Jackson, back to Gay street.
518-526 Sani Seal Co. ice cream mfg.
512-514 C. M. McClung (garage)
492, 494, 496 - (all these addresses were private residences in 1948.)
Back in 1919, my mother's family was living in an apartment house on this side of Jackson. They had moved to Knoxville from Coal Creek (Lake City) a bit earlier. I remember hearing my maternal grandmother mentioning the time when the Knoxville 'Race Riot' took place that year. That riot began when a local black man named Maurice Mays was accused of the rape and murder of a local woman. Mays was later convicted and executed for that crime, in a case that some modern publications suggest was an injustice. My grandmother said she vividly remembered the fear in the neighborhood from the sounds of gunshots that could be heard echoing through that night, primarily in the section along Central and Vine, a couple of blocks from Jackson Avenue.
416-418 Knox Belting and Supply Co. (office)
412 Ingersoll Rand Mining Machinery
408-418 Knox Belting and Supply Co.
402 B. & B. Auto Co. 2nd floor Denton's Garage
400 Appliance Sales and Service Co.
316-318 Comet Hosiery Mills
316-318 Siegel's Sanitary Supplies ; 2nd floor McCallie Shoe Co.
312-314 Tennessee Armature and Electric Co.
310 Whitson Candy Company
310 American Heating Supply Co.
308 Hugo Klein wholesale hosiery
304-306 Mountain Sales Co., war surplus goods
South Gay street - along the west side, from Jackson to Vine avenue
101 Three Feathers Sandwich Shop. The Three Feathers was one of many small downtown establishments called cafes or sandwich shops, but where the primary menu item was beer, which those places offered while sometimes rarely even bothering with the sandwiches. They were usually called 'beer joints' by most people. In my neighborhood in Happy Holler was such a place, on Anderson Street, called the Blue Goose. As a youngster, passing that place - - where I learned early on to walk on the opposite side of the street - - I saw such scenes as a drunken man flying head first out the door of that classy establishment, quicky pounced on by the equally inebriated individual who had knocked him out there. Not only in the downtown area, but In various sections of the city there was more than an ample supply of such places. I find it interesting today that establishments that were known as beer joints in those days - - places where usually only the lower elements frequented, and where those in polite society shunned with a passion - - have been replaced today with places not really that dissimilar in nature, but where today those of all persuasions apparently frequent, some with regularity. That seems to be particularly true downtown, where today alcohol seems to be the driving force in the most recent attempt to revitalize that area, and where seemingly no public function can be held on Market Square without free-flowing beer.
103 Al's Cigar Store
105 Dunbar Hotel. A few years earlier this had been called the Lawrence Hotel.
107 Cook's Arch Barber Shop
109 Club Cigar Store
111 Blue Circle. One of six of these small eateries that were located in the downtown area in 1948 (and there were other locations around town.) A competitor locally of the Krystal, the little Blue Circle hamburgers and buns were cooked in the customary circular hamburger format, rather than the pre-formed square offering at the Krystal, and their fried onions were from circular onion rings rather than chopped variety at the Krystal. I never was sure if I ever actually liked them as well, or if it was just that I occasionally preferred them to the Krystal. They were somewhat different, and in fact they were good. The Blue Circle menu was also more diversified, as they also sold other sandwiches, including a full sized hamburger, which the cook made by throwing three of the circular balls of hamburger meat used for the smaller burgers on the grill, mashing them together into one larger patty, cooking and serving it on a regular sized bun, with all the trimmings, rather than the limited offering of onions, mustard and pickle slices that came with the miniature versions offered by Blue Circle. By all the trimmings, it meant onions, lettuce, and tomato. It did not mean ketchup, the abomination created years ago by places like McDonald's, a short-order place that discovered that they could substitute ketchup instead of tomatoes, and save money in the process. Until such places came along, I had never seen ketchup served on a hamburger, and that substance was not included on the small burgers served at either the Krystal or the Blue Circle. I still refuse to eat a hamburger covered with ketchup, which as far as I'm concerned is a french fry dip. But of course, I'm now in the minority, since such places have obviously created an entire generation that thinks ketchup is an integral ingredient on hamburgers. The completeness of such corporate cunning once resulted in an actual attempt by some to have ketchup recognized as a vegetable! (Deliver me, PULLEEZZE!) The Blue Circle lasted for a long time, but they eventually disappeared from the Knoxville scene.
113 Gay Jewelers. This place is still here. The owner, Doyle Dukes, changed the name to Doyle Dukes Jewelry several years ago. As of November, 2005, this is the final remaining street level business that has been in continuous operation on South Gay street since 1948. (The Regas restaurant is still in operation, located across the viaduct, on North Gay. However, it doesn't technically meet the "continuous" criteria, since it ceased operation for a while a few years ago.)
115 F.M. George Safe & Lock Co. Still in business, but this firm long ago got out of Dodge and relocated.
117 Sportland Arcade. A place filled with various coin-operated machines for "entertainment". Fortune Tellers, "strength" machines, games, and the old "movie" machines, which came to life from a series of images on cards rapidly flipped as you turned the crank and peered through the viewer. Plus various other metal monsters that could quickly gobble up your pennies. Back then, a penny would actually get you a piece of candy, a cookie, and a few other things, including a cigarette, sold individually from opened packs by enterprising neighborhood grocers, who sold them in that manner to bum types and young boys - - there were no apparently age rules back then - - who did not have the fifteen cents for a full pack. These penny-eating factories were called Penny Arcades. Similar places were set up under tents on the sawdust-laden ground at the annual Fair out at Chilhowee Park. They also had those machines that rewarded your insertion of a penny with a postcard sized picture of some famous entertainer, sports personality, or movie star, although you never knew if you were going to get Tom Mix or Mae West or W.C. Fields or Babe Ruth of Joe Louis - - or maybe somebody you'd never heard of.
117 Gay St. Office Building (partly vacant in 1948) : Basement : Club Gay (beer) 121 Miles Music Company (Music teachers here included the Merry-Go-Rounds' Harry Nides)
123 S. C. Dismukes Hat Co.
125 Hollywood Studios. This firm was at this location for many years. They operated another downtown store in 1948, on Union Avenue. Framed portraits graced their front windows, but in later years most of those photographs at the Gay Street location looked as if they had been sitting there gathering dust since the 1940's.
129 Mill Agent Store. When I first compiled this book in 1998, I mentioned the fact that this was one of the small handful of remaining old-time Gay Street businesses. Since then, they likewise moved from their old stand and headed west.
131 The Kosher Food Center. This restaurant was listed as Kosher Food Center in the 1944 city directory, and continued to be listed under that name in 1952, but for most of the later years, it was called Harold's. Harold's closed in 2005, following the departure of the above mentioned Mill Agent Store some years earlier, leaving Doyle Dukes Jewelry (originally Gay Jewelers) as the last remaining street level business (continuously in operation) on South Gay street that was in existence in 1948.
133 Mitchell Grill
133 United Order of the Golden Cross.
135 Palace Cigar Store
137 Knox Jewelry and Loan Co.
141 Norris Loan Co.
141 Gray's Beauty Shop
143-145 Frank's Loan Co. Frank obviously made enough money to advertise in local papers on a regular basis, and those ads usually included a photograph - - his mustachioed countenance. Not that such ads were uncommon in those days, because that practice seems to have been more commonplace back then. Max Friedman, E. B. Bowles, and Cas Walker are examples of others whose ads often included self-portraits. One doubts that any in that threesome qualified as contestants in that year's Clark Cable Look-Alike contest.
Vine Avenue, along the north side, west to Locust.
301 Vacant in 1948
311-317 Monday Realty Co. ; apartment building
(All else in this block, up the hill to Market Street, were apartment buildings.)
403 Knaffl & Bros. "Art Publishers" (Photographers) A sizable and long-time Knoxville establishment. Besides their work as a photographic portrait studio, they also published original photographic prints the called "Life Photographs", in the later nineteenth and twentieth century. Their prints were widely distributed throughout the country. A catalog issued by the firm in the 1890's offered forty-five different prints for sale, ranging in size from 6 x 9 to 22 x 28. Most of their prints were original productions that were issued here in Knoxville, and that catalog also contained a separate twenty-four page listing of their "Koon Photographs". These were stereotypical humorous views of African Americans, posed, photographed and published by the Knaffl. Company. In recent years, one of several different examples of the firm's print, "Madonna and Child", was used as the illustration for a greeting card, which resulted in considerable publicity in the local media. Those articles referred to that print as the most popular ever issued by Knaffl. Perhaps it originally was indeed one of their best sellers. However, I have rarely otherwise seen reproductions of that print. On the other hand, I have seen many reproductions of their African American prints, and the obvious conclusion is that the most popular prints ever issued by this photographic firm were those depictions, not the Madonna prints.
Business establishments ended from this point westward to Vine Street. The rest of this street in 1948 primarily consisted of apartments buildings, on both sides of the street, from Market to Broadway, including the Summit Apartments, Almens Apartments, and Genos Apartments. At the end of the street, near Broadway, were the Jewish Community Center at 621 Vine, and the Beth El Temple, at 629 Vine. Established originally as the Hebrew Benevolent Association in 1863, Beth El Temple relocated to Broadway and Vine in 1915.
Locust intersects : walking on Locust, west side, south to Commerce
Two private residences
(On this west side of Locust were three block-long streets, between Walnut and Locust 0
Hickey Place : One private residence.
Summer Place : 520 Darnbush Parking lot. (rest of block private residences.)
Oxford Place :
514 Private residence.
510 Good Will Hotel
504 Long's Place
517 Private residence
Locust, south between Vine and Western
210 : 308 Private residences
320 Cureton Radio Service.
Walnut intersects - walking south along west side of Walnut, to Commerce
209-211 Eagles Home
217 Beretta Tile Company
221 rooming house.
Walking north along east side of Walnut, back to Vine
212. Burr Flats (apartments- the third floor housed the Junior O. U. A. M. and the Mormon Church office..)
Market street intersects - walking south along west side of Market, to Commerce
217 Lawson McGhee Library. The library occupied this entire west side of this short block. The McClung Historical Collection was located in the lower level of the building. After relocating in the Customs House on Clinch and Market, the expanded McClung occupied the third floor of both that building, today including the large new addition at the corner of Clinch and Gay. The collection is visited and extensively used by researchers from throughout the United States and elsewhere. That place today seems to house almost as many or more books and materials as were contained in the entire library itself when it was located on Market Street. Unfortunately, the beautiful old marble building that once housed the library on Market street was demolished, and that block of Market street itself no longer exists.
Crossing the street - walking north on east side of Market, back to Vine
214 Park and Shop Parking Lot
208 Milton Roberts Funeral Home.
Vine, south side, back east to Gay street.
325-313 - apartment houses.
312 Boy's Club of Knoxville. The original old Boy's Club, located on the Vine hill just few steps from Gay Street, in my recollection, was famous for its small gymnasium with a low ceiling. Of course, back then, many gymnasiums were small. I recall once back in 1952 when our Rule High basketball team played a game against Clinton at their home court, just before halftime I got a rebound from the opponent's backboard , and turned and made a basket - - NOT a wild throw, but just a one handed shot - - at the opposite end of the court. Now that was a small gym! Anyway, the Boy's Club gym was not only small but it was the only gym I ever saw that had a ceiling that was so low that it was almost necessary in order to take virtually any shot - - other than a crip - on a straight line, else the ball would hit the ceiling before it got anywhere near the backboard.
312 Triangle Press. printers
302 Cal Johnson Building: Baby Foods, Inc. ; McCarter Realty ; J .A. McFarland merchandise broker ; Associated Music Teachers. Some references identify the 'Cal Johnson building' as the one located at the northwest corner of Central and Vine, but more commonly that's the designation that was given to this building at the corner of Gay and Vine. Johnson - - a prominent and well-to-do Knoxville black man - - did own (in the case of the Central location, only partly) both of those buildings, and this one on Gay street was long the site of his saloon. In the early twentieth century his advertisements in local newspapers reveal that he had changed his operation, advertising that liquor, whiskey, and hard spirits were no longer being served at his Gay street establishment, then offering only soft drinks. (not his personal decision, but because prohibition had rendered liquor illegal in Tennessee.) Johnson also owned other buildings in Knoxville, including a livery stable on Central. He also owned and operated two race tracks in Knoxville - - the one in East Knoxville, just beyond Chilhowee Park, later was known as Speedway Circle, and the Johnson track, sometimes known as the South Side track, located across the river in South Knoxville. Johnson owned horses that competed in races at those tracks, and was himself the jockey on his horses in some of those contests.
Continuing south on Gay, from Vine to Commerce
( It takes a little imagination to visualize the original location of the businesses that were on Gay Street between Vine and Commerce, since Commerce no longer exists here today. )
201 The Fashion Shop (ladies apparel)
203 Uncle Sam's Loan
203 Jack's Clothing Store. I was always intrigued, if not amazed, at the variety and types of men's attire displayed in brother Jack's window. It was not unusual to see yellow shirts, chartreuse pants, something in a light lavender, or wild combinations of zippers and buttons on a shirt or jacket. When I was a youngster, my stepfather bought me a long sleeve shirt there, a light aqua-colored garment that had a diagonal zipper that extended across the front from the upper left shoulder to the lower right edge. At the time, I thought it was the "coolest" shirt I'd seen. It was not unusual to see orange shirts in Jack's window, although virtually nobody wore such colors back then. Those were the days when men wore suits and ties, and women dressed to the nines, when they attended Vol football games, and the only orange seen at those games were the team jerseys, pom poms, and maybe those card tricks in the student section. (Whatever happened to those?) Obviously entirely different today, when so many fans wear Tennessee's colors that the stands on game day look like a veritable sea of orange.
205 Beck's Snack Shop
207 The Outlet dept. store
209 Norris Book Store. This was one of three used book stores in downtown Knoxville. Today, such places have disappeared in the area, although such an establishment was in existence on Market Square in recent years, before closing its doors. I was a dealer in old and rare books for forty-five years in Knoxville. A couple of attempts to operate a rare book store in Knoxville soon convinced me of the futility of such a venture in this town. My business was always primarily a mail-order business, and I can count on one hand the total number of local clients for old and rare books - - including libraries - - in my entire career. In recent years I read that Knoxville is a "heavy reading community", but that obviously refers to those who read new books and paperbacks, and not to any persons who legitimately collect old and rare books. But even that statement came as a shock, because based on my experiences I had always assumed that a statement made in a letter written in 1899 by Knoxville's Oliver P. Temple, replying to a person in east Tennessee, concerning Temple's book, "East Tennessee in the Civil War", was still true. In that letter, Temple explained that he had was marketing his book himself, and that he would need to sell them in such places as Atlanta, Louisville, Nashville, and other cities, the reason being that "people here in Knoxville don't read books".
209 Atchley Optometrist
211 Bishop's Credit Clothiers
211 Home Service Shoe Co. ; Knoxville Chenille and Lettering Co. ; Sweet Advertising Co. 213 Burnett's Clothing Store
215 Knoxville Music Center : Dick Jones' Orchestra office.
217 Myers Photo Shop
217-a. Bart Hosiery Co.
219 Moskins Stores
Commerce intersects - walking west on Commerce, along north side of street
305 Anna's Beauty Shop
305 B. & J. Club (beer)
307 Veteran's Administration 2nd floor, Housing Administration 3rd. Floor, Camel Mfg. Co. branch
307 Chandler Photocopy Service
313 Painters Building ; (Lawyer, real estate, Credit Bureau)
Market intersects
410 May Hotel : May Café. In 1939, this had been an apartment house. Apparently the "hotel" designation was short-lived, since by 1952 only the Café remained, the remainder of the location being shown simply as "residential".
412 private residence
Commerce terminates at Walnut. Walking south along west side of Walnut, to Wall street
303 private residence
311 Park Rite Auto Park. In 1948, people sometimes drove automobiles and paid for parking in downtown Knoxville, but the majority rode the bus or walked. The majority of those parking spaces were occupied by people who worked downtown, and parked there on a regular basis. The same is essentially true today, and those in the general population now usually only come downtown for special occasions, or for an occasional task or that can't be taken care of elsewhere. Certainly it is not for purposes of shopping, or normally for dining, as it was in 1948. In recent times, one of my neighbors, who had not been downtown for some years, drove with a friend to a special downtown event and made the mistake of parking in a surface parking lot. He was totally shocked to find upon returning to the parking lot about three hours later to find that he was charged eight dollars for his brief visit to downtown Knoxville. He didn't sound particularly interested in returning anytime soon. I could have told him of a few spots where the parking would have been cheaper, but he's no youngster, and would have had a considerably longer walk from the lot to his downtown destination.
Oxford Place intersects
323 Wall Ave. Parking Lot
325 Charles E. Hunter wallpaper
Cross street, walking back along east side of Walnut, to Commerce.
310 T. V. A. (transportation dept.)
308 Nelson Apartments
304 Ed's Parking Lot
Commerce intersects. Only one building on Commerce between Walnut to Market
413 Private residence
Market intersects. Walking south on Market, west side, between Commerce and Wall.
303 Weaver Funeral Home One of three funeral homes downtown in 1948. The others were Mann's, on Church Street, and Milton Roberts, also on Market street.
309 Community Welfare Building (Knoxville Dept. of Health, etc.)
311 Brownlow Building
311 Ace Radio Service
Cross street, walking back on Market, east side, from Wall to Commerce
308 Hobbs Flats (apartments)
302 Lewis Bus Lines
Returning along Commerce, east along south side, back to Gay street
316 Your Barber Shop : Lawson McGhee Library (branch). In the community of Happy Holler, there were two barber shops in that relatively small area. One was called "My Barber Shop". Noticing that this downtown shop was called "Your Barber Shop", I was compelled to take a closer look in the city directory to see if perhaps there had been a place called "Our Barber Shop". Turns out there wasn't, but I did discover that in 1948 there were a whopping ninety-two barber shops in Knoxville.
316 Library Grill Lewis Bus Lines Suburban Bus Lines
Gay intersects. Walking along west side of Gay, south from Commerce to Wall avenue.
( The 300 block of Gay, south from the corner of Commerce and Gay, is now the southwest section of Gay and Summit Hill. )
301- 303 Rayless Dept. Store.
305 Dean Clothing Co.
307 Orange Julius. The other downtown location was Nan Denton's, at Clinch and Gay.
309 Daileys Clothiers
311 Askin and Marine Clothiers
313-323 S. H. George & Sons. One of the two largest downtown department stores, the other being Miller's. In 1953, I worked part-time while in college for a year or so at George's - in their stock room - delivering merchandise to departments on various floors, as signaled to the basement through a buzzer and speaker system, said deliveries being made via the freight elevator. For some reason my most vivid recollection of Georges is that the fragrances of perfumes and powders from that department seemed often to virtually permeate the entire store.
Wall intersects. Turn right (west), walk along north side of Wall.
(From corner to the alley - southern side of the S. H. George building)
Alley intersects
311-313 St. James Hotel. An article appeared in a local publication in 1997 concerning this old hotel. That article indicated that the hotel had been located on the site where the TVA Credit Union now is located. Actually, George's occupied the entire building from Gay back to the alley, and that credit union is now located at that location, at what in 1948 was the side entrance to the S. H. George's store. The St James Hotel was located west of the alley behind the George's building. The TVA complex now covers that site, and also the large area to the west and north.
315 Darling Shop ladies clothing
327 Moser's clothing store
319 Glidden Paint Co.
321-323 Charles Stores dept. store
Market street intersects - - continuing west along Wall
401 Wynn's Clothing Store
403 A & P Grocery. The 'Atlantic and Pacific' was one of many downtown groceries in 1948.
405 Peters clothiers ; Inkelbarger Tailors
407 Ace Wallpaper and Paint Co.
407 McCoy Building. (Hurst Dining Room)
409 Gilbert Hotel At one time the name here was Hotel Sutherland.
413 Salvation Army
417 Ledgerwood Piano Co.
419 Mayo Seed Co. Still in business, left the downtown area long ago.
421- 423 TVA - photography and blueprint departments..
Wall terminates at Walnut - walking along west side of Walnut, to Western avenue
401 Reo Barber Shop
405-407 Acme Produce Co. poultry
409 Midget Shoe Company. I confess that I thought it necessary, knowing nothing about this place, to look closer in the old directories, else I would forever wonder how there could possibly have been enough "little people" in Knoxville back in 1948 to support this shoe store. In fact, the store was operated by a man named Gordon Midget. In 1944, his shop had been located in the first block of South Gay Street.
Western avenue intersects, Walking on north side of Western, to Locust
501 Riverside Chick Store
503 Longmire's Barber Shop
505 Cameron's Grill
505 Goosie's Place groceries
507 Blake-Miller dept store
509 & 511 - vacant
511 ½. Independent Order of Beavers
513 White Produce Co.
515 vacant
517 Service Supply Co. plumbing supplies
521 Rawlings-Sawyer lock & key
521 apartments
525 Fox Motor Coach Lines ; Hardin Valley Bus Lines
Locust intersects, continuing north side of Western, to Henley
City Hall Park, on the northwest side of Western Avenue (now Summit Drive), housed the offices of all departments of the Knoxville city government. This was originally the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, and for many years the street here was known as Asylum Street. Later, separate buildings on the property, and some of the main buildings, housed the classrooms for Stair Technical Institute. Earlier, one building had been the location of the Boyd Junior High School, after Knoxville High school opened and this school changed quarters from the old Girls High School site on Union Avenue. In 1998, local newspaper articles, and area TV newscasts, inexplicably mentioned that during the period between the opening of Knoxville High School early in the twentieth century, and the closing of that school in 1951, the only place to attend high school in the city had been Knoxville High School. I'm sure those comments come as a surprise to many Golden Bears, Panthers, and Tigers / Engineers, who attended Rule High School, Austin High School, and Stair Tech. The moral : don't always believe what you read in the newspapers, or see on television - - they're too often written or reported these days by people who know little about Knoxville's history, have done virtually no research, and seemingly sometimes have no idea what they're talking or writing about!
Broadway / Henley intersects. Returning along Western, south side, to Walnut.
648 Pan American Wallpaper and Paint Co.
646 Smelcer Furniture Co.
644 Joy Cab Co.
642 Knoxville Armature & Motor Works
640 City Shoe Shop
638 Janeway's Barber Shop
636 Apartments
634 White Front Café
632 Warner Elevator Service
628 Larry's Beer Garden
624 Liberty Cleaners
622 Watson Plumbing & Heating
620 Raymond's Spaghetti Shop. I suppose this is evidence that every eating establishment in town did NOT exclusively serve such things as pinto beans, onions, and cornbread. Although, to tell the truth, to some folks around here, that fare perhaps still usually beats spaghetti, hands down..
614-618 East Tenn. York Refrigeration ; Griffin Refrigeration ; Loughran Equip. Co.
610 J. E. Brown Pianos
608 Dixie Heating and Machinery Co.
606 H. B. McCampbell Hardware
600 Red & Gray Tire Co.
Locust intersects. Continuing south side of Western to Walnut
Mostly, apartment buildings were on this street. The following businesses were in this block, between Western and Union
416 Lawson Leather Co.
418 Locust Street Milk Depot
420 Hobart Knoxville Agency store fixtures
Continuing along the south side of Western, to Walnut
522-526 Bolton Leather Co.
520 Bomar Appliance Co.
516-518 Save Plumbing Supply Co.
514 Dupont Paint Store
510 vacant
508. A & C Club
508 Antique Grill beer
506 B.L. Chastain Furniture
504 Oldham Trunk Co.
500 Greenlee's Bicycle Shop. Still in business in Knoxville the last time I looked, but long ago relocated at the corner of Broadway and Glenwood, in North Knoxville.
Western terminates at Walnut ; Walnut, along the west side, south to Union
411 L. E. Walden. electrical supplies.
413. V. Grill
415 C. S. Reich linotype composition
417 Western Radio Service
419 George Loo Laundry
421 Western Auto (parking lot)
Cross street, walking back north along east side of Walnut, from Union to Wall
432 Jackson Hotel
430 Price Dental Laboratory
428 Howard's Radio Shop
426 Service Bicycle Shop
424 Jack's Parking Lot
418-422 Parker Brothers farm supplies. This firm had another store near the downtown area in 1948, located on Jackson Avenue. Still in business, but no longer downtown.
412-416 Pollard's Garage
410 Martin Rosenberger Wallpaper Co.
408 Knoxville Blueprint & Supply Co. ; 2nd. floor - Master Printers
404-406 Senak Co. of America household supplies
402 Loveday's Fruits
Wall intersects, continue back along south side, east towards Gay street
426 Blue Circle
424 Wall Ave. Café
422 Majestic Barber Shop
420 Stevens Billiard Parlor
416 Stooksbury Bros. Grocery
414 Ward's Café
408 Carolina Special eating house. ( Perhaps this establishment was named for the passenger train of the same name.)
Market intersects
Walking south along Market Square, west side, from Wall to Union
Including the Market House itself, there were more than eighty businesses on Market Square in 1948, in addition to the produce dealers and farmers who sold their wares from trucks outside the Market House. The Market House itself is of course long bone, ant the only business of any size that was left on the square in 1997 was Watson's, but it closed it doors soon thereafter. Today, scads of money has been spent in an attempt to revitalize Market Square ( a project that had already been attempted at least two different times during the past forty years or so.) Whether the current multi-million dollar scheme will succeed is anybody's guess. Certainly the day to day success will depend primarily on customers who live and work downtown. It remains to be seen what effect the marijuana scandal of 2006 will be. For those not into the Bohemian lifestyle, nor among those being referred to today as living "Upscale" - - whatever that means - - there are still many who have yet to become modernized in their eating habits, still preferring to eat things that "stick to their ribs", rather than a bowl of grass or seaweed - - or raw fish.
37 Gold Sun Café. A long time Market Square eatery, a restaurant was still operating here recently. In more modern times it was Peroulas restaurant, then later as Gus' Restaurant.. Following the original name change to Peroulas', when I worked downtown and sometimes lunched here, I continued to always call this the "Gold Sun".
35 Cas Walker Groceries. In his daily columns years ago, the entertaining Knoxville Journal sportswriter, Tom Anderson., sometimes would mention our one-time controversial grocery magnet, Cas Walker, usually calling him Caswell Ortel. Cas, Now deceased, was a one-of-a-kind character to end all characters. He disappeared from sight for a number of years, and the story going around was that he had been declared mentally incompetent and was confined to a mental institution. During that period, his grocery empire gradually deteriorated until it was no more. His relatives eventually passed on, and at an advanced age, he apparently was suddenly pronounced of sound mind, and returned to the Knoxville scene, where he was still excessively long-winded (while often not necessarily coherent) when he would stand and speak at City Council meetings. - - which was far too often. Of course, by then he no longer had the influence locally that he had once inexplicably wielded. Cas sponsored a number of Knoxville country music programs on radio and TV, generally amateurish productions, often with hilarious - - but usually unintentional - - humor. I was never much of a country music fan, but for that reason I religiously watched his early morning TV show, the "Farm and Home Hour". His grocery stores, located throughout town, had mottos including "the Sign of the Shears" and "We Doze but Never Close" The latter slogan was truism during a time when few stores of any kind - - save a few that actually stayed open one night one week until nine o'clock - - were open at anytime during the evening hours, let alone all night long. Possibly the full-time availability of groceries, cigarettes, etc. was one of the secrets to the success Cas' success, which otherwise was difficult to understand, since his grocery stores generally were often lacking in appearance and cleanliness, compared with the other local "super markets". Cas was on City Council for many years, and generally was against anything that smacked of local progress. But he was off base when he pronounced that our new Civil Auditorium / Coliseum would be a "White Elephant". If he were still around today, and had predicted doom for such things as the ultra expensive new Convention Center, he might have come closer to hitting the nail on the head.
33 Market Square Lunch
33 Bill and Sonny's Smoke Shop
31 Crystal Theater.
29 Hub Dept. Store
27 Square Supply Co. hardware
25 Easy Way Five, Ten, Twenty-Five Cent Store
23 Holston Hardware and Supply Co.
21 Chicago Meat Market
19 Collins Detective Agency ; Gertrude's Beauty Shop
19-A. Hole in the Wall Cigar Store The name of the business here aptly described the size of the establishment, as indeed it did for a number of other similar places that were scattered throughout downtown. Many were so narrow that you almost had to walk sideways to get in and out of the places. They still many have such establishments in places like New York City, where rental costs and precious space necessitate such tiny quarters for small businesses.
19 Hopson Bros. Dept. Store (previously, this had been location of the Rialto movie theater.)
17 Market Clearing House hardware
15 TVA (mail room)
15 Snyder's Dept. Store
13 Norman's Shoe Store
13 Langsdon's Dry Goods
11 Ira A. Watson dept store. A chain, Watson's operated a number of stores throughout the United States. In 1948, in Knoxville they had additional locations on South Central and South Gay. In the old days of the flourishing Watson's on Market Square, they sold not only soft goods but also hardware and related items. Before they left Market Square, they were the last remaining large store in downtown Knoxville. Then, they often offered quality merchandise at true bargains, particularly when they had wheeled in merchandise acquired - - literally - - from a "fire sale".
9 Farm and Home Store
7 Emery Stores 5c to 1.00
5 White Store The White Store was the last decent-sized grocery store to abandon downtown. Before leaving, their final downtown location was on the east side of Gay Street, in the old Knox Dry Goods building. Like all other businesses, they were self-financed, and this old curmudgeon would prefer that private enterprise likewise provide their own financing for any future downtown grocery store, rather than expecting the taxpayers to foot some of the bill, as seemingly is now a distinct possibility for such an establishment.
3 Southern Credit Jewelers.
1 Cole Drug Store The building at this corner was once originally the location of the Peter Kern Ice Cream Parlor, a building that also was once known as the Odd fellows building. Bakery goods and candies were manufactured and sold at Kerns, in addition to ice cream, served in their parlor, plus a wide variety of other items, even including fireworks.
Union intersects. Crossing street, walking back along the east side of Market, north to Wall
2-6 Miller's Annex ; rear - Miller's Shoe Repair Shop The Annex offerings included some merchandise that was probably a cut below the quality of that sold at the main store on Gay street, plus items on sale. Their shoe repair shop had a separate door leading to the back alley.
8 The Vogue ladies clothing
10 Neubert Clothing Co.
10 Marilyn Slipper Shop
12 Ames Apparel ladies clothes
14 Fox Stores dry goods
16 Lane Rexall Drug Store
18-20 Deitch Brothers Dept. Store. As recently as 1998, still evident at the upper level of one of the buildings here on the east side of Market, was the decaying painted sign of the Mavis Shoe Store. The sign looked so old and faded that I assumed it was from a business that had been here in the forties, but it turned out that the Mavis store was at this address later, although obviously it is long gone now. Some parts of old American cities are not dissimilar from archaeological sites, with layer upon layer of past lives. The primary difference is that the time periods in cities can be counted in decades, rather than in epochs or eons.
22 Glen-More Clothing
24 Ben Franklin Dept. Store
26 Corkland's Record Shop ; Corkland's Style Center dept store ; 2nd floor - Vogue millinery
28 Good-Friends Shop ladies clothing
30 Dan Cohen Co. shoes
32 Kinney Shoes
34 Underwood Clothing Co.
34 Peters Shoe Store
36 Bower's Inc. Dept store. Bowers sold lots of work clothes, work shoes, and similar merchandise. They also had a sporting goods department.
Market House.
Businesses were on both sides inside the Market House, with a narrow passageway running through the middle of the building.
57 Mrs N.D. Ailor, popcorn
53-56 Lyle's Lunch, Also at the same stall, according to the 1948 directory, was Lyle's Painting Contractor. One trusts they were able to keep the paint thinner out of the coffee.
51 Model Meat Market
52 Cawood's Meat Market
49 Scalf's Meat Market
50 Sonny's Meat Market
47-48 Luttrell's Sandwich Shop
44-46 McNutt's Florist
42-43 Parker's Market vegetables
40-41 Land's Sandwich Shop
37-39 Chandler's Florist
36 D.F. Rightsell Vegetables
33-35 Williams Sandwich Shop
31-32 Maxey's Meat Market
29-30 City Fish Market
28 W. E. Bradley Groceries
25-27 Lippner Fish Market
24 Bell Meat and Fish Market
23 Palace Fish Market
The old Market House was hardly the place for those with a weak stomach. As a youngster, I couldn't wait to get out of the place. It always smelled like the combination of dead fish (from the fish markets) and a funeral home (from the flower shops). As is evident from these listings of the businesses that were operating stalls in the Market House, eateries were in close proximity to those places, and the stench generally was anything but pleasant, at least to my nostrils. I was always amazed that people could casually eat and apparently enjoy a meal in the place. Once I had actually been inside the Market House a couple of times, I could readily understand the words to an old ditty, compiled by an unknown person, and sometimes sung by kids from North Knoxville .. to the tune of an old religious hymn, "The Old Country Church", to wit :
"Market House of Memories
Oh what joy it brings to me
Just to smell those dead fish
and eat my favorite dish
with my friends at the Old Market House"
21-22 Riverside Turkey Farm.
19-20 Harry Lippner Meat Market
16-18 H. B. Jones vegetables
13-15 Dantzler Coffee Co. groceries
11-12 Kerns' Bakery branch
8-9-10 R.H. Clapp Eating House
7 Market Grocery
6 Ward and Andrews meats
5 Claude Dykes meats
2-4 J. G. Madden meats
1 Nash and Dykes meats
Besides the Wall and Union entrances, there were, along both the east and west sides, other entrances into the Market House. It made for a crowded place, since all along the outside walls farmers parked their trucks and peddled their wares.
Back to Wall street - continuing east along the south side of Wall, back to Gay street
314-320 Bower's Inc. dept store (side entrance)
312 Blue Circle
310 Gem Jewelry Shop
308 H . F. Gilmore optometrist
308 Good Luck Dry Cleaners
306 Downey and Sims. Dentists
304 Bart's Hat Shop
Gay street intersects. Continue along west side of Gay, to Union
401 Pollock's Shoes
403-405 Strand Theater. (See descriptions of movie theaters at end.)
407-411 McClellan's dept. store
413 Baker's Shoes
415 Lerner Shops, ladies clothing. Just a few years ago, the old Lerner sign was still visible on the upper portion of this building, being one of the few remaining evidences of businesses that had been in this block in 1948.
417-421 Kress 5 & 10 store
423-439 Millers Dept. Store. The other large downtown department store. and in fact I think Miller's was perhaps larger than George's. Certainly, they had virtually anything anyone could ever want, much of the merchandise being quality types and brand names. I remember back in the late 1950's seeing an RCA console color televison in their side window on Union, one of the first I had seen anywhere. It was of dubious usefulness, since all of the networks combined only scheduled a handful of color programs during the entire week at the time. Even so, within a few months I had bought one of the things, although the only shows I can recall being available in color then were "Bonanza" and "The Wonderful World of Disney".
Union intersects. Walking along the north side of Union.
(South side of the Miller's building.)
Alley intersects
313-317 Biltmore Café
319 Union Café
321 Tom's Shoe Shop
321 vacant
Market street intersects. Continuing on north side of Union, west to Walnut
405 Lotspeich Building (various businesses)
409 Union Avenue Barber Shop
411 Bryan's Tasty Foods
413-417 Roxy Theater. (See descriptions of movie theaters at end.)
419 Knoxville's Pioneer Beauty Shop
421 Johnson's Sport Shop
423 Hollywood Studio photographers. This was a second location - the other was on Gay Street.
425 Queen Barber Shop.
427 George's Shoe Shop
429 Maskall Jewelers
Walnut street intersects. Continuing on north side of Union, west to Locust
501-505 Western Auto
503 Daylight Building. (various businesses)
507 Knoxville Wholesale Florists
509 Railway Express Agency. A popular and common mode of shipment, used by businesses and individuals, for sending packages and merchandise. Not unlike today's U. P. S., except packages were obviously shipped via railroad.
511 Howard Sprankle Realtors
513 Remington Rand office machines
515 National Cash Register Co.
517 vacant.
525 Part Rite Auto Park
Locust intersects. (West to Henley, along both sides of the street, Union was private residences and apartments in 1948, the exception being the Pickens and Thomas Service Station, at the corner of Henley and Locust.
Locust. Walking south along the west side of Locust, to Clinch avenue
503 Masonic Service parking lot
505 Masonic Temple. Originally the home of Charles McGhee, constructed in the early nineteenth century. A portion of the original structure remains today.
YMCA. Northwest corner of Locust and Clinch. Located here since the 1920's, previously locations of the Knoxville "Y" had been at downtown sites including Gay street, Wall avenue, and at the corner of State and Commerce, in what had originally been the Palace Hotel. A place for ping pong, swimming, and with "real" gymnasiums, except shooting the basketball in the main gym there was difficult when you were in the corner of the court, since the slanted running track was overhead, lowering the ceiling in the corners of the court to the point where from it wasn't much different from the infamous low-ceiling gym at the Boy's Club down on Vine. The "Gray Y's" program enabled young boys to use the facility at designated times for a modest cost. One of the mysteries at the YMCA was their requirement that boys had to swim in the buff in their downstairs swimming pool. Apparently this was a requirement at Y's throughout the country. Not long ago I ran across a photograph that appeared in a local newspaper back in the 1940's, showing several young boys standing along the edge of the pool at the "Y", in their birthday suits. Back then, I always wondered if the girls at the YWCA, a couple of blocks up the street on Clinch, were likewise required to swim in the buff.
Crossing the street, walking back along the east side of Locust, from Clinch to Union
516 OK Parking Lot
514 TVA Garage
512 Elm Court Apartments
510 H & M Café
506 J. E. Taylor locksmith ; apartments
Continuing Union avenue, along the south side, back to Market street
526 Park Rite Auto Park
516-522 Tenn. Dept. Employment Security
512-514 Burroughs Adding Machine Company
506-510 TVA (New Sprankle Building.)
500-504 Southern Bell Tel and Tel. In the 1980's, Piccolo's, a nice downtown restaurant, was at this address. I dined there a few times, enjoying the meal and the dinner music. But I thought the ambiance, the service, and the food were a bit too good, and came along too late, to make it in downtown Knoxville at that late date, and that the place was likely to fold. Unfortunately, I was correct.
Walnut intersects. West side of Walnut, south to Clinch
509 Walnut Street Garage
517 TVA Garage
519 Grady's Grill
521 Alson Apartments. The name on this building that sits at the corner, "Althea", is carved in the masonry at both the Walnut Street and Clinch Avenue entrances (at least, it was back in 1998)
Clinch intersects. East side of Walnut, back to Union
518 Modern Beauty Shop
516 Tulane Hotel.
514 vacant (something of an oddity in that this location was also vacant back in 1944, one of the few downtown locations unoccupied for any period of time back then. Of course, within a few years, such vacancies downtown were to be not only commonplace but much longer-lasting.)
510. Park Hotel. Many years later, this place was still standing, across the street from the garage where I parked when I worked downtown. But by then it was quite dilapidated, and apparently served as something of a flop house. Based on observing those entering and leaving the building, and the "ladies" occasionally leaning out of the upstairs windows, it was also a place of questionable activities. I mention those facts because of a funny episode I witnessed back in 1982 when the Energy Expo (alias World's Fair) was in full swing, just a couple of blocks down the street, across Henley. Knoxvillians will of course recall that one of the supposed problems was advertised to be the fact that there were not going to be nearly enough rooms in Knoxville's hotels and motels to support the anticipated hoards of visitors. Encouraged by the Fair management and the media, many people decided to refurbish, modernize, and/or add space in their homes, anticipating financial gains from the anticipated six months of booking rooms for Fair visitors - - at handsome rates. As it turned out, apparently nobody had anticipated how many people would instead pour into town in chartered buses, spend the day and much of the evening at the Fair, and then board the bus and return home, without spending a single night in town. Perhaps some local folks broke even, or made some extra cash, but many found at Fair's end that all they had was evidence that they had expanded or enhanced their living quarters, and in some were probably left with a sizeable debt. I recently noticed that a local TV station referred to people who had made such changes to their homes back in 1982 as having been "greedy", but that same station was in the middle of the local media that had inaccurately reported the dire need for such facilities back then. As to the Park Hotel, not dissimilar to other unlikely such places, the management likewise got into the act, repainting the interior and exterior, shining up the entranceway, and doing some other refurbishing, but actually the place still looked pretty seedy. Anyway, one day I was I'm going to may parking garage, early during the days after the Fair had first opened. Up Union Avenue came this big limousine, transporting a couple who were dressed to the hilt, and appeared to perhaps be people of no little means. Those who were arranging lodging for out of town visitors had arranged to house folks all over town, due to the anticipated shortage of rooms, and the repainted Park Hotel was one such venue. I don't think I'll ever forget the looks on the faces of that man and woman as they alighted from the plush automobile, stared for several seconds at the Park Hotel, took puzzled looks at each other, and obviously were saying something like "surely to God THIS thing is not our hotel!" I'm sure it probably was, but I quickly left the scene, not having the heart nor the stomach to wait and try to find out for sure.
Returning to Union, along the south side, back to Market Street
430 Union Milk and Grocery
428 Walmac's Restaurant. For years afterwards, this was called Lines Restaurant, then later became Pete's Restaurant. (That was before they tore the building down, and Pete's had to move to the next block of Union to the west.)
426 Economy Shoe Store. In 1998, a shoe shop was still in operation at this site, fifty years later, but under new ownership. Since then, that shop has bitten the dust.
424 W. J. Heins Jeweler
422 Reader's Book Exchange ; Sprankle Real Estate
420 Ideal Electric Co.
418 Western Union Telegraph Co. ; American Dist. Telegraph Co.
416 Union Hardware ; Hall's Watch Repair
406-414 TVA (Union Building)
Market intersects. South along the west side of Market, to Clinch.
501 - 505 Arnstein Building (T. V. A. offices) Here at the southwest corner of Clinch and Union, sidewalk preachers loudly screamed their sermons, sometimes pointing their accusing fingers at innocent pedestrians passing by, and - - apparently oblivious to the fact - - sometimes managing to frighten young children with such antics. Usually there were two of them, sometimes three, one standing and shouting, the others observing and encouraging the one screaming his sermon. Back then, I didn't think much about it, but upon reflection it now dawns on me that probably they may have been from some type of a "preaching" school. They would sometimes manage to roust up a small crowd, and around here of course nobody was ever going to question the right of anyone claiming to be appointed messengers of such magnitude, so they seemingly performed undisturbed, whenever they wished. I thought this was a thing of the past, but in recent years darned if I didn't see and hear a sidewalk preacher operating at the same corner. Of course, except during the Dogwood Arts Festival or during other special occasions, most Knoxvillians don't go downtown anymore, thus only folks who work downtown are likely unlikely to encounter those preachers today. Back in the 70's or 80's, there was a decent restaurant at this corner, called the Union Café. I think at one time later it had become an exclusive eating place for Whittles employees, when they occupied some of this building. Today, another restaurant is located at the site.
511 Town and Country Shop ladies clothing.
511 Sears Billiards Parlor
513 A & P Grocery.
515 Hogins Shoe Store
517 White Palace Restaurant
519 Singer Sewing Machine Co.
521 Grady-Jacques Beauty Shop
521 Goode Building : Adams, CPA; Albert, lawyer; Amvets; Fuson, lawyer; Layman, real estate; First Industrial Loan; West Realty; Joe's Tailor Shop ; R.S. Bagwell, architect.
523 Dunlap Trunk and Leather Shop
Market, back north along east side, to Union
526 Boston Shoe Shop
520 Reed Optometrist ; Tindell's Jewelers
518 Stauffer System Slenderizing Salon
518 General Finance Co.
514 Kuhlman Decorators draperies
512 Miller Building: Norman Merle Studio ; T. C. Needham photo retouching ; Findley tailors ; Heron Jewelry ; Alex Herbert Co. jewelers ; (plus private residents)
512 Holston Shoe Rebuilders.
510 Quality Bakery. These folks had delicious cakes and pies and cookies. The sweet smell of those goodies permeated the air for a considerable distance, which was certainly a welcome change for anybody who had just walked out of the south end of the Market House.
506-508 Darling Shop ladies clothing.
504 Sedgwick Building : National Ring Stores ; Wilson Real Estate ; Moore sales ; Courtney Studio - photography ; Baxter's Beauty Shop ; Brannan Tailors.
Union intersects. Back along the south side of Market, to Gay street.
326 Kronrad Jewelers
324 Sibyl Hat Shop
322 Lenak Studio photographers
322 Krystal
320 Sally's Dress Shop
318 Dutch Beauty Shoppe
318 Darling Shop ladies clothing Remembering this store, but never having been inside it, I can't describe the layout, but apparently they had two entrances, because the store is also listed in directories at an address around the corner, on Market Street.
316 George Portrait and Camera Shop
314 Kirk's Coffee Shop
The alley here was called Strong Alley. Most of the downtown alleys had names, although few people knew the names in 1948. Perhaps they were named for people whose station did not quite merit a real street. If this particular one was named for Benjamin Rush Strong, we've certainly had streets named for people of lesser importance - - particularly in recent times.
312 Park National Bank The side entrance. Attorneys were on the third and fourth floors. On the top floor was radio station WKGN. For some time back in the early fifties, their primary disc jockey, Eddie Parker, was one of the most popular local radio personalities. His a.m. show was called the Morning Express, and he also had an afternoon show. He left town many years ago, and in recent years I heard that he has passed on. He often visited area high schools to M.C. various activities, and he cleverly knew the names of many local students. Which circumstance reduced our entire starting five on the basketball team at Rule High School to spectators one night, when we were to play the East High team at the Rule gym. Contrary to Coach Willard Martin's instructions, we wandered downtown after school, ending up at the WKGN radio studio. Parker caught a glimpse of us in the hallway, through the plate glass windows, and before we could signal him to cool it, he blurted out the fact that he had visitors in the hall, and proceeded to announce each of our names on the air. Unfortunately, coach Martin was listening to the radio at the time, and that night seated us in our street clothes among the students in the stands. By the way, there were only six radio stations in Knoxville in 1948, and all of those stations had their offices in the downtown area - - (where else?)
Continuing Gay street, west side, south to Clinch
501-503 Park National Bank
507-513 Woolworth 5 & 10
509 Mutual Loan and Thrift
515 Lord's ladies clothing
517 Peggy Hale ladies clothing. I'm sure everyone has seen those novelty black rimmed glasses that are attached to a huge false nose. Back in the sixties, I once saw a woman exiting the Peggy Hale Shop, wearing one of those silly things. I couldn't figure out for the life of me why in the world she would be wearing them, until a closer look revealed that she wasn't.
519 Castle Shoe Store
521 Chandler's Boot Shop
523 Mangel's of Tennessee ladies clothing
525 Wormser's Hat Store. Whatever happened to hat stores? For that matter, whatever happened to hats?
527-529 Lane Rexall Drugs
531 Hamilton National Bank (Tons of businesses on 15 floors - Radio Station WROL was on the third floor) When television came to town in 1953, WROL acquired the first VHF station - - Channel Six. WTSK got the UHF channel, Channel 26. Therein lies a little known tale. WROL, also a radio station, was promoted as the first station to broadcast television in Knoxville. The date of their first broadcast was to be October 1, 1953. To this day, that station, now WATE, still claims that honor. Technically correct, perhaps, but it ain't necessarily so. WTSK was also already operational, but that station was scheduled only to initially broadcast test patterns, with their official 'on the air' date set for mid October. At our house, we had an old Dumont black and white TV, with a one channel antenna on the roof. Before TV in Knoxville, occasionally when the weather was right, we could pick up the Atlanta station, and sometimes the station in Asheville, North Carolina. In fact, in times of weird weather, we actually sometimes picked up stations from places like Havana, Cuba, Midland-Odessa Texas, and Denver, Colorado. However, those stations had the unfortunate tendency of fading in and out with regularity. Like others in Knoxville that night, we waited with anticipation for the first local television broadcast. Unfortunately, WROL encountered technical difficulties, and did not make it on the air until the following morning. The following day, local newspapers reported that WROL had finally gotten on the air, but if so, it must have been past midnight, after I had gone to bed. But station WTSK did go on the air that night, showing an old black and white movie, "G. I. JOE", with Burgess Meredith playing the lead role as Ernie Pyle. Thus Channel 26 actually was the first station broadcast television seen in Knoxville. In the early years, Channel 26 was the most innovative of the early Knoxville stations. They once had even a late night local talk show. I don't recall any station around ever attempting another local show of that type back then. WTSK also had Johnny Mountain as their weather man. You really didn't learn that much about the weather, but then everyone has known forever that you can never depend on weather forecasts in Knoxville anyway. So they made that portion of their news program more entertaining than informative. Johnny gave his forecasts dressed in weird attire, performing as such characters as a cowering sissy, a stumbling bum, and a hairy-armed woman wearing an ill-fitting evening dress! Now, that was television. I still wonder why local stations learned nothing from those early innovations on WTSK.
Clinch intersects. Along the north side of Clinch, from Gay to Market.
(South side of the Hamilton Bank building)
Alley intersects
317 Atchley Optical Co. ; J. W. Remke, Optometrist
319 Tabes Candy and Nut Shop (branch - - the main store was on Gay.)
321 Style Shop ladies clothing
323 Paul's Restaurant
325 Plaza Block (nine different businesses were here : Draughon's Business College occupied the second and third floors.
327 Bradley Millinery Co. : Bradley Beauty Salon
329 M. E. Green, tailor
331 Louis Meyer, optometrist
333 Meyers Drug Store
Market street intersects. Continuing west on Clinch, to Walnut.
407 School and Office Supply Co.
409 Sansom Building (eight businesses, including Primrose Beauty Shop, Gladys Hat Shop, and Lillian Schiller School of Dance.
411 Tennessee Café
413 Goddard Florist
417 Park Rite Auto Park
421 O. W. Schaeffer office machines
425 Bellevue Hotel. A third floor occupant in this building was called the Drugless Health Clinic. I'm unsure if this was some sort of health food store, or if perhaps a place with a magical zig, zag, and swirl machine.
425 Knoxville Reweavers
Walnut intersects. Continuing west on Clinch, to Locust.
501 Richards Studio photographers
501a Johnson's Sound Service
501b Schiffers Cleaners and Dyers
503 Wong's Hand Laundry
505 A rooming house - - proprietor Miss A. E. Delozier
509 New China Restaurant ; Stag Beer Room. Sounds like a strange combination, but these were actually two separate places. You walked up a couple of steps and entered to the left into the New China Restaurant, or went more or less straight ahead through a door that led to the beer parlor. The Chinese food was good, and reasonable. I can't speak from experience, but I heard that the Stag was likewise a popular spot.
511 Craftsman Shoe and Leather Service
513 Samuel Friedman tailor
515 Business Brokerage Co.
517 Clinch-Locust Garage
521 Hamilton's Ladies Clothing
529 B. & B. Grill
Locust intersects. Continuing west on Clinch to Henley.
605 YMCA - there were two entrances ... one on Clinch and another on Locust.
619 Knoxville Venereal Disease Clinic. I admit that until I found this in the 1948 directory I never knew this clinic had existed, and was likewise unaware that "social diseases" were so prevalent that a separate clinic was necessary at that time.
Cross Clinch, at Henley. Back east on the south side of Clinch, to Locust.
618-620 Star Laundry
614 Knoxville Linen and Towel Service
612 Central Cleaners ; Phoenix Dye Works
606 Park Rite Auto Park
600 Pollard's Parking Lot
Locust intersects.
Locust, west side, south to church
611 Phebe Park Gift Shop
Locust, east side, back north to Clinch
600 First Methodist Church
Clinch intersects. Continuing Clinch, south side, east from Locust to Walnut
518-520 First Methodist Church
516 Park Rite Auto Park
512 Clinch Ave. Shoe Shop
510 Starlight Designs. I don't know about 1948, but twenty or so years afterwards the fellow who operated this place consistently had weird and/or controversial signs in his display window.
500 The Letter Shop. I'm not sure when this place moved over onto Church, downstairs at the old Cherokee Building, but they were at that later location for many years. They obviously brought all of their old equipment with them. Two pleasant ladies operated the Letter Shop. Their equipment was obviously still original in those later years, and one suspected that Gutenberg's original press might have been somewhere in the back room. There was no evidence of computerization of any kind. Possibly that circumstance contributed to their eventual demise.
Walnut intersects. West side of Walnut, south to Church
601-603 Doctors Building. (Thirty-two doctors and dentists on five floors, plus two beauty shops and sundry other businesses.)
605 Doctors Eblen and Wayland
605 Stallworth Pinkston Ins. Co. ; Gamble Real Estate ; Wilson, lawyer ; Barnett, photographer
607 United Order of the Golden Cross
609 Doctors Cullum and Clifton ; 2nd floor Keener Dental Supply
611 Business Realty Co. ; Jett Realty Co. ; Knox Employment Bureau ; Byrd Beauty Shop
611 Apartments
615 Dr. McCullough
617 Dr. Zemp
617 Hendrickson and Jenkins, insurance.
Walnut, east side, back north to from Church to Clinch
614 Dr. McCampball
612 Dr. Clark
610 vacant
600-698 Y.W.C.A. - side entrance
Continuing Clinch, east from Walnut to Market, south side.
YWCA - at the same old stand today as it was in 1948.
416 Phoenix Dye Works branch
414 Tennessee Valley Bank
412 Knaffl and Brakebill photographers. A combination of names long known in the photographic business in Knoxville. In the nineteenth century, each had a separate studio in Knoxville.
410 Bonita's Ladies Clothing
408 McClure Building (Two floors of businesses, including insurance offices, architects, and office of the Knoxville Girl Scouts.)
406 Jones McBride Beauty Shoppe
404 Vogue Beauty Shop
Market intersects. Market, south from Clinch to Church, west side.
Southeast corner. TVA
601 Todd & Armistead drug store. A long-time Knoxville institution. Their final location was on Gay Street. In fact the chronology is rather interesting. The drug store had a diner, with stools and booths, as was a common circumstance at drug stores. When it was located on the east side of Gay, north of the Riviera theater, that operation continued. Eventually, the restaurant operation was taken over as Gus' restaurant, and initially the drug store continued in operation. The drug store later gave up the ghost, and only the restaurant, then expanded, remained.
603 McTownlee Building (Twenty-nine different offices, all shown as being on the second floor. A mixture of businesses, real estate agents, optometrists, attorneys, etc.)
605 Matheny's Books ; Matheny's Travel Agency
607 Clinton Jewelry ; Rankin tailor ; Lay's Sandwich Shop
609 McTownlee Building (another entrance)
611 Sterling House ladies clothing
613 Hope Bros Jewelers. A long-time downtown Knoxville institution, this business was in Knoxville since the nineteenth century. Originally on Gay street, on the west side of the block between Clinch and Union, where their well-known sidewalk clock stood in front of that store. In the 1940's, they moved to this Market street address, and the sidewalk clock was removed to the front of Kimball's Jewelers.
613 Baker Building : Lawyers Mounger and Dyer; Heap Jewelers; Caldwell, Dressmaker.
615 Service Barber Shop
615 Realty Building. (Thirteen offices on two floors)
617. Elsie Baker Shop. ladies clothing.
623-625. Bank of Knoxville Building. Lytle Jeweler ; Fourteen additional floors of various business offices, professionals
Church intersects. Market back to Clinch, east side.
624 Empire Building. Seven floors of various businesses and professional offices .. predominant at this location were offices of lawyers. There were entrances on Market and Clinch. It wasn't that many years ago that this old building was sold, then not long thereafter demolished. The building sold for a price that was considerably less than the price of a number of homes now being sold in the Knoxville area these days, not to mention the price of some of the individual condominiums being sold today, contained in similar downtown buildings to this structure.
616 Adams Parking Lot ( the rest of this block was - and still is - occupied by the side entrance to the original Customs House building.)
Clinch intersects. Back on the south side of Clinch, from Market to Gay,
Customs House. The downtown station of the Post Office operated on the main floor in the old Customs House building. Today expanded to include the large new adjoining building at the corner of Gay and Clinch, the buildings house the McClung Collection of the Knoxville Public Library, the East Tennessee Historical Society, and the Knox County Archives.
(An alley was here in 1948 - it was eliminated when the above building was expanded.)
312 Beeler's Bootery
310 vacant in 1948
308 Coffin Shoe Co.
306 Little Brother and Sister Shop
304 Rogers Jewelers
302 Fouche Block (north side of the Fouche Building) ; Brownlow Real Estate, Allen's Beauty Shop, Victor Klein real estate ; Dale-Cox accountants ; and J. H. Richards, optometrist ( all reached by climbing a steep narrow stairway to the second floor.)
300 Ware and Ware Tailors
Gay Street intersects. Continuing on the west side of Gay street, south to Church
601 Helm's Cigar Store. This and other adjoining businesses were in the aforementioned Fouche Building. In later years, it had been remodeled so many times that it bore no resemblance to the original structure at the street level. However, the exterior of the second story remained essentially the same, and there were rather curious circumstances concerning the demise of this building, particularly in view of the fact that various factions these days promote the preservation of buildings that are stated to be of historical significance - - albeit some of those structures sometimes are not half as old as was this structure. The Fouche Building, torn down in the early 1990's, would have been 150 years old in 1997. Even so, somebody who obviously had influence and control over such matters managed to have the original date the building had been constructed - - 1847, which year was carved in stone above the upper floor center window when the building was originally built - - removed, on a weekend some years ago. I assume that action was to assure that nobody would pay attention to that clue that had remained there for so long, clearly identifying the antiquity of the building to anyone who bothered to look up and notice the date, and paving the way for the building to come down soon thereafter. Since that removed date had been there for more than 140 years, and because not dissimilar building edifices remained on downtown buildings that also were probably more than a hundred years old, I think it is unlikely that this was done as a safety precaution. My office was directly across the street from the building, and one Monday morning I immediately noticed that the date had been removed over the previous weekend, and wondered why it had been done. For me, the date had sometimes been a topic of conversation with visitors, particularly people from out of town. Not long thereafter, when the building was demolished, I naturally assumed there had been method in the date-removal caper. In its condition, the building was indeed probably an unattractive structure at the street level by that time. Even so, I have wondered why, in modern times when preservationists are pleading to save our few remaining historical buildings, particularly in downtown Knoxville, what was one of the oldest standing downtown buildings was destroyed. The newly expanded East Tennessee Historical Center building now finally stands on the spot, and I am glad that this valuable and useful historical facility is downtown today But I was not particularly keen that it was built where the old 1847 structure was standing until a few years ago. Today, one hears occasional suggestions that other local structures should be preserved, such as the old Minvilla Apartment building at Broadway and Fifth Avenue (i.e., the Fifth Avenue Motel building.) Compared to the antiquity and historical significance of the demolished Fouche building, that's almost an insult to the public.
603 Nan Denton's. Her 'Orange Julius" was the most popular fare, with the dip dogs and hot dogs running a close second. The Julius was a chain operation, with another location in town, but most of the people I knew more often just referred to this place as the Orange Julius instead of Nan Dentons. They sold so many of those orange drinks that one lady, who had worked there at the counter for many years, didn't even bother to ask what you wanted when you approached the counter, instead merely asking "Orange ?" - - which more often than not was the right question to ask.
605 Sanitary Sandwich Shop
607 Hardy's Shoe Store
607 Bonart Studios photographers
609 Thom McAn Shoe Store. A primary competitor to Hardy's, at the aforementioned nearby Gay Street location, not to mention several other downtown shoe stores. Both Hardy's and Thom McAn's sold similar types of shoes, mostly boys and mens shoes of moderate quality and price. In later years, McAn's moved to a larger location a block to the south, in the 500 block of Gay, and for a while featured one of downtown's prime attractions. She was probably no more than five feet tall, and - - if you don't already know - - the attraction was that she had certain attributes that made Dolly Parton look rather under-developed. The place provided interesting entertainment by merely watching the steady stream of men, many being downtown business men, supposedly examining the shoes displayed in the front windows, but also taking obvious glimpses into the store to get a peek at the famous clerk. The rumor was that the place was hard pushed to keep shoe laces in stock, because often some of the braver souls wandered into the store for a closer look, under the guise of purchasing that inexpensive accessory.
609 Comer's Sport Center. Harry the Horse usually stood at the top of the long stairway, ready to give the signal if an unwanted patron appeared, or if another police raid seemed eminent. Gambling, parlay sheets, and pool tables were the fare, in addition to the small side room cafe that served up a good plate lunch - - meat, vegetables, bread and drink - - for a quarter. When I began working downtown in 1956, they offered a great full-sized hamburger with all the trimmings for fifteen cents. I lunched there at least a couple of times a week. The paperback edition of Cormac MacCarthy's "Suttree" contains an interesting blurb from a reviewer, praising the author for his ability to create such an array of make-believe characters. But anybody who ever spent any time in Comer's will only smile at that reviewer's ignorance, or naivety, realizing that those persons such as the aforementioned Harry the Horse, and many others, including "Flop" (Jimmy Sheldon), the Knoxville Bear (Eddie Taylor), Stud (Ralph Rouse), and an array of other characters, were in fact real people who regularly spent time at Comer's.
611 Krystal. This was the downtown Krystal I was most familiar with. In 1948, the hamburgers were seven cents. But for that matter I have seen old photographs of the earlier Krystal's, back in the 1930's, with signs indicating they were only a nickel back then. Once, when I was about twelve years old or so, I somehow managed to come up with a dollar and wandered downtown. I bought a bag of ten Krystal hamburgers here. I then walked across the street to the Tennessee Theater and bought an admission ticket for nine cents, slumping and crouching a bit, assuring the teller that I was only eleven years old, thus was qualified for the lower-priced children's ticket. I then strolled into the elaborate lobby of the Tennessee, bought a bag of popcorn for a nickel, and made my way up the carpeted stairway and took a seat, where I saw the movie and ate myself silly, still with sixteen cents from that buck left in my pocket.
611 Skeet Tallent Studio photographer. From the first time I first saw this downtown photographer, I always thought he bore more than a passing resemblance to dancer / movie star Fred Astaire.
613 Mayfair Hatters. The hat was still a requirement for the businessman in 1948, and the Mayfair Hatters did a bustling business cleaning and blocking felt hats - - the hat of choice back then. Not many years passed before the hat became a novelty rather than a necessity, a trend that was evident in downtown Knoxville by the middle 1950's. Reports were that President John F. Kennedy's refusal to wear a hat in the early 1960's was the beginning of the end of the felt hat as regular business attire. But while Knoxville has often been behind a few months, ir not years, in terms of fashion, the fact that hats were already on their way before 1960 is evidence that this practice was already falling by the wayside, even here. Mayfair Hatters also offered a novel service, whereby men would walk into the rear portion of the establishment, take a seat in one of the curtain-shielded cubbyholes, and remove their pants and hand them to an attendant, who would have them neatly pressed and returned to the client, who for a small fee could then return to Gay Street wrinkle-free.
2nd floor Joe McDonald's Sport Center. I was only in McDonald's once or twice. City directories reveal that in earlier years McDonald's had been a gym and boxing arena. By 1948 it was a pool hall in competition with Comer's a block to the north.It may have been that in 1948, certain segments of the population frequented McDonalds, while others preferred Comer's. That is merely conjecture, but maybe those from North Knoxville preferred Comer's. I did recently run into an old Young High school football star, from South Knoxville, and he mentioned that back in the late 1940's he had spent some of his spare time at McDonald's
3rd floor Ledgerwood Dance Studio.
615 Snap Shop. This was Jim Thompson's photo shop. Thompson was an avid photographer, and his marvelous collection of black and white photographs of the Knoxville area, taken over a period of probably a half-century or more, is likely the most comprehensive collection depicting the city of Knoxville that has ever been available. Fortunately, most of the collection was acquired by the McClung Historical Collection of the Knoxville Public Library. Copies of many of those photographs have been used in publications and exhibits, but to date likely only a small percentage of the views have been available for viewing by the masses. Thompson also was interested in movies. He filmed, among other things, early football games of the Tennessee Vols.
617 S. B. Newman office supplies. Newman was in Knoxville for many years. The firm also published books. One such book was a hardbound edition of a local novel, written by W. M. Greenlee, titled "Spees, or, In the Shadow of the Alhambra". It was published in 1894, and sold for twenty-five cents at the Knoxville Street Fair that year.
619 Weaver's Restaurant. Weaver's was a popular city luncheon establishment. They had a sizeable number of regular customers among downtown workers. I worked with one of their customers, a man who would rarely eat lunch anywhere else. When Weaver's finally closed, he had such difficulty adjusting to the change in his routine that for a while afterwards during lunch hour I noticed sometimes that he would walk up to the building where the restaurant had been located and just stand there for a little while, staring into the window, as if the doors were going to re-open and let him in, permitting him to return to his old luncheon comfort zone.
621 Shaw Jewelry Co.
623 Tabe's Candy and Nut Company. Tabe's had a wondrous assortment of candy and nuts and all kinds of goodies.
623 Mercantile Building. This was the Gay Street entrance.
631 Baum's Home of Flowers.
Church intersects. Walking west along the north side of Church, to Market.
303 Baum's (the side entrance - on Church)
305 R.A. Horner Watch Repairs
307 Mercantile Building (another entrance)
309 Kay's of Knoxville. There were nine Kay's stores throughout town in 1948, and one in Maryville. By 1998 there were only three here. None were anywhere near the downtown area, and I'm unsure if there are any in Knoxville today, unless the one is still in business out in South Knoxville. Their specialty was ice cream, but they also sold sandwiches and various snacks. Among the favorites were their milk shakes and malts, back then still made the old fashioned way - - ice cream, milk, and your selection of flavor (chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, etc.) - - all tossed into that shining metal container that was placed under the whirring motor of the mixer, the end product being far superior to the pre-fab, machine-made offerings these days. Kays also served Ruby's Hot Tamales, a popular locally made tamale in Knoxville at the time.
311 Bell Electric Co.
315 Knoxville Electric Co.
317 Frank Rouser motion picture supplies. About the only competition in downtown for the Snap Shop, but Rouser's stock seemed to lean towards more elaborate motion picture equipment instead of the wider variety of cameras, films, and like items for the general public.
319 Filter Queen vacuum cleaners
321- 325 Empire Building (the main entrance)
327 Tennessee Optical Co.
Market intersects, continuing on north side of Church, to Walnut
401 Southeastern Optical Co. ; McNutt-Parker Florists
403 Mrs. A. M. B. Donohoe ladies clothes
405 Fretz and Hayes real estate
407 Adams Parking Lot
409 Kut 'n Kurl Beauty Shop
411 U-Li-Ka Cleaners
413 Margaret McClung Shop ladies clothing
415 Jennie's Flower Shop ; Highland Memorial Cemetery (office)
417 Vester Florists (six other businesses were on the second floor of this building.)
419 ground floor vacant in 1948 ; 2nd floor Roos Tailoring School
421 Classic Beauty Shop ; Browne-L-Fashion Shop ladies clothing
423 Dr. W. S. Austin
425 Selective Service Draft Board.
Walnut intersects, continuing on north side of Church, to Locust
501 Christenberry Infirmary. Christenberry's long-time downtown medical center, available to one and all. It was convenient if you were stricken with virtually any non life-threatening malady. In addition, it was sometimes unbelievably (but unintentionally) entertaining. Walking into the place, one surely felt that many of the chairs and couches in the place had been there - - or somewhere -- for many years. You needed no appointment, thus the convenience. The receptionist at the front desk put your name on her list and told you to have a seat. You waited from thirty minutes to sometimes a couple of hours or so, but you eventually got to see the Doctor. In the meantime, trying to ignore the caged parrot with the salty language, you could read magazines. Some of the periodicals were so old you thought you might find one that featured on the cover a picture of a member of the Dead President's Society, such as Franklin Roosevelt or Woodrow Wilson. Once you name was finally called, you were led to a room with several stalls, each with a small front curtain, where you were seated in something akin to an barber's chair. Usually, folks who came to the clinic had the flu, an bad cold, an upset stomach, or similar discomforts. The informary maintained many medications on the premises, and you received a examination, sometimes a shot of some wondrous drug, were furnished with a package of various pills, and you were on your way, confident you would live for another day. I called it the pig factory, since at least four or five stalls always seemed to come available at the same time, at which time the receptionist called out the names of the next few lucky patients, which procedure I likened to the old hog call, "SOOOO - EEEEEE" !
503 Prater Realty Co.
505 private apartment
507 ground floor vacant in 1948 (occupied apartments upstairs.)
509 US Social Security Office
511 J. R. Gentry insurance ; W. M. Tipton, physician
511 National Building (four businesses)
513 W.F. Dorsey, Physician ; S. H. Hodge, Physician
515 White Surgical Supply Co.
517 Royal Typewriter Co.
523 Ed Barton's Service Station
Locust intersects, continuing on north side of Church, to Henley
601 Willard Radio Service ; McNutt Battery Co. ; Lighthouse Oil Co.
609 P.A. McGinnis, physician (plus three apartments. in the same building, and three more in the basement)
613 Knoxville Park Rite parking lot
625 Kincaid Apartments.
Henley street intersects. Returning on Church, south side, back east to Locust.
618 (Listed in the city directory in 1948 as "burned".)
616 private residence
614 P.A. McGinnis, physician
612 private residence
604 Hotel Arnold Grill
600 Hotel Arnold
Locust intersects. South on west side of Locust, to Cumberland
Arnold Hotel (another entrance.)
Returning along the east side of Locust, to Clinch
714 Apartments
710 private residence
708 private residence
Clinch intersects. Continuing east on south side of Clinch, to Walnut.
522 Laymon-Saffold Clinic (The Saffold was Dr. Jack Saffold. Later his office was on Walnut, in the Doctor's building, next door to the City Club.)
514 Acuff Clinic ; Marion Apartments
512 Second Presbyterian Church (Annex).
500-510 Second Presbyterian Church Second Presbyterian is now on Kingston Pike. Lawson McGhee Public Library is now at this location, in a building built to house the library when it was moved from Market Street. It hasn't been that long since this new larger building was built for the main library, yet a relatively recent plan to build a new main library at a new downtown site fizzled. No older than this building is, and considering how few people today visit the downtown area compared to the old days, many were skeptical about the proposed large expenditure for a new library building. Probably one reason that was not usually mentioned in the newspaper accounts that appeared when this potential expenditure for a new library was being considered was the fact that since the original move from the old Market street location to the new building on Church, quite a number of new branch libraries were since built, to accommodate those who live in communities outside the downtown area. Considering the availability of those relatively new facilities, it did seem questionable that an expensive new downtown library building was needed today. Local citizens these days are hardly keen about the necessity of paying expensive parking fees merely to visit and make use of a facility their tax dollars have built.
Walnut intersects. Along the west side of Walnut, south to Cumberland
Second Presbyterian Church
711-721 apartments
Walnut, east side, returning back north to Church
St. John's Episcopal Church
710 Professional Building. Three floors - two doctors, two dentists, plus other businesses.
Church intersects. Continuing on the south side of Church to Market
416 Park Rite Auto Park
414 Mann Mortuary. In later years, before this building went the way of many other downtown buildings - - for a parking lot - - this building became the Volunteers of America shelter.
406 (Ely Building) WBIR Radio Station
404 A.M. Hill Real Estate
402 Cherokee Building (3 floors of businesses)
400 Polly's. This beer parlor continued in operation for many years. I once heard that years ago that pricy poker games were once regularly conducted upstairs in this building.
Market intersects. Along west side of Market, south to Cumberland
(Cherokee Building)
701 Elsie Stair Flower Shop
703 McMillan Realty Co. Jim McMillan also sold insurance, and represented companies through the general agency where I worked for many years. He apparently knew more about real estate than insurance. One of my earlier responsibilities was as a local underwriter, to determine the acceptability of new applicants for automobile insurance for the insurance companies our agency represented, including the acquisition and review of reports on each newly insured person. Those reports came from the old Retail Credit Company - - a misnomer for an organization that investigated the driving records, police records, and even the lifestyles of applicants. Once it turned out that a particular individual, insured as a new client by McMillan, unfortunately had an accident (and police) record as long as your arm, so it was my unpleasant task to advise the agent that the insurance company obviously would not continue to provide standard automobile insurance coverage for his new client. Old Jim's priorities were obviously different from those of the insurance company, because his immediate response upon hearing the bad news was .. " hold on, there .. they can't cancel this man's insurance .. he paid CASH !"
705 Hop Bailey Co. real estate
707 Keystone Building (two lawyers, two real estate offices, four apartments.)
709 Holston Building. First floor - four lawyers, one real estate broker. Three other offices on second and third floors
713 Army and Air Force Recruiting Offices.
715 East Tenn. Title Insurance Co. ; Second floor - Seahorn and Kennedy engineers
717 Tennessee Insurance Service
719-721 Johnston Sales and Service typewriters
723 Investment Syndicate - Investment Savings
725 Schmidt Real Estate
Cumberland intersects. East side of Market, back north to Church
730-732 Welcome Tavern (beer)
728 W .L. Clapp real estate
726 The Hobby Shop. This place sold all kinds of models, including those model airplane kits that you assembled with balsa wood and glue and painted yourself with paint they called dope and there was always some kid in your neighborhood who could put the things together so that they looked exactly like the picture of the plane on the box that the raw materials came in but when you'd finally finished your's it looked like a piece of junk.
724 Clapp Building ; Lawyers Atkins, Thornburgh, Atchley, Burkes, and Simpson
722 Brougton and Brougton, lawyers ; J. R. Pearce lawyer
722 Richards Real Estate ; Briscoe Electric Co.
720 Lewis, Duggan, and Armstrong real estate ; Collins and Rowan Audit Co. ; Valley Co. financing
718 Paramount Studio photographers
716 Story Appliance Co.
714 Knoxville Optical Dispensary
710 Old Hickory Cleaners
Market intersects. Continuing east on south side of Church, back to Gay street
322 Clancy Optical Co.
320 Sanitary Laundry
316-318 McLean and Scott Realty Co.
314-316 Pryor Brown Transportation Co. (garage)
312 Knoxville Veterinary Hospital
310 Office Supply and Equipment Co.
308 United Shoe Repair
306 Fielden Realty Co.
304 Natural Foods National
302 Knaffl Building (nine businesses on second floor)
Gay street intersects. Continuing on west side of Gay, south to Cumberland.
701 Seaboard Finance Company
703-705 Hertz Driveurself Auto Rentals ; Jolly Cabs ; Matthews Company auto rentals
705A Terminex Tenn. Co.
707 Cosson's Sport Center. In 1948, this was the third Knoxville pool hall and gambling mecca on Gay street, the others being Comer's and McDonald's, a block to the north.
709 Lockett's Beer. A rather unusual sideline of merchandise was offered at this beer parlor. They sold novelties and magic tricks at a counter in the front section of the store, and their magic paraphernalia was always on display in the front window.
709 Dixie Sportsman Magazine ; Knoxville On the Air magazine ; Litho Plate Service
711 Knox County Book Company. Old Doc Black apparently sold a ton of new and used school textbooks here. He also had a book store where he bought and sold used text books in the UT area, behind the old E and E Drug Store on Fifteenth Street. You paid ten dollars for a new school book for use one year (or sometimes to use for only one quarter) then Doc would give you maybe a dollar or so for it. Then he would sell the used book to another student for five or six dollars, allowing the student a moderate saving compared with the cost of a new copy. He made a pretty good profit on the copies of those used textbooks he sold. But in later years, I was in the Gay Street store more than once and talked with Doc, and saw the humongous numbers of old books he had bought and NOT sold, upstairs and downstairs in that building, and I concluded that in truth he probably used up most of his profit on the used school books by reinvesting the money in books he often didn't sell. Nonetheless, my experience when I was a student at U. T. when buying a few used college textbooks convinced me that the situation was not dissimilar to Steve Martin's comment as the character 'Navin' in the movie, "The Jerk", when it was explained to him by a carnival manager that although he was constantly giving away small trinkets by failing to guess the correct weight of patrons, the client had paid a dollar for a trinket that had cost a few pennies. The light went on and Navin said something like ... 'Oh ... it's a PROFIT deal!'. If I was going to pay fifth to seventy percent of the full retail price for a worn and dog-eared copy of a textbook that was falling apart, I decided to just go ahead and purchase new textbooks in the future. I did, and after I graduated from school I just keep the textbooks for many years, rather than sell them for a dime on the dollar. Of course, I eventually got rid of them, since by then they were totally worthless, so in truth Doc's offer would probably have been better than nothing (but not much better.)
713 Dixie Drive It Yourself auto rental
713 Tony Farmer Studio film finishing ; United Mine Workers
715 Tennessee Valley Authority
717 offices - real estate, attorneys, insurance.
719 Park Rite Auto Parking Earlier, this had been the site of the Cumberland Hotel, a hotel originally opened in the 1870's as the Schubert Hotel, and known under various names over the years.
Cumberland intersects. West along the north side of Cumberland, to Market.
315 Charles Winegar Co. manufactures agents
319 Rainey Accounting Machine Co
319 (five businesses)
321 vacant in 1948.
Market street intersects. Continuing west along the north side of Cumberland, to Walnut.
410 apartment house
413 vacant in 1948.
425 St. John's Episcopal Church Originally established on Gay Street in 1828, the church moved to this location in 1891. Being raised a Baptist, I never really knew or attempted to find out that much about Episcopalians, or any other religious denominations for that matter -- not that I even knew that much about Baptists. But several years ago I was surprised to notice a sign at St. Johns. It appeared to be a permanent sign, but one I had never noticed. I always thought that those loud and suspicious television "healing" preachers were the only ones involved in such activities. But here at St. John's Church was this sign, indicating that among the weekly activities, "healing" was available, on Thursdays only. I couldn't help but wonder what happened if a church member came down with a serious malady, on another day of the week, if it would be necessary that he or she wait until the following Thursday before seeking their "healing."
Walnut intersects, Continuing west on north side of Cumberland, to Locust.
- rear of U.S. Post Office, Court House (entrance on Main)
Locust intersects
private residents, mostly apartments, were in this block of Cumberland. One of the dwellings on this side of the block was originally known as the "Bride's house", built before 1850. Obviously of historical significance, attempts were made to save the house when Miller's built its new department store that covered this entire block between Cumberland and Church, but those attempts were unsuccessful and the house was demolished.
Henley street intersects. Back along the south side of Cumberland, to Locust.
As on the opposite side of this street here, buildings here were primarily were apartment houses.
Locust intersects. Along the west side of Locust, south to Main
803 Armored Motor Service ; Dick X-Ray Co. ; Medical Arts Barber Shop ; Medical Arts Garage
805 Medical Arts Beauty Salon
807 Johnson's Flowers
Main intersects. Locust, east side, back north to Cumberland, and from Cumberland east to Walnut
U.S. Post Office and Court House.
Continuing on the south side of Cumberland, Walnut to Market Street
422 Knoxville Academy of Medicine. In a restored dwelling, the original home of James Park, the Academy had an interesting array of old medical instruments and books. Those artifacts were donated some years ago to a local museum and the Academy itself has since relocated elsewhere.
412 Cumberland Ave. Parking Lot
410 Apartments
400 Henry Moses Electric Co. ; Virginia Apartments
Market street intersects. South along the west side of Market, south to Main
513 Model Laundry
513 Bauman and Bauman Architects
Main intersects. Along the west side of Market, back north to Cumberland
500-510 Mahan Motor Co.
Cumberland intersects. Continuing Cumberland, south side, to Gay
316 Cumberland Garage
Gay intersects. Along west side of Gay, south to Main.
801-603 Hotel LeConte. The hotel at this corner has again been known as the Lamar House site in more recent times, one of the many names the hotel at this site has been called for nearly two hundred years of its existence.
805 Bijou Theater. (See descriptions of movie theaters at end.)
807-809 Southern Barbecue
811-829 Southern Coach Co. (repair shop)
Main intersects. West along the north side of Main, to Market.
When the Whittles building was constructed, the original section of Market street here, between Cumberland and Main, was eliminated. That structure also wiped out the other 1948 Main Avenue buildings listed below, between Gay and Walnut.
311 Knoxville Transit Lines. When the round-topped building was originally built at this site in the early twentieth century, it was called McNabb's Skating Rink and became a place not only of skating, but also of public entertainment and the showing of silent movies, called the Auditorium. Later, it became the streetcar barn.
315 May's Furniture Shop
321-325 J. C. Mahan Motor Co.
Market street intersects. Continuing on north side of Main, to Walnut.
401 Foster's Gulf Service Station
407 Reo Ford Tire Co ; J. F. Baumann
409 George's Place eating house
411 - 413 Massey Surgical Co.
413 Bowlitorium Bowling Alley
415 Smoky Mountain Stages
419 H & B Grill
421 General Tire Sales
Walnut street intersects. Continuing along Main, north side, to Locust.
The United States Post Office and Court House The "new" U. S. Post Office opened here in 1934, and all of the original dwellings and buildings in the entire block between Walnut and Locust were demolished.
Locust intersects. Continuing north side of Main, to Henley.
601 Medical Arts Drug Co. As was common at such places back then, they also had a restaurant.
603 Medical Arts Building (ten floors of doctors and dentists.)
605 Medical Arts Drug Co. prescription dept.
607-611 Clayton and Chesney physicians
609 Medical Center Building (ten doctors)
613 The Interior Shop Antiques. The only other antique shop listed in the 1948 city directory was Margaret Creech Antiques, on the second floor at 518 Church street. Today, antique shops and malls are seemingly everywhere, although often many such places have relatively few antiques anywhere on the premises. Today, when I occasionally attend an "antique shows" in this area, sometimes I find that I'm the oldest thing in the building.
617-623 Rogers Cadillac
Henley intersects
Main avenue, returning along the south side, east to Locust.
618 John Raby Service Station
614 private residence
608 Atkin, Lancaster, and Rogers - physicians.
606 J. E. Eblen physician
604 M. L. Hefley and D.F. Hoey, physicians. Hefley was apparently generally considered THE female gynecologist in Knoxville.
602 Gentry Apothecary ; T. H. Gentry Real Estate
600 private residence
Locust street intersects. Locust, west side, south to Hill avenue.
(All buildings on Locust between Main and Hill were apartments and private residences.)
Continuing on Main, south side, east to Walnut
500-510 First Baptist Church. This was the third location of the church. The present building was built in 1923. Before moving to this new edifice, the church had been located on the east side of Gay street, between Clinch and Church, south of where the Tennessee theater was later built.
Walnut intersects. Walnut, south to Hill avenue and back to Main.
All buildings on both sides of Walnut between Main and Hill were apartments.
Main, south side, from Walnut to Gay.
Knox County Court House
Gay intersects. Continuing on the west side of Gay street, south to Hill
Knox County Court House.
Hill avenue intersects. Hill, both sides of the street, west to Henley.
On Hill avenue, west to Henley, all building were private residences and/or apartments houses.
Continuing Gay Street, west side, south to Front.
1001 King's Stag Bar ; 2nd floor King's Dining Room
1007 Knoxville Book Store
1009 White Store grocery
The three businesses above were on the west side of Gay, between Hill Avenue and the bridge. There was no extension of Gay on this side to Front avenue beyond the 1009 address.
Front Avenue
(Front avenue ran east from Gay to Central, beyond First Creek, and west to South Broadway, west of Henley.)
This is the only area included in this compilation that does not include a street- by-street listing of businesses and/or residents in 1948. That's because in the six block section of Front between Central and South Broadway, most buildings private residences and apartment houses. The following were the only businesses on Front avenue in 1948 :
101 Front (east of Central) Cumberland Statutory Company. : Nicely Construction Co.
100-104 Front.(corner of Central) Knox Showcase Mfg. Co.
409 Front. (between Market and Edgehill Place) Braun Grocery
422 Front. (Between Edgewood Place and Walnut) Johnson and Willard contractors. ; G. A. Tillett painting contractor.
Returning to Gay street. North from Front to Hill, east side of Gay.
Originally an actual street, by 1948 Gay street north to Hill from Front Avenue was merely a narrow sidewalk, on the east side, beneath the Gay street bridge, leading up the steep incline to Hill avenue. There were still two old and rather dilapidated apartment houses on the incline, numbered 1016 and 1012 Gay street. At the southeast corner of Hill and Gay, beyond the bridge and where the terrain was level, was the Spur Service Station.
Hill intersects. East along the south side of Hill, to State street.
212 East Tenn. Bonding Co.
210 Biltmore Apartments
202 William Blount Mansion. I'm unsure exactly when the name of the original William Blount home was changed from "Home" to "Mansion". Apparently it was around the time the DAR acquired funds to purchase the home and save it from demolition (thank goodness!). The Chamber of Commerce periodical, "This Week in Knoxville", still refers to the house as the Blount "Home" in issues published in the 1920's., but a brochure that was issued shortly afterwards, when the structure had been "saved", refers to this as "Blount Mansion", and it is still known by that name. Over the years, local school children have been herded to the historical venue on trips via buses, or other transportation modes. Otherwise, although it is strictly guesswork on my part, I would almost make a wager - - albeit one that I would hope to lose - - that for every Knoxville resident who has voluntarily visited this, the oldest standing dwelling in the city, probably ten times that many people have been to Disney World. For that matter, I now probably could substitute Dollywood for Disney World, and still likely to win the same bet.
State street intersects. Continuing east on Hill, to Central.
Only one building, a private residence, was located on Hill avenue between State and Central.
Returning to State street, along the east side of Hill, to Main.
908 vacant
906 R .J. Coker Co. radio service
900 Higginbotham Motors
State street, west side, back from Main to Hill.
Parking lot of the Andrew Johnson Hotel.
Hill intersects. Continuing north side of Hill to Gay Street.
209 Andrew Johnson Hotel parking lot
213 Andrew Johnson Hotel Beauty Salon
215 W. T. Reade Co. beauty supplies
221 Andrew Johnson Hotel Barber Shop : side entrance to Andrew Johnson Hotel
Gay street continued. North along the east side of Gay, from Hill to Main
916 Andrew Johnson Hotel : Capital Airlines ; Cigar Stand ; Lancaster Associates ; Shell Oil District Office ; Smoky Mountain Tours. The Andrew Johnson opened in 1928. It was originally to be named the Tennessee Terrace, and local newspaper accounts reveal that the hotel actually originally opened under that name. At one time, the facility included a penthouse, where a marvelous long range view could be had, before a somewhat better vantage point was later available from the LeConte Club.
914 The Tavern Restaurant (Gay Street entrance) In 1948, this was a favorite downtown eating place, with entrances from Gay Street and from the hotel lobby.
908 Independent Broadcasting Co. ; Radio Station WIBK : Southern Bible Institute. Several references indicate that when the Andrew Johnson Hotel was built, the four prominent dwellings previously located on this side of the block were demolished. However, the one at the corner of Hill was removed to East Knoxville, at the Speedway Circle, and the two story colonial dwelling at this address not demolished until more than twenty years later, in 1948.
908 Southern Bible Institute
900-906 Park Rite Auto Park
Main intersects. Along the south side of Main, from Gay to State.
202 Bell House School. Among downtown schools that had once existed in Knoxville, by 1948 only this grammar school and the Stair Technical Institute remained. Of course, both of those schools closed long ago, and no public schools are today located in the downtown section.
State street intersects, Continuing east on Main, to Central.
114 Higginbotham Motors service dept
108-110 Joy Mfg. Co. machinery
102 private residence
Central intersects. Central, between Main and Cumberland.
Mostly private residences were on Central between Main and Cumberland. At the end of the block - Number 800, the corner of Cumberland - was the Cate Realty Company.
Main, back west to State, along north side.
107 apartments
111 and 111 apartments
State intersects. Along the east side of State, north to Cumberland
820 C.B. Milks, plumber
814 Coleman-Hundley-Johnson heating equipment
812 apartments
808 Ryan Cigar Store.
Back along the west side of State, to Main.
Higgins Parking Lot
Continuing Main, north side, back to Gay street
203 Central Parking Lot
207 Fred Black Motor Co. ; Manning Furniture Shop ; Union Plumbing and Heating
209 Edgmon Confectioners
211 Youth Service
Gay street intersects. Along east side of Gay, from Main to Cumberland.
822 Bowers Auctioneers ; Knox Land Company
822 Elgin Drug Store
820 G. A. and G. L. Coffey, Dentists
818 Roberts Office Supply Co.
816 Sanitary Barber Shop
814 Cherokee Typewrite r Co. ; Knox Hostess Service
812 Colonial Arcade : Alcoholics Anonymous ; Colonial Beauty Shop ; Thomas Edison Co., Ediphone Division. ( I certainly don't remember this Edison place in the arcade, and today it's difficult to believe that as late as 1948 there was still a business with Thomas Edison's name.) ; Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co. ; Southern Enterprises office supplies.
808-810 Colonial Hotel (Knox Real Estate Co. ; Chesterfield Hat Corp. ; Sundial Shoes)
806 Louis Steak House.
600-604 Lyric Theater. This theater dated back to 1872, when it originally opened as Staub's Opera House. It was purchased by Maurice Loew in 1920, first called Loews, then the name was changed to the Lyric. In 1948, the theater was not that many years removed from a time when luminaries continued to grace the stage at the Lyric, such as Rachmanioff (January, 1925) and Paderewski (February, 1928). Probably there was not a bad seat in the house, as the seating was much elevated from the entrance to the stage area, giving a clear view of the stage. You can still get an idea today how the lay of the land made this possible, in view of the steep angle of the street along Cumberland, from Gay Street east to State Street. By 1948, the Lyric had become a place of such things as boxing bouts and wrestling matches, the latter being the same type of rehearsed farces that are still popular today. In the heyday of wrestling at the Lyric, it was not unusual when the ringside crowd included screaming women, anxious to slip their favorite wrestler a beer bottle or a razor blade. When the Lyric property was razed, the property served for some years as a public parking lot, although it was so steep that during winter days of snow and ice sometimes an unattended parked car could be seen slowly sliding down the slippery slope. Sadly, the Lyric theater, once referred to as one of the most interesting structures in Knoxville, no longer graces the downtown scene.
Cumberland intersects. East along the south side of Cumberland, to State Street
206-208 Knox Poster Advertising Co.
204 E. E. Haws Plumbing.
State intersects. Continuing east along south side of Cumberland to Central.
120 Volunteers of America. In later years, this organization moved to the old Mann Mortuary building on Church Street.
112-114 both buildings were vacant in 1948
Central intersects. North along east side of Central, from Cumberland to Church.
706 private residence
Central, west side, back south to Cumberland
705-713 Post Sign Company (shop)
715-717 Chandler Warters Printers ; Industrial News : Knox County Republican Weekly
Cumberland, north side, back to State Street.
101 Chandler Warters
105-107 Capper Engraving Co.
113 and 115 private residences
State intersects. Along the east side of State, north to Church.
712-714 R.H. Harr Printing Co.
706-708 Post Sign Co.
704 Memorial Building : American Legion : 2nd floor : Army Veterans offices. Earlier, this had been one of several different downtown locations of the Knoxville Business College.
State, west side, back south from Church to Cumberland
711 Knoxville News Sentinel (garage)
717 and 715 both buildings had been demolished in 1948
Cumberland intersects. Back west along the north side of Cumberland, from State to Gay.
211 Walter I. Self engineers : Samuel P. Orleans. Motion picture producers. Although this firm was listed in city directories for fifteen years, when this book was originally issued in 1998 I was unable to uncover much information about this firm, or about Orleans himself. In 2005, an article appeared in a local Knoxville tabloid, with extensive information concerning Sam Orleans and his motion picture activities. That article gave the impression that Orleans had been well known in the downtown area and in Knoxville in general, but I had found virtually no information about him in local newspapers when I originally compiled this work, and inquiries among people who had been working in the downtown area in 1948 about the business and Orleans generally got nothing but blank stares and little or no information. Personally, I worked in the downtown area for nearly forty years, beginning in 1956, and had never heard of Orleans. Based on the detailed information about Orleans in that 2005 article, apparently I should have asked more people, but my limited research at that time revealed little information about Sam Orleans.
215-217 Dennis Tailoring Co.
219 Courtesy Cab Co.
Continuing on Gay street, east side, from Cumberland to Church.
722 Cook Building ; Esso Standard Oil Co. metered gas dept
720 Highland Products Co., school supplies
718 Semones Co. barber supplies
716 J. T. Mitchell, Architect ; Woodmen of the World Hall
714 Hub Cigar Store
712 Preston Typewriter Company
712 David Appliance Company
710 Knoxville Sporting Goods
708 Bijou Restaurant
706 Clark Brothers Piano Co.
704 Park Rite Auto Park ; H. E. Crowder, popcorn
702 Royal Barber Shop
700 Blue Circle
Church intersects. Along the south side of Church, east to State
Next to the Blue Circle building ; parking lot.
204-210 Knoxville News Sentinel. Now Knoxville's only remaining daily newspaper. The Sentinel was for many years the afternoon newspaper, the Journal being the morning sheet. But before the demise of the Journal, the Sentinel had already converted to morning delivery, which by then had been determined through national surveys to be the public's preferable time for such publications, and afternoon newspapers throughout the country were going belly up. Which is what eventually happened to the Journal, after being relegated from the morning to the afternoon time slot. I have not made any attempt to determine the precisely how this occurred, but it likely had to do with the fact that by then the Journal had been forced through economic circumstances to use the presses of the News Sentinel to publish its newspaper, thus the Sentinel obviously had the necessary clout to dictate that the Journal change from a morning to an afternoon publication. That was something of a shame, as it was always nice to have two daily publications with many different views, political and otherwise. Since the Journal bit the dust, the Sentinel seems to have somewhat reversed positions on many issues, both politically and philosophically. When we had both newspapers, each had a loyal following, and each had popular and readable writers and columnists. But no more, Igor. By the way, in the past quarter century or so, the Sentinel has been at the forefront in one regard - - increasing their price. During that period, on at least two different occasions (possibly even more by now), the price to purchase the daily and Sunday versions of the News Sentinel was increased to a price that was more than the prevailing price for newspapers in Chattanooga, Memphis, or Nashville. But in each instance, within a year of so, the newspapers in those other cities followed suit and likewise increased their prices to the increased amount then being charged for the Sentinel. I figured that somebody decided that we folks in east Tennessee would put up with most anything, and in any event the majority of people in Knoxville probably wouldn't even realize that our newspaper was costing more that other newspaper in the state. Anyway, that's the way it happened, and for whatever reason the Sentinel seemingly used Knoxville as the market where the price of a local Tennessee newspaper would initially be increased, possibly in collusion with other newspapers in the state, all of which soon followed suit to likewise make similar price increases.
State street intersects. Continuing east on Church, south side, to Central.
109 Knoxville Trucker Sales Inc.
104, 106 and 110 - private residences.
Central intersects. Along the east side of Central, between Church and Clinch.
617 Haynes Furnace Co.
615 F & A Garage
611-613 V . L. Nicholson General Contractors
607 Elmer White Furnace and Stoker Co.
Central, west side, back south from Clinch to Church
606 Clinch and Church Parking Lot
Church, north side, back west to State.
104, 106 & 110 private residences
State intersects. State, east side, from Church to Clinch.
620 First Presbyterian Church. The oldest church in Knoxville.
State, back south to Church, west side
605 Tennessee Theater (rear)
615 Glencoe Apartments.
Church, back west along the north side, from State to Gay.
201-207 Elliott Hotel This hotel was built around 1900, about the same time as the Glencoe Apartments around the corner on State Street.. In 1939, this had been called the Jarvis Hotel.
K. & C. Café (corner of the Elliott Hotel building.)
203 Clark's Health Home.
209 Knoxville Business College. Originally an apartment building. The business college moved to this location in 1944, after being at earlier downtown locations including the northeast corner of Gay and Vine, the southwest corner of Church and Market, and southeast corner of Church and State. In recent years, the building was sold to a developer and has again become a place of residences, although now it has been converted into condominiums rather than the original apartments. Based on prices these days, the building was sold at a relatively modest amount, according to the report in local newspapers. When it was converted, the condos were advertised for rather handsome prices.
Gay street continued, east side, from Church to Clinch.
626 Knoxville Utilities Board
624 Empire Barber Shop
624 Gay Restaurant ; Basement - Gay Grill (beer)
618 Knoxville Journal Building. Three stories of businesses, lawyers, tailors, etc. The ground floor arcade area included: Baptist Book Store - Wallace and Wallace Real Estate - Prudential Ins. Co. - Delta Airlines office - American Airlines office
Knoxville Journal. The Journal often was, to say the least, different. In 1948 it was a second newspaper in Knoxville, and was in many ways more entertaining, if not particularly more informative, than the News Sentinel. I don't think I ever read anything by a local newspaper writer that consistently equaled the entertaining columns of Journal Sports writer Tom Anderson. Sometimes his columns had little to do with sports, but they were interesting and often humorous. For example, what other writer(s) around here came up with such outlandish tongue-in-cheek fantasies as Anderson's "Gay Street Leg Watchers Society", about which he made periodic reports on how many knees and thighs he had "scored" on a particularly windy day. Or once, during a local political campaign, when he promoted his own 'candidate', a totally fictitious person he called something like Clyde Clodhopper, and even ran a portrait of his supposed candidate, actually being a photograph of one of the Journal's sports writers, wearing an old football helmet, decorated with silly ribbons. The Journal was a seven day newspaper. The cost was a nickel on weekdays and a dime for the Sunday edition. Or, you could have it delivered to your home, for the price of twelve dollars a year.
616 Blaufields. A favorite stand-up eatery for downtown workers. You stood at the counter, ordered, ate, and exited. Likely their most popular luncheon fare (and it was tasty) was the mettwurst and white beans plate, served with rye bread, and topped with chile that was cooked in an old pot that looked like it probably had not been thoroughly cleaned since sometime back in the 1920's.
614 Southern Railway Ticket Office
612 Bankers Trust Building: Commercial National Bank ; Junior Chamber of Commerce ; T. V. A.
( alley )
608 Spike's Cafeteria. A competitor with the S & W just down the street, with good food and a consistent regular clientele. Spike's had a second floor, but the place was not nearly as large as the S & W, which had originally been located at this same address, but had moved to larger quarters a block to the north, back in the late 1930's. In March, 1948, Dolph Brown purchased this business, and it became Brown's Cafeteria. The cafeteria was located on the site where the First Baptist Church was once located, before that church built its new edifice down on Main avenue.
604-406 Tennessee Theater. (See description of movie theaters at end.)
602 Burwell Building. The Burwell Building housed ten floors of businesses and offices. At the ground floor corner in 1948 was the Mears Cigar Store. I worked for an insurance agency in this building for nearly forty years, on the second floor. Years ago, I had a back problem, and decided to see a "Doctor" in the building. He was just above us on the third floor. He was hardly a youngster, and was something called an Osteopath. The treatment was essentially what one received from a chiropractor - - manipulation of your muscles, cracking your spine, and some heat and jiggling. I never went back, because it seemed like I had been in Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory, as the place was full of antiquated furniture and fixtures, and the illumination was supplied by seventy-five watt light bulbs handing from electrical ceiling cords. At a later time, the street level corner of this building was occupied by the J. C. Bradford Stock Exchange. At that time, some of our employees were located on the mezzanine level between the first and second floors, and an older gentleman, who was a fellow worker and a long-time agency employee, once put a sign on his desk, proudly announcing : "OUR ASS-SETS OVER TEN MILLION DOLLARS." Even later, at the street level here, following a few years when the Shamrock Restaurant occupied that location, an impressive eating establishment opened here, called the Exchange Restaurant. A small fortune must have been spent on that place, which occupied both the ground floor and the mezzanine, with elaborate woodwork, brass work, etc. They later even installed a door in the wall between the restaurant and the Tennessee Theater, to provide access to and from the lobby of the Tennessee, when special events and movies were sometimes held at that theater. At that time, an extensive renovation of the theater had just taken place (surprised?) That provided some night-time business for the restaurant. But unfortunately, in downtown Knoxville, no place of this quality could survive merely with a bar and essentially serving only lunch. Actually, they also served dinner, but other than for the aforementioned occasional activities at the Tennessee Theater, and late afternoon drop-ins by a few downtown workers for an after-work drink at the bar, few people were venturing downtown during the evenings hours, for dinner or anything else. The Exchange Restaurant thus predictably folded, suffering the same fate as another nice new downtown restaurant in those times, Piccolo's, at the corner of Union and Walnut Streets.
Clinch, along the south side, east to State
226 Haun Realty
224 Marble Front Barber Shop
220 Style Beauty Shop
210 Tennessee Theater. (a side entrance, not for the public.)
204-206 John Bailey Ins. Co. ; Business Men's Assurance (plus three other businesses)
200-202 Cooper, Coffman, Brooks insurance
State street intersects. Continuing south side of Clinch, east to Central.
First Presbyterian Church (cemetery)
112 Knoxville Trucker Sales.
110 & 106 - private residences
102 Elmer White Furnace & Stoker Co.
Central intersects. North along the east side of Central, to Union.
526 Murphy Electric Company
514 Slayton's Grocery
516-520 George Lee Hand Laundry
508 Private residence
Central, west side, back south from Union to Clinch
501-503 vacant
505 Silver Sales
513 Nichols Printing Co.
519 Private residence
Clinch, north side, from Central back to State street
107 private residence
(alley) The alley in the middle of the block here, between Clinch and Union, was called Charles Place. The alley extended to the north, to Union, beyond to Commerce, where it was called Marble Alley, then again beyond that street, where it again was called Charles Place. The Veteran's Club was at the corner. Otherwise, in 1948 Charles Place consisted of private residents, with six black families and four white families living on this "street." Today, the entire block between State and Central, and from Clinch to Union, is a parking garage.
(south side of the Elks home building)
State street intersects. Along the east side of State, from Clinch to Union.
532 Elks Home. I was never an Elk, whatever that is, but together with some co-workers, I sometimes ate lunch down at the Elks Club. Peggy, whose last name escapes me, was not only the waitress but also ran the restaurant, and she was a pleasant gal. The food was better than what was available at many downtown restaurants. It was an interesting old building. They demolished this building, and all of the following building on this side of the block, to build a parking garage. Is there a book or a song with that title? If not, there should be, because somebody sure has lots to work with, since in modern times it's been a prevailing theme in the downtown sections of American cities, including Knoxville.
522-528 Fireproof Garage
516-518 Chapman Drug Co.
512-514 Walla Walla Gum Co.
508 State Street Parking Lot
500 Millers (dry cleaning dept.)
Union intersects. State, west side, back from Union to Clinch
(All of the buildings on this side of the block have likewise now been demolished.)
501-511 Park Rite Auto Park
517-519 Boat and Marine Store
523 Gardner-Denver Co. air compressors
525-527 Joe Parrot Advertising Co.
529 Bright Distributing Co. linoleum
529 Groves Building (Brown Shoe Co. ; Endicott-Johnson Shoes ; Rice-Stix Dry Goods ; Roberts- Johnson-Rand shoes ; Craddock-Terry shoes ; L.C. Anderson commercial artist.
Clinch intersects. Continuing on the north side of Clinch, from State to Gay.
201 Southern Printing Co. ; Tennessee Office Supply Co.
203 Richer's Furrier ; Picture Framery (Both of these businesses were at this location for many years.)
205 Southern Industrial Banking ; J. W. Gentry Real Estate
207-209 Knoxville Savings and Loan Assoc.
211 Farragut Beauty Shop
213 Benjamin Jacobs, Tailor
Continuing Gay street, east side, north from Clinch to Union.
534 Pinkston's Jewelers (corner of Farragut Hotel building.)
532 Farragut Hotel. Lobby : Farragut Hotel Cigar Stand : Basement : Farragut Barber Shop : Farragut Billiard Parlor. The Farragut Hotel opened in 1919, on the site that included the place where the Imperial Hotel had earlier been destroyed by fire, and also including what once had been part of the Royal Hotel building. The Farragut had an attractive lobby, and an elevated dining room, with marble floors. Certainly, one of THE places in downtown Knoxville in the 40's and 50's, and for many years earlier. On football Saturdays, you could not stir with a stick the crowd on the corner of Gay Street and Clinch in front of the Farragut Hotel. Tennessee football game tickets were always being bought and sold at a fever pitch. Those folks were competing with Comers and McDonalds and other illegal, but nonetheless very active, gambling spots, for some of the betting action. Even to old time Vol fans, it may come as a surprise to know that some years previous to 1948, the annual football banquet, which was held here at the Farragut, featured ceremonies when gifts of cash were publicly awarded, not only to coach Robert R. Neyland, but to many of the players themselves, in the form of silver dollars, for their performances during the season. Unusual indeed, since today a school can be penalized by the NCAA if a fan merely buys a meal for one of the players - - or a potential prospect. At one time, the offices of a local radio station were along the Clinch Avenue side of the Farragut Hotel, and their most popular personality was a disc jockey named Acey Boy. Before the original Clayton Motors took a nosedive into bankruptcy, Acey Boy was often promoting that firm via radio commercials. Consistently, a word in one of those commercials always stumped him, because every time he reeled off the names of the foreign cars being sold then by Clayton's (Volvo, M. G., etc.), he invariably finished the commercial by mispronouncing the name of the automobile, Triumph, which he always managed to call "TRUMPETS".
530 L & N Railroad Passenger Office (Farragut building)
526 Farragut Coffee Shop (Farragut Hotel building) You entered the Farragut Coffee Shop by first entering the hotel lobby, then through a separate door on your left that led into this popular downtown eating spot. The Farragut hotel was originally built at the site where the Imperial Hotel had been located, after that hotel was destroyed in a fire. However, the Farragut was actually a larger building, and the coffee shop was situated on what originally had been the southern section of the above mentioned Royal Hotel.
524 Hanover Shoe Store.
524 Mayme McCampbell Shop ladies clothing
522 The Felt Shop. This was upstairs at the Athletic House, where most if not all of Carl Morgan's (the owner) jobs were done for that firm. The operation later moved down on State street, on the second floor of the Athletic House Marine Store building. Their products of this firm consisted of silk-screening and sewing numbers, names, etc. onto sports jerseys, jackets, and other apparel, and their clients were schools throughout the United States.
522 Athletic House. Probably this store did more business that any Knoxville sporting goods business at the time. Their primary downtown competition was Knoxville Sporting Goods, down the street two blocks on the same side of South Gay street.
520 Brown's Booterie
516-518 S.& W. Cafeteria. To many people, a trip downtown often included a visit to the S & W., not to mention the fact that this place had numerous regular patrons who worked in the downtown area. There were three floors - - the main floor, a balcony, and a basement level. Food lines were on the main level and leading to the basement level, (with two simultaneous lines at the main level.) Around noon on most days, all three lines were backed up to the front door, and sometimes onto the sidewalk. The food was consistently good at the S & W in the old days, and it might have been one of the last places on Gay Street that served three meals daily. Probably their smallest crowd was for breakfast, although a number of downtown business people regularly stopped off for breakfast here on their way to work. At lunchtime, it was always crowded, at least from around 11:30 until after 1:00. The lady who played their organ both for the luncheon and evening meals was named Lois Harris. Beginning in the middle 1950's, when I began working regularly downtown, I frequently ate at the S & W, probably, as often for breakfast as for lunch. Over time I noticed what seemed to be a consistent but somewhat unusual lunch-time phenomena. After a few weeks of carefully observing the lunchtime crowd, I decided that it was not my imagination, but apparently a well-planned daily procedure. During the early luncheon period, before noon, the air generally was filled with soft and relaxing music. But, when the place started to get crowded and the lines were long and the tables were filled with patrons, the organist changed tactics, playing songs that were much livelier, and usually somewhat louder. I remain convinced today that it was a rehearsed maneuver, because as I carefully watched people eating lunch during those music periods, their forks always seemed to bring the food to their mouths at a much quicker pace when she struck up those quick-time melodies, as if subconsciously their mind insisted that they must hurry along, or keep time with the beat. I figured that was of course the idea. During evening hours, the place was usually not overly-crowded, other than during holiday seasons. For years, an old gentleman would regularly appear around 5:30, and go through the S & W line. On his tray he would place two or three packages of crackers, an empty bowl, and a glass of water. After paying the cashier a few pennies for the crackers, he would promptly go to the same small table each night. Taking his bowl to the coffee and tea refill table, he would pour hot water into his bowl from the pot provided for those who were drinking instant Sanka. Returning to the table, he would turn up the ketchup bottle and pour an ample supply into the bowl, stirring in salt and pepper with his spoon. He'd then lean forward and enjoy his six cents worth of crackers, his bowl of homemade tomato soup, and his free glass of water. On another matter, I still don't understand what all the fuss has been in recent years about "saving" the S & W building. The building was long ago gutted of its attractive interior, including the brass work, the stairs, and everything else. The plan to preserve the facade of the building, actually the only thing that's now left of the original cafeteria building at the new multi-screen downtown movie theater - - reported in local newspapers to be adding approximately one million dollars to the cost of that theater project, apparently is now a done deal. If so, it is the most extravagant expenditure of taxpayer money that's come down the pike recently, although we've certainly already spend far more in the downtown area in recent years that was remotely warranted. I hope everyone enjoys seeing the S & W facade in the future, a million dollar folly.
514 Schrivers men's clothing ; 2nd floor - Marietta Modes ladies clothing
512 Riviera Theater. (See descriptions of movie theaters at end.)
510 Clark and Jones Music Co. This firm did a sizeable business in sheet music, musical instruments, and other music-related items. They were in Knoxville for many years. They also did some music publishing, which I know only because I have original copies of some of the sheet music they published back in the twenties and thirties, and I also have in my personal collection the original contract between Clark and Jones and the representative of songwriter Nell Grayson Taylor, for the publication of her song, "My Home in Tennessee", a song that was adopted by the Tennessee Legislature in 1926 as the official Tennessee State Song. (Although that's not a unique honor, since the legislature has named at several songs as the "official" state song over the years.)
506-508 Walgreen's Drug Store ; King Jewelers ; G. M. McMinn, popcorn vendor. Later, Todd and Armistead Drugs moved into the Walgreen's location, where it remained until the 1980's. Later, Gus' Restaurant took over the restaurant operation, and eventually the drug store operation was abandoned. Gus' later moved to Market Square, at the old Gold Sun Café site, when much of this entire Gay street block was supposed to become the location of a new "Justice Center" complex, although that potential "site" later was moved to State Street, ( and today I'm unsure where that place is supposed to be built, in the musical chairs developments downtown.) In October, 1997, an article in the News Sentinel advised the public that Gus' Restaurant had been in operation at this location for more than seventy-five years. Actually, the restaurant here was first operated by Walgreen's, then later by Todd and Armistead's, and Gus' restaurant was actually at the location for less than twenty years.
504 Royal Jewelers
502 Fidelity Bankers Trust Company. Originally this was the Cowan McClung building. The upper four floors of the Fidelity Bankers Trust Building were occupied by various businesses, attorneys, insurance companies, etc.
500 National Shirt Shop
Union avenue intersects. East along the south side of Union, to State.
216 Fidelity Bankers Trust Co. (side of bldg.)
202 Union Diner
State street intersects. East from State to Centra, south side.
102 Save the Children Federation
Central intersects. North along the east side of Central, to Commerce.
420 apartments
420 B's Grill
416 Stevenson's Sandwich Shop
414 Little Harlem Radio Shop. Proof that at least some people called this general area along Central "Little Harlem" in 1948 is evidenced by the presence in of this business in the 400 block, in addition to the Little Harlem Shine Parlor, in the 200 block, a couple of blocks to the north. A number of the businesses along this section of Central were operated by African Americans in 1948. In the early twentieth century, this same section on Central was the city's most active area of prostitution, when Madams operated houses that were then commonly referred to as "Resorts" in local newspapers.
414 Ideal Smoke Shop
412 Central Café
408 Post & Co. auto repair
320 apartments
318 private residence
316 apartments
308-312 O.G. Hughes auto springs repair
Central, west side, back south from Commerce to Union
301-311 vacant
313 Jimmie's Place
317 private residence
329 Camel Mfg. Co.
421 private residence
425 Heating Service & Supply Co.
417 apartments
Union, north side, west from Central to State
Between Union and Commerce, a narrow street was called Marble Alley. The rear entrance to Camel Manufacturing Company and Tennessee Mill and Mine Company were here. Also, there were residences, and a rooming house for black patrons, called the Charles Street Inn. Charles street is shown in city directories as the name of the block long extension of this same street to the south, between Union and Clinch. Marble Alley ended at Commerce, and extended another block, where it again was called Charles Place. Obviously at some time the name must have been changed here, since it makes little sense that the Charles Street Inn was in Marble Alley instead of being on Charles Place, and in fact the one block extension of this alley to the south, from Union to Clinch, was also called Charles Place in 1948.
105-107 vacant in 1948
State intersects. Along the east side of State, north to Commerce
422-428 Park Rite Auto Park
414-416 Brabson Garage
404-412 Tenn. Mill and Mine Supply Co.
400-402 Albers Drug Co.
318-322 Reeder Chevrolet Co. (The same Reeder's, for years now located on Clinton Highway, was originally located here on State Street.)
314-315 Reeder Chevrolet service dept.
310-312 Robert Hall Clothiers. I think this may have been the company that claimed in advertisements their prices were low because their merchandise was displayed on "plain pipe racks".
300 State and Commerce Parking Lot
Commerce intersects. State, west side, back to Union.
313-315 Deaver Dry Goods
317 vacant
321-325 Union Bus Terminal. The terminal was at the lower level of the Gay Street Arcade, where buses arrived and departed. Passengers entered and exited via the stairway entrance from the Arcade, up to Gay Street. The buses would weave their way through the narrow alleyway and onto the street from the old Union Bus Terminal. How the bus drivers navigated those tight spaces was always an amazement to me.
401 White's Café
405 Knoxville Litho Co.
407 - 409 J. C. Penny warehouse
415 Stubley Printing Co. Stubley was in Knoxville for many years. They printed books here in the early twentieth century. S.B. Newman was possibly the only other Knoxville firm that actually published books. (I'm referring to hardbound publications, not paperbacks.)
419-423 Woodruffs (warehouse)
425 State and Union Parking Lot
Union, north side, back from State to Gay street
It was along here, on the north side of Union and extending northward, between State street and Gay street, that the original Knoxville baseball grounds were located, from 1865 to around 1869.
205 Blue Circle
213-215 Inman Health Service
217 Spence Shoe Rebuilders. A subsidiary of the Spence Shoe Company, around the corner on Gay.
Gay street continued, along the east side, from Union to Commerce
430 Lila's Beauty Shop ; Paree Beauty Shop ; Wilson and Wells photographers ; Roos Tailor (2nd floor) ; 3rd floor - Tennessee Radio Service School.
430 Spence Shoe Company
428 Kimballs Jewelers ; 2nd floor Walker Otis Co., engravers ; Business Men's Club. Kimballs was still on Gay street back in 1998 when I originally compiled this work. Since then, this long-time downtown jewelry store followed the long line of businesses that have left downtown Knoxville since 1948. They took their sidewalk clock with them, to the chagrin of some, who in modern times have referred to it as the "Hope Clock", since it originally stood in front of Hope's Jewelry, in the 500 block of Gay. However, by 1948 the Hope store had moved from Gay to Market street, and the clock then was on the sidewalk in front of Kimball's for more than fifty years. I'm not sure how long it takes to claim "sitter's rights", but as I've already mentioned elsewhere in this compilation, I'm hard-pressed to refer to it as anything other than Kimball's clock after it stood for well over a half century at the same old stand.
424-426 Woodruffs. Woodruffs was on Gay Street for more than a century. It was established in 1865. The 1869 city directory shows that the location then was on the east side of Gay Street, "between Church and Clinch". Woodruff's offered an array of furniture, household furnishings, hardware, etc. In 1948, I fondly remember hearing 78 rpm records in their listening booths at their record department, located on the balcony of the store.
422 Paul Dean Clothing Co.
418-420 Fowler Bros. furniture
412-416 J. C. Penny Company. I was about nine years old when my mother took me downtown, where here in front of the Penny's store I first saw the short, bowlegged black man, pushing his tamale cart. His first name was George, and his tamales were delicious. He was a fixture in downtown Knoxville for years, and I understand that during the summer months he sold ice cream from the same cart. I've never determined if he made his own tamales, or sold those that were made by someone else.
410 Federal Bake Shop. This place usually seemed to be as busy as its Market Square competitor, the Quality Bakery. In close proximity to the entrance of the Union Bus Terminal, the daily traffic in and out of that place probably didn't hurt sales.
408 Kay Jewelers. Their radio commercials claimed "It's OK to owe Kay til payday". Shucks, that wasn't very long, was it?
402-406 Knox Dry Goods dept. store. Not as large as Millers or Georges, but not a small store by any means, and a popular place to shop ; Basement - American Limoges China Co. ; Public Shoe Service Corp
( This section of Gay, the east side between Union and Commerce, is the only section on downtown's main thoroughfare where no street intersects between the block numbers, numbers in the 300's and 400's being continuous. The reason is that when the section originally developed northward, Market street (the original name of what today is Wall avenue) continued east from Gay street to Crozier (Central). That portion of the street was later closed, and although it was years later before the downtown numbering system was changed, the separate numbering system in the block continued to exist, under both the old and new numbering systems, to correspond with the two separate blocks on the opposite, or west side, of Gay street.
328 Cole Drug Store
324-326 Union Bus Terminal. Arcade : Terminal Studio Photographers ; Travelers Aid Society ; Union Barber Shop ; Union News Co. ; Popcorn vendors Mrs. N.D. Ailor and G.M. McMinn. In 1948, Mrs Ailor also operated a popcorn booth in the Market House, and G. M. McMinn had a second site, at Walgreen's drug store, next to the Rivera theater. That same year, H. E. Crowder was a popcorn vendor on Gay, just south of the southeast corner of Clinch. With the availability of a barber shop, photo studio, news and popcorn, folks obviously sometimes had reason to go into the Union Bus Terminal besides merely to catch a bus. Passengers walked through the arcade and down the stairway at the end of the building, where buses arrived and departed. Bus Lines operating here included Greyhound, Tennessee Coach, White Star, Suburban, Smoky Mountains, and Lewis Bus Lines. About two thousand passengers passed through the Arcade daily. While I have not been in a bus terminal for some years now, and can't vouch for current conditions, in the old days there always seemed to be an inordinate number of seedy looking characters hanging around those places. Maybe John Gunther arrived in town by bus, and observed such persons at the Union Bus Terminal. If so, his well-known derogatory comments about Knoxville would certainly have been adversely tainted by such a encounter.
322 Home Center Store, S. H. George & Sons. This subsidiary operation of George's opened in the building that had been previously occupied by Sears and Roebuck, a store that had moved into a large newly constructed building on Central Avenue in North Knoxville in 1948. The Sears move from downtown was probably the first evidence of a change in the long-time tradition of locating major stores in the downtown area. The new Sears store covered an entire city block, and was very successful. The significant aspect of that move, now long-since expanded into all sections of Knoxville and Knox County, where all types of businesses have been located in suburban shopping centers and malls today, was immediately evident on Central Avenue in 1948. It was the fact that by then people already preferred to drive their automobiles to places where they experienced the convenience of free parking while they shopped, rather than having to walk or ride a bus to the downtown area, or the necessity of paying to park their vehicle in a downtown parking lot.
318-320. J. S. Halls, clothiers. Halls originally opened in Knoxville in 1866, on Market Square
316. The People's Store. clothing
314. Rone Jewelry.
312. Mayers. ladies clothes.
308. Haun and Vasey Furniture Co.
306. Walker Furniture Company. My mother once worked at this firm, when I was very young, but I have only the memory that she rode the streetcar to and from work. Back then, not that many people in our neighborhood had automobiles, and not that many homes, at least in North Knoxville, had driveways or garages for such luxuries. Some homes did have garages, but more often than not the residents had nothing to park in them.
304. Max Friedman Jewelers. I'm sure it's gone now, but I when I originally issued this book back in 1998, the original Max Friedman sign was still hanging at the front of this building.
302 Tennessee Beauty School ; Tennessee Beauty Shoppe
302 O P O Clothes.
300 R. F. Johnson Paint Company.
Commerce intersects. along the south side, east to State.
206-208 Walker Co. furniture (another entrance)
204 Bacon & Co. wholesale dry goods
200-202 Deaver Dry Goods Established in 1893, originally located on Gay Street.
State street intersects . Continuing on Commerce, east to Central.
(Today, this short block between State and Central is all that's left of Commerce Avenue.)
108 Logan Temple A M E Church. This church once operated a school from black children, located near the church building, on Charles Place, between Central and State.
104 Fidelity Printing Co.
Central intersects. Central, east side, south to Vine.
222 McCloud's Garage ; Central Beer Agency
216 Grand Theater (See description of movie theaters at end of book)
214 Grand Barber Shop
210-212 Cozy Tavern eating house
208 Central Ave. Shoe Parlor
206 Gene's Recreation Parlor
204 Sport Shop tobacco ; Little Harlem Shine Parlor ; Climax Tavern beer
202 Eddie's Place tobacco
200 Leon's Loan Office
( 106 East Vine. ) Gem Theater. This theater was actually located just east of the southeast corner of Vine and Central, and slightly off the beaten path followed in this compilation. However, I've listed it here, thinking that Knoxville's only long-time African American theater should be included in this compilation. (See descriptions of movie theaters at end.)
Vine intersects. Along the west side of Central, back north to Commerce.
209 Jim's Sport Shop
211 Grand Grill
211 Charles Williams furnished rooms
221 College Cabs
Commerce, north side, back west to State street.
111-113 Sterchi-Reed Hughes Furniture (storage)
113 apartments
State street intersects. Along the east side of State, north to Vine.
224-226 Municipal Apartments. This old building, originally the Palace Hotel, was still standing at this address in 1948. In the early twentieth century it had become the home of the Central YMCA, where that organization remained until moving into their new facility in the late 1920's.
208 C. L. Mabry lawyer
206 Shorty's Tavern beer
104 private residence
State, west side, back north from Vine to Commerce
City directories show no businesses or residents on the west side of State street in this block in 1948.
Commerce, north side, returning to Gay.
201-205 Knoxville Fire Department, Engines One and Two. This long brick building, originally the Palace Stables, had been converted in the 1890's into a combination fire department and police headquarters.
209-211 Kennedy-Shea-Chandler Co. wholesale dry goods
Gay street continued, east side, north to Vine
216 Fielden Furniture Company ; Fielden Paint & Wallpaper Store.
214 Sherwin Williams Paint Co.
212. Dick Wright Hardware.
208-210 Lester Maxwell Furniture Co.
206 Royal Jewelers
206 United Loan Company
204 American Beauty Products Co.
204 Busch Loan Company
202 Dixie Loan Company
200 National Optical Stores ; Howell Elijay, Physician
200 Diftler's Credit Jewelers
Vine, along the south side, east to State
While this area was not so named, at least to my knowledge, this was essentially "Furniture Row" in 1948, when ten furniture stores were on the south side of Vine in the two block area between Gay Street and Central. This first block east of Gay Street has now been changed and revamped, today being a portion of Summit Hill Drive. On the east side of Gay stands a monument, commemorating local pioneers in country music. A few years ago, I took a close look at the monument, and I don't know whether it was rust or mildew or whatever, but the names on the plaque were already all but impossible to read. I hope since then that somebody has taken the time to clean the monument.
218 Crystal Barber Shop
216 Hamilton's Shoe Service
214 M. K. Tailoring Co.
212 Joffe's Clothing
210 American Furniture Co.
206-208 Home Furniture Co.
204 Fred Long Furniture Co.
202 Economy Furniture Co.
200 City Furniture Co.
State street intersects. Continuing Vine, south side, east to Central
126 Harris & Bridges Furniture Co.
124 Vance and Porter Furniture Co.
122 Vine Ave. Furniture Co. Of the furniture stores that were along here in 1948, this is the only one that remains today, now doing business in a much larger structure.
120 Sterchi - Reed - Hughes Furniture Co.
116-118 Emery 5c to $ 1.00 Store
The buildings where the following businesses were located in 1948, in the 100 block of Vine, are the only structures still standing today on what was the south side of Vine in 1948, between State and Central. (At least they were still there the last time I looked.)
110 E. L. Bridges Furniture Co.
108 Mrs. H.L. Myers dry goods ; 2nd floor Douglas Fraternal & Social Benefit Club ; Variety Press ; Kingdom Hall
106 Burton Hardware Co.
102-104 The Army Store ; 2nd floor Golden Cross Lodge ; 3rd floor Workers Recreation Club. The original site of the Gem, a theater for African Americans, was 102 Vine, when the theater opened around 1913. By 1922, the theater had moved to the opposite side of Central, to 106 East Vine.
100 North Carolina Mutual Life Ins. Co.
Central intersects. Central, east side, north to Jackson avenue.
144 Jim's Place Billiards
140-142 Ira Watson Co. dry goods.
138 S & K Lunch ; rear - Diamond Wrecking Co., house wreckers
136 Travis Market meats
134 Central Barber Shop
132 Elk Dry Cleaners
130 Henry's Cash Groceries
126-128 Vineyard Furniture Co
126 Louie's Peanut Grill
124 United Furniture Co.
Willow intersects
Years ago, it was in this area where I first learned of some Knoxville delicacies - Andrew's hot tamales and hot dogs. Andrew Taylor was a black man whose place of business in 1948 was on Patton Street, a block east of Central. Later, he moved to Willow Street, and for many years afterwards he was located in a frame building on Linden Avenue, at the corner of Bertrand, a block south of Magnolia, across the street from the old Magnolia Lanes Bowling Alley. I made trips to Andrew's many times to buy those dogs and tamales, as did many others, not only from Knoxville but from other cities as well.
120-122 Armstrong Hardware Co.
118 Fielden and Brewer Furniture Co.
116 Ferguson Hardware and Furniture
114 Alzana Hotel. A hotel for black patrons. Hardly a hotel in the modern sense, being located on the second floor above the Schaad Food Company, and one of only a few such downtown establishments in 1948. There were some other such facilities for African Americans in Knoxville, near Central and elsewhere in the general area, including the Gray Terrace Hotel, at 515 East Clinch, and the Hotel Hartford, at 219 East Vine. Those hotels for black patrons of course existed during segregation times. Back then, there were no Motels, the closest thing being Tourist Courts, or Motor Courts, before motels arrived on the scene. In the late fifties or early sixties, the Dogan Gaither Motel opened in a new building on Jessamine Street. It was the first modern motel for African Americans in Knoxville. But what was designed to be a convenient first class establishment of its type was a short-lived venture. As a result of integration, it was possible for previously segregated black citizens to stay at any motel of their choosing, and the need for this establishment had vanished almost as soon as it had opened. Thus what had long been a much-needed facility was rendered essentially useless for its original purpose, and the Dogan Gaither Motel closed around 1965.
112-114 J. H. Schaad wholesale feed
110 private residence
110 Palace Grill
108 Pyle Furniture Co.
102 Central Furniture Mart
100 Erskine Shoe Shine.
100 Tenn. Peanut Prod. Co
Central, back along the west side, to Vine
This area on Central is today called the "Old City", although in truth it was never actually considered to be in the downtown area of Knoxville. This area, once called the Bowery, and included a section called Cripple Creek. Central was once the primary site of Knoxville's "Red Light District", and was also a place of seedy and unsavory characters, where crime was prevalent. By 1948, some of the section two or three blocks south of Jackson was known as "Little Harlem". In the area between Jackson and Vine, and eastward on Vine between State Street and Mulvaney Street, were no less than seventy-eight different businesses and professionals catering to the African American population. At that time, this section represented the largest concentration of black residents in Knoxville.
101 Manhattan Cafe. I read somewhere that Manhattan's has long been located in what is today called the "Old City". That seems to be erroneous. Manhattan's was long ago a restaurant in Knoxville, but in the early twentieth century it was located in the 600 block of South Gay Street. A restaurant by this name did appear on Central for a few years in the 1930's and the early 1940's, and again briefly reappeared here after World War Two, but it was gone again by the late 1940's. For most of the twentieth century, several other businesses were located at this Central address.
103 Mac's Furniture Co.
105 Wallace Shoe Shop
107 Modern Refrigeration Co.
109 Blue Room Cafe
109 Doane's Candy Kitchen
111 Floyd Roach Furniture Co.
113 Tri-City Barber College. In 1998, this place was still in operation - - sort of. The sign was still there, but it was no longer a barber college, just one man with a single barber's chair, and the premises were filled with all manners of old merchandise and junk for sale. A few years before I issued the original edition of this book in 1998, I wandered into this place. While I was looking around a young couple came into the store. After looking around a bit, the girl exclaimed "Oh look, an old barber's chair." The proprietor, who was still barbering at the establishment and still had his barber pole outside the entrance door, gave her a stern look and said "Well what did you expect to find in a barber shop - - a cooking stove?" However, the truth was that most people, including me, probably that the outside barber pole was merely a decorative relic hung outside a junk store, and the barber chair itself was hardly noticeable among the tons of other junk in the store at that time.
113 The Little Store. second hand clothes
115 Hovie Smith & Sons
117 K & K Cash Groceries
119 Whitt's Barber Shop.
121 Uncle Sam Shoe Shop
123 Carden Furniture Co.
125 Vineyard Furniture Co.
127 Dixie Store clothing
127 C. Lamarr 5 c to $ 1.00 Store
129 Sloc Store. This place sold clothes and shoes, usually discontinued types and models, at considerably discounted prices. More often than not, much of their stock was quality name-brand merchandise.
131 Frank Provenza confectioner
133 George's Place eating house ; Claude Monday Barber Shop
135 Vineyard and Sons Furniture
137 Central Ave. Bargain Store dry goods ; Central Shoe Shop
139 Atlanta Cafe
141 French Furniture Store
144 Jim's Place billiards
Vine, north side, back west to State Street
As mentioned elsewhere, the building here at the northwest corner of Gay and Vine was owned by Cal Johnson, and today is often remembered as the Cal Johnson Building, although that designation for the site does not appear in city directories of the period.
101 Williams Economy Corner Druggists ; Economy Jewelry Co.
101 Dr. E. F. Lennon ; Room 2 - S.A. Curren, Dentist ; Rooms 6-7-8 Dr. J. H. Clark ; Room 8 J. A. Huff, lawyer ; Rooms 10-12 C.A. Cowan, lawyer ; Room 11 Dr. A. J. Bacote ; Dr. O.B. Taylor ; Rooms 14-15 G. W McDade, lawyer. This building housed the above group of African American professionals - - doctors, lawyers and dentists. Another similar facility was located in the block of Vine east of Central, at 123 Vine, known as the Medical Arts Building. This seems to be an example of the extent of segregation in Knoxville in 1948. Today, if you were to ask a black person who was living in Knoxville in 1948 where the Medical Arts Building was located, they probably will tell you it was in that block of Vine Avenue. On the other hand, the same question asked to a white person who also was living here then would likely result in the immediate reply that it was on Main Street, at the corner of Locust. That's where the building of the same name still stands. I am not sure whether black people in Knoxville knew much about that Medical Arts Building that was located a block from Henley Street, but apparently few whites knew of this Vine street facility with the same name. Until I started looking through old records and talking with people around town, I had never heard of the Medical Arts Building for the African American community that was located on Vine Avenue - - yet I've lived in Knoxville all my life.
103 New York Cafe. This was a unique eating establishment in Knoxville, and I don't know if many other southern cities had such a place in 1948. A racially mixed patronage regularly dined at this place, black people and white people. However, they were separated by a long counter down the middle of the building, whites eating on one side and blacks on the other.
105 Palace Billiard Parlor
107 Gem Barber Shop ; Wyley Plaza. furnished rooms ; Gem Beauty Shop. In the original edition of this book, titled "A Half Century Ago", I mentioned that local historian and author Bob Booker once told me that a young female barber in recent years had offered her opinion that she was probably a pioneer in the field of female barbering in Knoxville. Booker advised her that she was at least fifty years too late, since at least one woman of his acquaintance had been a regular barber at this Vine avenue barber shop in the 1930's. Since then, I've discovered that lady who was operating on Vine avenue in the 1930's was far from being the first of her gender to have that occupation. The 1895 city directory lists an African American female barber named Mollie Singleton, then living at 108 Hardee Street (later East Jackson avenue.
107-A Daley Tailor Shop
109 Hoffner Furniture Co.
111 Holcomb's Ben Franklin Store
113 Cooper's Variety Store
115 Central Sales Co.
119 J. Reich Sons wholesale groceries
121 Knoxville Shoe Co.
125 David Cooper dry goods
127 B. L. Block dry goods
129 Harvey Bros. dry goods
129 E. O. Smithwick dentist
131 Albert Burkhart Furniture Co.
State street intersects. North along the east side of State, to Jackson
(Looking at what's merely an alley today, I was surprised that there were the following places on the both sides of this street in 1948.)
126-128 Ben's Parking Lot
114 Peterson Motor Co.
110 Jo Ann's Cafe
108 private residence
State, west side, back to Vine
115 Frick Co., Inc. machinery
119-123 Hertz DriveUrself System truck rentals ; Matthews Co. truck rentals ; Yellow Cab of Knoxville
Vine, back to Gay from State street, north side
( From this point north to Gay Street, Vine today is an offset from Summit Hill, and is the north side of what remains of the original Vine Street in this area.)
201 E.G. Dukes Jewelry. When I issued the original edition of this book in 1998, I spoke with Herbert and Harold Dukes, at the Dukes Jewelry on Vine Street. Upon hearing the purpose of my inquiries (research for the original edition of the book), one of the brothers told me - - almost with a straight face - - that one of the primary reasons he has remained in business all these years is because he has been designated as the person who is eventually to turn out the downtown lights. The last time I looked, their brother, Doyle, still operated a jewelry store on Gay Street, originally called Gay Jewelers, now the Doyle Dukes Jewelry Store. That is (or, if it's no longer here, was) the last remaining street level store on Gay Street that was in operation in 1948.
203 Berry's Shoe Shop ; Evangelist Gospel Mission
205 Bargain Furniture Co.
207 - 209 O.P. Jenkins Furniture Co.
211 Kay's of Knoxville
213 Jay's Shoe Repair Shop
215 Little Chef Hamburgers
Gay street continued, east side, north to Jackson
128 - 130 Moser Furniture Store
126 Spangler Radio Co.
124 Duchess Beauty and Barber Supply Co.
122 Bill's Auto Supply
120 Alabama Novelty House
114-118 Sterchi Bros. Furniture Co.
110-112 Radio Station WNOX. Monday through Saturday people flocked to the old WNOX studio on Gay Street to watch the live country music show, the "Mid-Day Merry-Go-Round". Hosted by Lowell Blanchard, who gave a number of well-known country musicians their early exposure, the show was heard live daily on WNOX. Among the musicians who were household names around here were Harry Nides, Dave Durham, Bill and Cliff Carlyle (Bill often doing double duty as the character "Hot Shot" Elmer), Jerry Collins, and perhaps even more recognizable names, such as June Carter (later the wife of Johnny Cash) and "Chester" Atkins. Daily, the Merry-Go-Round radio show opened with a theme song that went something like this :
Throw down your dishrag, grab your easy chair, sit back and relax a while.
If you're at the office take your secretary on your knee, and we're going to turn your frowns to smiles.
We're on your radio, six days a week, nine-ninety on your dial we will be found.
So, turn up the dial on your old radio, and hear the MIDDAY MERRY GO ROUND.
It was often obviously unrehearsed, it was amateurish, and it was usually corny, but that was true of country music shows just about anywhere back then. If you doubt it, just take a look at those tapes of the early TV shows from the Grand Old Opry. The Midday Merry Go Round was very popular in these parts, and provided daily entertainment for those going to the city in 1948, and for those listening on the radio.
108 Moncier's Inc. wholesale novelties
108 Russell's Factory Stores. clothing
106 Fielden Furniture Co. (store rooms)
104 Patriotic Banner. This place sold "novelties" and magic tricks. The magic tricks were anything from simple inexpensive tricks to more elaborate illusions. As a kid, I wondered who ever bought those much more expensive magic tricks, but I was also jealous to think that anybody could afford them, and unlock their secrets. The novelties of course were such things as "Fake Dog Doo", buzzing hand-shakers, sneeze powder, whopee cushions, and similar other such items that are today - - incredibly - - still being peddled.
102 Hall Tate Mfg. Co. clothing
100 Steins Clothiers. This was once called the Emporium building, and in recent times has been renovated, as have other buildings here in the first block of South Gay Street.
Jackson intersects. Jackson, south side, east to Central
214-220 Publix Shirt Corp. shirt mfg.
204 Dixie Parking Lot
200-202 J. F. G. Coffee Co. For many years, when I would walk down Gay street to the Regas, for a regular Friday luncheon, I wondered sometimes why I no longer seemed to detect that strong smell of roasting coffee drifting through the air, as in the old days. Not that I necessarily missed it.
State street intersects. Continuing east to Central
130 - 132. Whitie's Novelty House. This place sold some of the things you saw out at the Fair at Chilhowee Park, at those games of "chance" -- the chance being of course that if you paid your money and played and actually won a particular game, your prize was going to be a small plastic trinket that sold at the dime store for a penny, instead of one of those nice big stuffed animals that were prominently on display throughout those booths. Things like those stuffed animals were sold at Whities.
126 Jackson Ave. Parking Lot
124 American Clothing Co.
122 E. E. Stone Co. wholesale clothing
120 John H. Daniel Co. This firm still makes custom suits. I was about fifteen years old when my stepfather took me here and had a suit made for me. I believe it was probably the second suit I ever owned, and certainly the first one that actually fit. I believe that suit cost twenty-nine bucks. Today, you probably couldn't get the lapel for that price.
118 Valley Appliances electrical appliances
114-116 Glen-More Clothing Co.
110-112 Cecil Hurst Furniture Auction Co.
Central, north to railroad tracks, east side
100 D. W. Distributing Co. wholesale elec. appliances. This was originally the location of the Patrick Sullivan Saloon in 1885. After many years of occupancy by various types of businesses, and sometimes just as a storage facility, for the large part of the twentieth century, in modern times a restaurant reopened here. It operates under the original name, the Patrick Sullivans' Saloon, after the better part of a century had passed since the original saloon with that name had been located at the site.
102 H.H. Fipps Co. store fixtures
104 vacant
108 Liberty Coal Co.
Central, west side, back to Jackson
111 Highland Products warehouse
Jackson, north side, back to Gay Street
101 Young and Smith feed and seed
103 DeWitt and Meredith merchandise brokers
105 Wholesale Furniture and Appliance Co.
107 C & C Beverage Co. wholesale beer
109 Vol State Paper and Box Co.
Today, along here is a gaping hole where buildings once stood. Those buildings were demolished in the 1970's, as directed by a lady who owned the buildings. Those buildings were listed on the National Historical Register, which perhaps is an indication that the designation is about as useful as sleeves in a vest.
111. E. R. Wade merchandise brokers.
113-115 Davis Mfg. Co. flavoring extracts
117-119 Kern's Bakery (warehouse)
121 Knoxville Poultry and Egg Co.
123 Square Supply Co. wholesale building supplies.
125 Knoxville Distributing Co. warehouse
127 Industrial Colloids and Chemicals
129-131 J F G Coffee Co. (warehouse) ; rear - Knoxville Statuary Co.
(Offset from the northeast corner of Jackson and Gay) Southern Railway office building.
Gay street viaduct. Crossing to Depot. Depot, south side, east to Central
Southern Railway passenger station. The railroad was still a popular mode of transportation in 1948. Passengers back then often departed from or arrived at the station via cab, evidence of the few parking spaces at the station, and also of the relatively few number of automobiles, at least when compared with today. The boom in automobiles and the advent of extensive air travel had not yet arrived, but it was just around the corner. As to passenger rail travel in those times, the younger generation need have no fear that they have been deprived of a great American experience because of their latter day birth in a place where such travel is no longer available. Sure, they might have enjoyed the luxury trains, such as the "Tennessean". But for common people visiting folks in Kentucky or North Carolina or wherever, the most commonly used trains were a cut below those fancy and comfortable conveyances. Those passenger railroad cars were seemingly designed by some fiendish persons with warped minds. The seats were made of mohair, which was both uncomfortable and itchy. In the summertime, you could bang the seat with your sweaty hand and watch the dust rise to the ceiling, or out the open window (the cars were not air-conditioned on regular passenger trains). And certainly you needed plenty of time. I once rode one of those trains from Knoxville to Chattanooga, leaving at around eight o'clock in the morning and arriving about three o'clock in the afternoon, a seven hour trip that covered just over 100 miles. That was because the train made stops at every watering place, station, and cow pasture between here and there. The "Good Old Days" of train travel? Forget it!
114 Cole Scale Co.
110-112 Western Union (plant dept.)
108 Allied Coin Machine Co.
106 Pinnacle Sales Co wholesale beer
104 Perry and Patterson Barber Shop
100-102 Bill Long's Place. This place claimed to have "the coldest beer in town", and a huge mug of beer cost you all of a quarter.
Central intersects. South on Central to the railroad tracks
The only businesses here were the J. A. Gleason Co (real estate) on the east side, and Browning Belting and Supply Co., on the west side.
Central, east side, north to Magnolia
300-302 White Store groceries.
304 New Process Tire and Radiator Works
alley intersects
314 Beeler's Garage
Central, west side, back south to Depot
323 Sharp's Drug Store
321 Jones Equipment Co. store fixtures
319 Stand Products coin operated machines
313-317 R & L Brake & Supply Co
307-311 McNutt and Burks automobile accessories
301 E. A. Norris (private residence?)
Depot, north side, back west to Gay street
101-103 Wholesale Auto Parts
105 Squirt Bottling Co. Anybody remember the Squirt? Sorta like a cross between a Mountain Dew and a Seven Up, as I recall.
209 Parks Truck and Equip. Co.
213-219 Terminal Garage
221 Terminal Auto Parts
223 Railway Express garage
301 Constantine's Eating House
303 Piedmont Hotel. By 1952, the Piedmont Hotel had closed and the building was vacant. Including the Earle at the northeast corner of Gay Street, in 1948 there were four hotels in this block between Central and Gay Street. Their existence here was of course probably explained by the presence of the Southern Railway passenger station across the street. In fact, another hotel, the Watauga, was around the corner on Gay Street, at the corner of Magnolia, in addition to the previously mentioned Fairway Hotel, at the northwest corner of Gay and Depot.
305 Southern Cafe.
307 City Cab Co
309 Norris Hotel
309 Southern Barber Shop
311 Dixie Lunch Room
311 Safety Cab Co
313 Central Cab Co ; Depot Lunch
315 Butchers Supply Co warehouse
317 Empire Hotel
319 Hotel Empire Billiard Parlor ; Empire Lunch Room
321 Service Radio Cab
323 Mikels Barber Shop
325 Thomas Provenza confectioner
327 vacant
329 Worsham Bus Line waiting room
331 vacant
335 Butchers Supply Co
337 Earle Hotel. In the late thirties this was called the Milner Hotel. Originally, it had been the Atkin Hotel. In modern times, this corner became the parking lot for Regas Restaurant.
Gay street, east side, north to Magnolia
Northeast corner : Earle Hotel (another entrance)
300 Mayfair Grill
302 Adding Machine Sales Co. ; Barnard Office Supply Co.
304 J. H. Davis, Tailor
306 Dixie Laundry ; Doyle's Grocery Store
308 Atkin Barber Shop
310 Minglewood Flower Shop
312 Gravers & Steuwer, Watch Repair.
314. Knoxville Hat Company Cleaners
316. Hotel Watauga
318. Regas Restaurant. The original name was Regas Brothers Cafe, the later just Regas Cafe, until they graduated to the 'restaurant' status - - however that works. Several years ago, I more than once expressed a desire that they bring back such old dishes as the skillet spaghetti back to the menu, but naturally such requests fell on deaf ears in their modern rarified ambiance. By 1948, the Regas had expanded into the northeast corner of the block, at Magnolia. It will be noticed here that at that time the Regas was one of ten different businesses on the east side of Gay, between Depot and Magnolia. Today, the restaurant and it's parking lot are the only things in the entire block at the Gay street level. In the revised edition of this book issued in 2001, I mentioned that it was sad that the Regas had closed in the year 2000. That statement, and the closing itself, were obviously premature, since the restaurant has since reopened and again is thriving on the east side of North 'gay street.
Magnolia avenue intersects
_________________________
A FEW HAPPENINGS IN 1948 - IN KNOXVILLE AND ELSEWHERE
JANUARY ROSE BOWL : Michigan stomped Southern California 49-0. The Rose bowl tie-in between the Big Ten and West Coast teams lasted for more than fifty years. In the early years, it was often a one-sided affair.
COTTON BOWL : SMU and Penn State battled to a 13-13 tie. Doak Walker was the star attraction for SMU. I wonder if Joe Paterno was already coaching the Nittany Lions back then?
SUGAR BOWL : Texas dumped Alabama, 27-7. Bobby Lane was the talented Texas quarterback. Texas held Alabama's star passer, Harry Gilmer, to three completions.
ORANGE BOWL :Georgia Tech beat Kansas 20-14. The Yellow Jackets were still in the Southeastern Conference at the time.
GATOR bowl : Maryland and Georgia tied 0-0. Sounds about as exciting as the 1947 Orange Bowl game, when Tennessee lost to Rice, 8-0, in one of the most boring bowl games ever played.
DELTA BOWL : Ole Miss beat TCU, 13-9. This game was played in Memphis. Rebel quarterback Charlie Connerly had passed the Tennessee Vols silly the previous fall, in what was one of Bob Neyland's worst ever losses.
DIXIE BOWL : Played in Birmingham, where Arkansas beat William and Mary, 21-19. Bill and Mary had good teams back then. I'm not sure they even field a team today.
Jimmy Elmore was sworn in as Knoxville's newly elected Mayor. Cal Walker was back on City Council. Evidence of Cas' inexplicable influence and longevity around here was the fact that he was on the City Council for a continuous period of thirty years, from 1942 through 1971.
Central's Paul Rouse was named to the All American High School football team.
"My Wild Irish Rose", with Dennis Morgan, played at the Tennessee. At the Riviera was "Copacabana", with Groucho Marx and Carmen Miranda.
The Supreme Court ruled that the University of Oklahoma must admit a Negro girl as a student. This is a little remembered 1948 ruling, issued several years before either Little Rock, or the escapades of Alabama Governor George Wallace.
Police again raided local bootleggers in Knoxville. (That was hardly a unique circumstance.)
Local Newspapers reported that the Smokies were to receive a Southern League franchise - - a "done deal", except for the formality of signing the agreement, according to the newspaper account. Even back then, reports in the media were wrong as often as they were right, and when the baseball season rolled around the Smokies were still playing in the Tri State League.
Babe Diedrickson Zaharias was named Woman Athlete of the Year.
In basketball, Adolph /Rupp's Kentucky Wildcats beat the Vols, 65-54. They were called the "Fabulous Five" ... Groza, Jones, Beard, Line and Rollins. They were a terrific team. The sad footnote is that later some of those players became involved in a gambling scandal.
The hot shot high school basketballer in East Tennessee was Joe Treadway, at Happy Valley. Among the last of the two-handed set shot artists, he could bomb them in the basket from long-range with ridiculous regularity. He later played for Tennessee, but his talents were mostly wasted in the Vols' fast break offense.
Bob Feller signed for another year with the Cleveland Indians, for a then-whopping salary of $87,000.00. Today, they pay baseball players far less talented than Feller - - some you've never even heard of - - ridiculous amounts of money to prove their inability to hit a baseball about seventy five percent of the time when it's pitched to them!
Large rats were reportedly being sighted regularly outside the Market House. Newspaper reports also mentioned that some of their relatives also were spotted at City Hall, where one had the audacity to gnaw an officer's shoe.
Schools closed as the sixth consecutive day of cold and snow gripped the area.
City police cracked down on students who were snowballing passing cars. Sounds like a crime wave that was worthy of calling out the National Guard.
FEBRUARY
The city recreation bureau reported that over one hundred teams were competing in local basketball leagues. The Journal ran pictures of all the teams. An amateur tournament had been held in January at the newly completed "Sports Center" at Chilhowee Park.
In Memphis, police swooped down on businesses with juke boxes and confiscated and destroyed several hundred records that were deemed to be "lewd". Unfortunately, the newspaper article failed to identify the recordings, who decided they were lewd, and how that determination was made. I am admittedly curious about what records would have been considered to have been so offensive back then.
A local man was killed when he was run over by a train beneath the Fort Sanders viaduct. It was reported that he had been drinking "Smoke on the Water", described as shellac thinner mixed with water. A week later, another man was killed in the like manner, not fifty feet from the same spot.
Plans were announced for a four and one half million dollar school building program, including new schools and renovations of old structures.
Sam Snead won the Texas Open with a record score of 264. For finishing in first place, he won two thousand dollars. I think they might pay that amount or more for last place finishers in tournaments these days.
The Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Eugene Ormandy, performed at the University of Tennessee auditorium. Ticket prices ranged from $1.20 to $3.00. Since the Tennessee theater has reopened recently, some of the ticket prices for live performances at that theater are almost obscene, causing me to wonder who suddenly decided that Knoxville is New York City.
S. H. George's announced that the firm had leased the Gay street building across the street from their downtown store, previously occupied by Sears, where they would open a new 'Farm and Home Store'. It did open, but I'm not sure it was a howling success.
Families were driven from their homes in North Knoxville, around Fourth Avenue, Sixth Avenue, and area streets, due to rising waters of First Creek, from heavy rains. Many other city areas were also flooded.
Sixty people were injured when a foot bridge at Broadway and Cecil collapsed. Despite warnings from the police, onlookers had been gawking at a car that had gone down an embankment.
Dances were held weekly on Friday and Saturday nights at Whittle Springs Supper Club. A local newspaper article in recent years advised readers that the Whittle Springs Hotel had been located on the site where the Whittles middle school now stands. In fact, the hotel was across the street from that site, north of that school, evidence that the writer of that article was either not from around here, or flunked the basic course in research.
Vaughn Monroe and his orchestra performed at Chilhowee Park. Monroe's long-time theme song was "Racing with the Moon", but word from some sources was that as the performance went on into the evening the deep-throated singer raced more frequently for the bottle than he did for the moon.
A three day boxing tournament was held at the Lyric Theater.
Knoxville High School's Trojans beat Central in the district basketball tournament finals, 32-30. The Bobcats had won both games between the two teams during the regular season.
MARCH
Kentucky soundly defeated the Vols in the SEC basketball finals, 70-47.
Dolph Brown purchased Spike's Cafeteria on Gay Street. Some years earlier, this had been the original location of the S & W. The new cafeteria was cleverly named Brown's Cafeteria.
The Dixie-Crats said they would walk out of the Democratic Convention if Harry Truman was nominated.
Deane Hill Country Club and golf course was under construction. When completed the golf was a nice and challenging links. Today, just over a half century later, all evidence of its existence has now disappeared.
Kentucky won the National Basketball Championship, defeating Hold Cross in the finals, 60-52.
APRIL
KTL bus drivers went on strike.
The new Sears store on North Central opened in April, 1948. During Sears' early years at that new location in North Knoxville, there were so many customers folks had a hard time finding a space in the large parking lot, so the store purchased the site of the Mynders grammar school, behind the store, that building was demolished, and they added another parking lot at that location.
A 62 MPH wind blew down a large sign from Todd's on Market Square. Over the years since then, the winds of time have blown away lots more than a sign on Market Square, first the Market House, and then all of the businesses that were on the square just twenty years ago.
Claude Harmon won the Masters golf tournament at Augusta.
Defense Secretary James Forestall confirmed that Russia had the secret of the atomic bomb.
It was announced that the new North Knoxville high school was to be named Weston M. Fulton High School. I suppose it was, but since it opened in the fall of 1951 I've don't recall ever hearing anybody mention the "Weston M." part.
Plans were announced for a Knoxville Zoo at Chilhowee Park. Much enlarged today, it's still there, and a quality facility. But for the first several years after the zoo opened, it was a relatively small and generally seemed to be a poorly-kept place.
The Smokies opened the baseball season at Smithson Stadium, at Caswell Park. They were still in the Tri State League.
City police again cracked down on gambling, this time on the Numbers game. That probably taught the gamblers a lesson - - until the next week.
A million dollar traffic project for downtown was announced, including plans to change many streets to one-way traffic. More than fifty years later, most of these streets still had the same one-way configurations. But in more recent times they've again made some of the narrow downtown streets two-way thoroughfare, a decision that I'm not sure was particularly wise in some sections. For that matter, somebody made the inexplicable decision to permit parking on both sides of downtown's narrow main thoroughfare, Gay street. We are told that the current idea is to have people return to the downtown area, yet Gay street has now been narrowed to fifty percent of ts size by that decision. What a bottleneck it would create, should people actually begin to come downtown again. For research purposes, I periodically go to the McClung Room downtown, and in the past couple of years I've made it a point to walk along both sides of Gay when I first arrive, and then make the same walk some hours later, when leaving. I've noticed that an inordinate number of the vehicles are still parked in the same spaces on that second walk, causing me to wonder if those parking areas are designated for the use of the public, or for some who are living and/or working downtown on a daily basis. In any event, it appears to me that Gay street should be returned to its original status, strictly as a no parking area, as it was for many years.
Carl "Lefty" Walther, better known for his basketball skills, pitched seven initial shutout innings for the baseball Vols, as they beat Georgia Tech, 8-4.
Wild Boar and bear hunts at Tellico were discontinued by the U.S. Forest Service.
MAY
A significant rise in the cost of homes in Knoxville took place between 1947 and 1948. The average cost of a new home had increased to a whopping $6,000.00. I hope they are building them a lot bigger these days, because a local survey in 1997 revealed that the average cost of a new home here was more than one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, and for all I know by today it's a lot more. That 1997 figure represented a two thousand percent increase in home building costs in fifty years, whereas the average increase during the previous fifty years had been something around between fifty to one hundred percent or so. Prices have continued to spiral out of control, and today the cost of home construction has increased from about ten dollars a square foot in the late 1950's to well over one hundred dollars a square foot today.
Citation won the Kentucky Derby, in a walk.
The Smokies split a series of games with the Rock Hill Chiefs. The Chief's center fielder that year was Chino Bernel, who had played previously for the Smokies. He had an unreal arm, but not great accuracy. One year I was out at Smithson stadium, and before the game manager Dale Alexander was hitting fungos to the outfield and told Chino to bring the ball home. From deep centerfield, he unleashed the ball in the general direction of home plate, and it was still rising when it hit the screen, about twenty feet above the ground behind home plate.
An exhibition baseball game at Smithson Stadium featured the Birmingham Black Barons vs the Cleveland Buckeyes.
After extensive talks, a nationwide railroad strike was averted.
The State of Israel was officially recognized by the United Nations. Whether that was good or bad or right or wrong, it surely did open up a big can of worms.
A dance, featuring Billie Banks and his orchestra, and with a personal appearance by Brooklyn's Jackie Robinson, was held at the Chilhowee Park Pavilion. It was a performance for African American patrons, but local newspapers advertised a "Reserved section for white spectators", which was usual for road shows by black performers in those times. While it's well documented that African Americans were segregated from whites, at places such as at the Bijou Theater, it's doubtful that many people remember that white people were segregated from black people at some activities, auxh as the one mentioned here.
Knoxville's new school building and expansion program was announced. The new high schools were to be Fulton, West, and East, and "a new Negro School". South Knoxville Junior was to be expanded into a Junior-Senior high school, and renovations and additions were to be made at Rule. One of the additions at Rule was a new gymnasium, and I played in that gym in its first year of existence, during the 1951-1952 basketball season. When they closed Rule high school in recent years, I was somewhat ticked off when a local newspaper reporter justified the closing of the school by pointing out the "antiquated gym" at Rule. Seemed to me that he was also indirectly referring to me as being antiquated. Come to think of it, I guess he was right!
JUNE
John Cullum had a lead role in the Knoxville High School Senior Class play, "Arsenic and Old Lace".
At Penny's, men's dress shirts were on sale, two for five dollars. If you bought some back then and still have them, you might be able to get one of them cleaned and pressed today for what both shirts cost you back then.
27,000 Knoxvillians had paid their Poll Tax to date.
Greyhound announced a new run, the "Sunshine Express", from Knoxville to Jacksonville, Florida. Leaving from the Union Terminal daily at six PM, the bus arrived the next morning in Jacksonville at 8:30 AM.
Charles "'Chuck" Yeager was credited in newspaper reports for breaking the sound barrier, in the Air Force XS-1 "rocket" plane. But at the same time newspaper accounts reported that the National Advisory Board on Aeronautics verified that the barrier had already been broken many times, by a man named Herbert R. Hoover, a research pilot who was from Knoxville, Tennessee. That was obviously a worthy accomplishment by a man from Knoxville, but obviously one that's been lost in history. If Hoover's name has ever been mentioned in print around here previously, other than in those original 1948 newspaper articles, I've not read it. I likewise have no idea how or why it was Yeager got credit for breaking that record.
Hamburger was fifty-five cents a pound at the A & P. All local stores that month uniformly were charging the same price. That was a considerable price increase at the time, as the cost of hamburger had been considerably less, and even five years later the average price was only thirty-nine cents a pound. While it is difficult to believe the increases in prices of virtually everything these days, in my wildest dreams I never thought that I would see a time when machines dispense a small plastic bottle of water that costs a buck, or even more. I have yet to make such an investment, and since most reports reveal that those bottles often contain the same stuff you get from you public water supply at your kitchen faucet, I'm unlikely to do so.
Tony Zale reclaimed the middleweight title by knocking out Rocky Graziano in the third round.
The Atomic Energy Commission announced plans to "open" Oak Ridge. The Oliver Springs, Elza, Solway, and Edgemore gates were to be opened to the public for entrance into the city and the residential areas that had still been restricted since World War Two, when special passes had still been required before entering Oak Ridge.
Ben Hogan won the U.S. Open, at Riviera in Los Angeles, with a record score of 276.
During this election year, "Boss" E. H. Crump, in a furious campaign against Estes Kefauver, ran numerous political ads in Tennessee newspapers, including those in Knoxville.
Protesting the recent decision to assess and tax his home on Cherokee Boulevard, preacher T. Wesley Hill organized a loud "prayer meeting" on the lawn of tax assessor Thomas Brown. Hill maintained that the house was the parsonage of Bible Baptist Church. Brown said that Hill had no church. Claiming he did, Hill said his services were held in a rented local school building.
The 'Water Follies of 1948' performed at Evans Collins Field. The old field was very busy in those days. It was the "home field" for football games and track meets of Knoxville High School, Stair Tech, and Austin. The field was also used by local junior high schools on occasion.
The new one-way traffic plan for most of downtown went into effect. Most traffic jams were reported at rush hour, attributed to 'old habits' of drivers. For the most part, downtown traffic jams are now a thing of the past.
Tom Dewey won the Republican Presidential nomination at the Convention in Philadelphia.
Joe Louis knocked out Jersey Joe Walcott in the eleventh round to retain the heavyweight championship.
JULY
Harry Truman answered a press conference question by stating that he would consider Eleanor Roosevelt as his running mate for Vice President. Mrs R. quickly responded that she would not even consider the matter.
A move among Democrats to nominate Dwight Eisenhower for President was nixed by the General, who said he would not run. Later, Ike decided that he was in fact a Republican, did run, and was elected President in 1952.
Country Musician Roy Acuff announced that he would seek the Republican nomination for Tennessee's Governor.
Hollywood actress Carol Landis committed suicide - - an overdose of pills.
In Happy Holler, the "Black Ace" struck again, a small time burglar whose usual take was quite modest. Each time he left his calling card, a small sheet containing his name. Within a few days police arrested the culprit - - actually four of them - - finding that the 'burglar' actually was two young boys from the neighborhood and two from out in the county.
Popular radio shows included the Vic Damone Show, Truth or Consequences, Your Hit Parade, the Judy Canova Show, and the Grand Old Opry.
AUGUST
President Harry Truman won the Presidential nomination at the Democratic Convention.
Strom Thurman accepted the Dixie Crats' nomination to run for the Presidency.
KTL increased the bus fare to seven and one half cents. The increase was perhaps partially to pay for paving over of the tracks of the recently defunct streetcars.
Newspapers reported that Buddy Pike had been named as the head coach of the football team at Hall's High School, said to be the first such team at the school. Despite that statement, much earlier newspaper reports of local football games reveal that Halls had actually fielded a football team as early as 1931, a team that continued to play games throughout the 1930's.
Knoxville Buick Company advertised prices for the new 1948 Buicks, all four door models ; $ 2042.00 for the Special, $ 2211.00 for the Super, and $ 2523.00 for the Roadmaster. Back in the late forties and early fifties, Buicks had circular chrome 'portholes' on the front fenders. An enterprising manufacturer thought it recognized some potential, and developed portholes that one could attach to the fenders of their own cars. The ads, unintentionally humorous, depicted someone asking a man standing beside a vehicle with those ornaments, being asked if he had bought a new car, the reply being "no, it's my old car ... I just bought some Acme portholes". I remember those ads, but I don't recall ever actually seeing a car with these things attached to the fenders.
Main Avenue, after temporarily being made a two-way street, was again changed to a one-way thoroughfare, between Henley and Gay. For reasons that seemed unclear, the City Council had decided to overturn the one-way street plan for Main Street. But complaints from businesses and others, fearing accidents and traffic snarls, convinced the Council to return to the original plan.
Prominent ads for Scalf's Indian River Medicine continued to appear in the local papers. Do they still sell this stuff? Not dissimilar from many other questionable "remedies", Scalf's was advertised to cure numerous ailments and diseases. In fact, I remember that my grandmother kept a bottle of that 'elixir' around, but I don't recall that she ever had any Hadacol or Geritol, other similar bottles of gookum that claimed essentially the same curing powers.
A gun-toting robber, screaming that his wife made him do it, was gunned down and killed shortly after robbing a cigar store of $45.00. in Knox County. The fatal shot came from a former county Deputy, who owned a grocery store next to the crime scene.
A full page newspaper ad promoted Barbarossa Beer and Red Top Ale. I have not heard of either in years now, but for all I know both may still be around.
Knoxville's two public swimming pools, Whittle Springs and Sixth Avenue, were closed, due to an outbreak of polio. Sixteen patients who had contracted the disease were at the General Hospital. Three of those patients later died from the disease.
Gavin Gentry of Knoxville won the state Junior Tennis title in Memphis.
A baseball fan who heckled our inept Smokies' team was at the General Hospital, recovering from injuries received from three members of our crack baseball team - - two players and the manager - - the altercation following a loss of both games in a double-header played in Knoxville against the Fayetteviile team. A week or so later, the league had investigated, concluded that the man had received few injuries, and determined that the Smokies' manager and players had been 'provoked'. The league officials did go out on a limb and reluctantly announce that nevertheless they did not condone the actions.
American Bob Mathias won the Decathlon at the Olympic Games in London.
Disorder turned to chaos during the Polk County elections, when three people were killed and four more were wounded. The National Guard was brought in to restore peace.
The School Board postponed the multi-million dollar bond issue for construction of new schools. Plans had not yet been finalized, and unless ground was broken soon, Knoxville High School was likely to lose its accreditation.
Widening of Magnolia Avenue was nearing completion.
The Knoxville Golf Association was founded.
Babe Ruth died August 16, 1948, after a long bout with cancer.
City school lunch prices were to remain the same for the 1948-1949 school year - - twenty cents. Back during the war (World War Two - - you know, the one that was in all the newspapers) school meals were called "Victory Lunches". Then, they cost only a dime, but my personal recollection is that sometimes they were all but indelible.
A fire gutted the Max Friedman Jewelry Store on Gay Street.
Satchel Paige pitched a three hit shutout as Cleveland beat the White Sox, 1-0, before the largest night game in history, 78,382. It was Paige's fourth consecutive shutout for the Indians. While making no attempt to take away anything from Jackie Robinson's courage, ability and accomplishments, I thought back then that Satchel was the player who had the most positive impact on the public during the days when black players were first being allowed to play in the major leagues. His talent, demeanor, and off the field comments made him popular with many fans at the time.
SEPTEMBER
City schools opened September 1. The total enrollment was 21, 526. Outside the city, the total number of students was estimated at 19,000.
Eight thousand people showed up in Harriman for a Carroll Reese - Roy Acuff political rally. Reese was opposing Estes Kefauver for the U.S. Senate ... the country musician was running for Governor against Gordon Browning.
The Progressive Party's Presidential candidate, Henry Wallace, campaigned in Knoxville, speaking at Mount Olive Baptist Church. I wonder if a political speech at a church would be universally received these days.
City Council finally approved the new school building program.
Rule's Golden Bears visited Central and upset the Bobcats, 7-0. It was the first-ever victory for the Lonsdale school, located in what was then generally called West Knoxville, against any of Knoxville's "Big Three", the others being Young and KHS. Newspaper accounts described a traffic jam on Gay Street after the game by celebrating Rule supporters. Other local games that week included Young's victory over Stair Tech and a KHS victory over Middlesboro, Ky. Newspaper action photos featured Rick Hill of the Young High's Yellow Jackets, and Knoxville High Tojans' Bill Blackstock, who was shown toting a white football. I don't think that innovation lasted too long, but several night games were played with a white football. Apparently designed to be better seen, it probably wasn't a bad innovation, and I have sometimes wondered why that idea fizzled.
The City Planning Commission approved a new movie theater on the west side of Central, between Oklahoma and Scott. According to newspaper reports, plans were drawn and construction was to begin immediately. I have no idea what happened to that project, but no theater was ever built at the location, and finding that old newspaper account was the first time I've ever heard of the scheme for a new theater in the Happy Holler area. However, by the end of that year the name of the Joy Theater down the street had been changed to the "Center Theater", so mayhap those who planned the new theater decided instead to acquire that theater (although that's purely conjecture on my part.)
Beaumont area residents descended on the City Council meeting to express outrage at comments attributed to Cas Walker. Cas reportedly had said that "the oldest school building in town is good enough for those Beaumont folks". More than fifty years later, the school is still there, although with renovations and new construction it is unrecognizable as the original place.
Something involving KTL seemed to appear with regularity in the local newspapers. This month, drivers were complaining about having to sell school bus tickets to students. That circumstance is revealing of the times, since in 1948, there were no school buses in the city of Knoxville (except for students who attended Austin High School, the city's high school for African Americans - - and that circumstance was logical, since some of those students lived extreme distances from that school, which was their only available high school.) Otherwise, you usually got to school on a KTL bus, or you walked. Today, newspaper accounts of parents complaining that the school bus does not stop directly in front of their houses seem perplexing. I'm sure there may have been a handful of students were brought to school by their parents, via automobiles, but personally I remember only one student who drove to school, or were driven to school, until I was in high school, and that was a boy at Christenberry Junior who obviously was considerably older than most students at that school. In fact, back then, even a considerable number of teachers didn't drive automobiles to school. My usual walking distance to junior high school was one and a half miles, and it was a three mile walk from my house in Lincoln Park to Rule high school. What's with this modern pampering, anyway?
The annual Community Chest Campaign was held from Sept. 16 to October 7. It's now called the United Way Campaign, lasts longer, and takes in a lot more money ... all of which of needed, I'm sure.
The Smokies' Bob Churchwell's season-ending batting average of .406 was the highest-ever in the Tri-State League. I remember once seeing what might have been another record at the time, at one of the Smokies' games at Smithson Stadium. Two different Smokies each hit two home runs in the same inning. (I'm too old to remember their names now - I think one was a first baseman named Koller, and the other was an outfielder.)
In Cleveland, Tennessee, five snake handlers were arrested, and three rattlesnakes were killed. The next day, a thousand locals marched to the jail, protesting, according to the newspaper account, "in unknown tongues". (Might have been something like "Uagimmiebackamyahandlersandamysnakes.")
American Airlines announced that service from Knoxville would now be available in the new DC 6, which traveled at 300 miles per hour.
The Tennessee Vols opened the season in their enlarged stadium, 20,000 seats having been added, to bring the total capacity to "around 50,000". Neyland had not been optimistic about this team, but had hoped to improve on his worst-ever season in 1947, when they had five wins and five losses. Local sports writers were already calling this "the house that Neyland built", long before the stadium was named for the General. The start in '48 was hardly auspicious, as Shorty McWilliams lead the Mississippi State Maroons (they weren't called the Bulldogs until later) to a 21-6 thumping of the Vols. The Vols got better later that season, when Hal Littleford took over at tailback.
OCTOBER
Watson's advertised men's all-wool suits, $18.18 to $22.22. (Now you could buy something to wear with those $2.50 shirts you bought at Penny's.)
At Chilhowee Park, October first was "Student Day" at the annual Fair, which was then in full swing. A large advertisement, depicting a scantily-clad female named "Mitzi", appeared in the local papers that same day, promoting a midway show with "twenty-three beautiful girls". I'll bet that brought some male students out there that day.
The Freedom Train arrived in Knoxville, the excursion train that displayed original significant American historical documents. The train and the documents were on display at the L & N Station. A newspaper photograph showed a long serpentine line of viewers waiting to see the exhibit, leading away from the station, along Western, and out of sight down Henley Street.
On Union Avenue, near the Roxy Theater, a jealous husband shot and killed his wife, then turned the gun to his head and pulled the trigger, dying instantly.
An increase in automobile insurance rates in Tennessee was announced, due to a rise in claim payments. Property damage claims were averaging $ 67.20. (You couldn't replace a tail light for that amount today.)
A severe hurricane headed out to sea after leaving about ten million dollars worth of damage behind in Cuba and Florida. It had no name ... apparently they hadn't yet gotten around to giving names to hurricanes back then.
U. T.'s "Beaver Club" was performing card tricks at the Vols' home games. You know, those displays where they held up cards to form words and / or pictures. I don't know what ever happened to that activity, but if they revive the practice they might consider renaming the club.
Women wrestlers were the feature at the Lyric one Friday night in October. (Might have been labeled "Thespians of the Fair Sex Performing on Gay Street."
Lili Pons, the Met prima dona, performed at the U. T. Auditorium. One wonders how many men who went to the female wrestling match at the Lyric also heard Lili perform? Probably less than somewhat.
Safety Director Christenberry abolished the Vice Squad ... "to eliminate dissension in the department". With the Squad gone, the newspaper article failed to explain what was to be done in town thereafter to curtail vice.
The largest crowd ever - - "about 46, 000" - - watched the Volunteers beat Alabama, 21-7. I was at that game, and on the first play Alabama's Ed Salem threw the ball about fifty yards just beyond the outstretched fingers of an Alabama receiver, who was wide open behind the Tennessee secondary. If they had completed that one it would have been a sure touchdown.
Undefeated Kingsport's Dobbins Bennett came to town and mauled the KHS Trojans, 40-7, in what had been rated a toss-up game. Both had been undefeated, were rated the number One and Two teams in the state, and most folks were shocked the way Kingsport manhandled KHS. They made it look like a track meet, running up and down the field at will. It wasn't a fluke, because Kingsport continued undefeated that year, and the end of the season Young's Yellow Jackets, still undefeated at the time, likewise fell to Kingsport, by the score of 26-0.
The ROTC paraded at halftime of the UT - TPI football game. Male students these days don't know how much easier their requirements are these days. lucky they are. Back then, all UT male students, except those who already had military service, were required to take two years in the Reserve Officers Training Corps at the University of Tennessee. That requirement included both classes and mandatory afternoon field drills Those drills were often conducted under the hot autumn sun, in full heavy wool military uniform, and while trying to avoid mashing your thumb flat while opening the bolt during rifle inspections. Some occasionally didn't manage to do so, as evidenced by the loud screaming and bleeding following such unsuccessful attempts. For that matter, all students were required to take two years of Physical Education, including a first quarter physical fitness course that included a final exam that involved a grueling conditioning routine, one that some with less athletic ability had difficulty completing.
The city of Oak Ridge officially opened to the public. Passes were no longer required to enter the "Atomic City". They offered an Atomic Exhibit in the warehouse district ... apparently the forerunner of the Atomic Museum.
Reports of continuing investigations of those involved in, or thought to be involved in, or even knowing anybody who was involved in, Communist activities (persons dubbed as 'Pinkos") appeared daily in newspapers.
Austin High School defeated Stephen Lee High School of Asheville, North Carolina, 18-0.
A Unitarian congregation was organized in Knoxville. Years later, my children were in the youth choir at our church. The music director arranged for them to attend services at churches of various other denominations, which I though was a good idea. But I admit that I thought it was a bit unusual following the Sunday service they had visited the Unitarian Church, when they reported that the closing hymn had been "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head".
The National Guard was called into Loudon when a mob with sub-machine guns and grenades was reported to have threatened to storm Sheriff Henry McDonald's office. Locals were in a frenzy after a local hillbilly singer was killed in a car wreck while being chased by the Sheriff.
The Vols held Charlie "Choo Choo" Justice to 46 yards rushing, but the Tar Heels escaped Knoxville with a 14-7 victory. Officers were fearful of a riot, when fans attempted to storm the field and attack the referees. The reason for the uproar was that Tennessee had been penalized for clipping, negating tailback Hal Littleford's ninety-three yard return of a punt for an apparent touchdown. Films later revealed that Tarheel fullback Hosea Rogers had apparently twisted his body after being blocked, falling backwards over the Vol defender, and the official had blown the call.
NOVEMBER
The final poll before the election gave Tom Dewey a substantial lead over incumbent Harry Truman. Since that episode - - and probably previously - - the public has always been wary of polls, which even to this day seem to be wrong as often as they are right.
The Ringling Bros., Barnam and Bailey Circus made its annual appearance in Knoxville. The circus tents were set up at the Clinton Pike grounds. The preliminary circus parade made its way to that place out Central Avenue.
Harry Truman defeated Tom Dewey for the Presidency, in what was considered to be a huge upset. Estes Kefauver defeated Carroll Reese in the Senatorial race, and Gordon Browning was elected Governor, garnering almost twice as many votes as country singer Roy Acuff.
Tennessee upset Georgia Tech, 13-7. Tech's coach was the old Volunteer hero, Bobby Dodd. Not many years later, his Engineers went independent, deserting the Southeastern Conference.
It was reported that an estimated ten million Americans had watched the first-ever televised coverage of a national election. It may have been that a small handful of those viewers were right here in Knoxville, but that was probably about it.
The city announced plans to operate a free dental clinic for school children.
Knoxville asked for federal aid to help solve the flooding problem along First Creek. If you were not around back then, you might find it difficult to believe the flooding that occurred in some sections of town. Heavy rains would often inundate portions of Fountain City, and I recall when the entire section along Broadway, at what today is the shopping center down the hill from Fulton High School, would sometimes be completely under water.
Plans were announced for the construction of a modern steel and concrete baseball stadium, to replace Smithson Stadium at Caswell Park. It was a few years before the old stadium was demolished and the new stadium was finally built, at the same site. When it was completed, it was called the Municipal Stadium, then was later renamed Bill Meyer Stadium. Some modern writers who mention baseball in Knoxville seemingly have completely forgotten about the old Smithson Stadium, and our earlier Smokies teams.
A large downtown crowd watches the annual Armistice Day Parade. This is still celebrated, but it's now called Veteran's Day. In 1948, it was a front page story, with newspaper accounts reporting the size of the crowd at around ten thousand people. I checked the report of this parade in the News Sentinel in 1997, and by then it was relegated to page four, where the size of the crowd was not mentioned. That same day, local TV newscasts reported that "hundreds" were in attendance to watch the parade.
A son was born to England's Queen Elizabeth. Is Prince Charles really that old now? At this rate, he may be pretty ancient before he finally becomes King, plus of course he's perhaps alienated some subjects with his marriage to the beauty queen.
DECEMBER
Sheriff Austin Cate quickly solved a robbery from the Fountain City Optimist Club, recovering what had been reported as the "Jewels of Sheba". He located the loot in the Fountain City Lake. But it turned out that the jewels were not as advertised. Instead, they were some cheap stuff that had been used by Optimist Club members in a show. How that story made front page news, with photos, is anybody's guess. One newspaper reporter humorously described a metallic fig-leaf found among the stolen "jewels" as "The Royal G. String".
Newspapers reported that a Knoxville policeman was seeking reinstatement to the force. He had been fired after being charged with drunkenness in January, 1948. He claimed that his problem at the time had not been caused by drinking, but by an overdose of cough medicine. ( Cough, Cough - - Wheezz, Whuuzz - - oh what a relief it wuz! )
No player from the Southeastern Conference made the All American team. North Carolina's Charlie Justice was named to the team. "Choo Choo" was among the last of the old-time triple-threat tailbacks, other than those who played at Tennessee, since the Vols continued to run the outmoded single wing offense long after it was abandoned by other major schools.
Some postal rates were to increase in January, 1949. First class mail would continue at three cents, but the cost of Air Mail would increase from five to six cents. If you happen to have any of those first class stamps still around from 1948, you'll need to stick no less than thirteen of them on an envelope to mail a letter today.
The Young High School football team defeated Memphis Humes, 13-6, in a game billed as the first annual Memorial Bowl, played at the University of Tennessee's Shields Watkins Field.
Alabama and Auburn renewed their football rivalry for the first time since 1907. Auburn probably would have preferred to have waited a few years, since the Crimson Tide ran them off the field, 55-0.
Johnny Belinda opened at the Tennessee Theater. Jane Wyman won an Academy Award for her performance in that film, without speaking a word.
Almost daily, Obituaries listed the names of soldiers who had died during World War Two. Services were just then being held for soldiers whose remains had just been identified and returned to the United States, more than three years after the end of the war. That surely must have been a traumatic ordeal for those families.
The Krispy Kreme opened on Magnolia Avenue. It was open twenty-four hours, and you could smell the donuts from a half mile away. You learned when they were being made, so you could buy them hot off the conveyor belt, since they were much better when they were hot and freshly made. A few years ago, although I have no idea why it took around fifty years or so, the Krispy Kreme opened in New York City, and other cities in the country, and has become immensely popular in those cities. I don't know the going rate these days, but back in 1948 they were two for a nickel, or you could buy a dozen for twenty-five cents.
Oak Ridge was to get natural gas in early 1949. Knoxville was behind -- but not far.
Bible teaching continued in local schools. It had commenced in 1933. I suppose that went the way of spankings by teachers and perhaps even the pledge to the flag. Today, too many students pledge allegiance to no place, and sometimes spank the teachers. Sad.
Handel's Messiah was performed at the U. T. Auditorium by a four hundred voice choir composed of students and others, conducted by David Van Vactor, with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra.
New Southeastern Conference rules required that a team must have a winning percentage of .750 to be eligible to play in a bowl game, and also limited any team's participation to one bowl every three years. Obviously, the multiplicity of bowl games and the dollar signs reduced that rule into oblivion many years ago.
Of the eleven persons tho took the oath for U. S. Citizenship in December, eight were "War Brides". (As Lawrence Welk might have said ; "well-a, the boyz-a were-a over there-a for a long-a time".)
Oliver Hardy, of the Lauel and Hardy comedy film duo, now age fifty-one and weighing 305 pounds, was in Los Angeles court, charged with shortchanging his wife on alimony payments. Hardy claimed that in truth she owed him money.
For the first time ever, Knoxville College was given an "A" Rating by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.
Jay Sentell, a tenth grade center / linebacker at Rule High School, was named a first team All-State football selection. A week later, he barely missed making the All Southern team. Jay had been a first team All-City selection in the ninth grade, and before he graduated was named to the high school All-American team.
Offerings in classified ads in local papers in December, 1948, included the following : AUTOMOBILES : 1947 GMC pick up truck, $1,395 ; 1947 Studebaker Land Cruiser, $2,295.00 ; new 1949 Ford, $2,295.00. HOMES : Seven room masonry house, four years old, $3,445.00 ; Five room house in Island Home, $ 1,500.00 ; Three story home with twelve rooms, in the University of Tennessee area, $ 10,500.
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MOVIE THEATERS IN KNOXVILLE IN 1948
BIJOU. 805 Gay Street. Most significant first run movies played at the Tennessee. In fact, popular features were often held over from the Tennessee, but somehow the Bijou also managed to charge the same (higher) admission price as had been charged at the Tennessee for such attractions. Considerable has been written about the history of the Bijou, which dates back to 1909, first operating as a theater with live stage entertainment, but by 1915 having become primarily a movie theater. In 1948 it was still basically a movie theater, but sometimes live entertainment was still offered, in conjunction with the films. I remember going to the Bijou back in the forties to see Smiley Burnette, otherwise known as "Frog", a sidekick to Gene Autry in numerous cowboy movies. The Bijou was the only "white" movie theaters in Knoxville in 1948 where black patrons could attend, albeit their ticket booth was located separately at a side entrance on Cumberland, where a long outside stairway led up to the third balcony. (Earlier, the Sunset Theater on Western Avenue also had seating for black patrons in the balcony level, but by 1948 it had become an African American theater, called the Ritz.) In later years, for a while, the Bijou was showing "Art Films", or soft porno flicks. This theater was the title and theme of a popular book by a Knoxvillian, my old Christenberry Junior High School schoolmate, David (back then generally known as Jerry) Madden, although the author disguised the location as being in an imaginary city called Cherokee.
BOOTH. 1836 Cumberland. The Booth was located on the south side of Cumberland Avenue, between Eighteenth and Nineteenth Streets, next door to Brownie's Grill. The theater opened in 1928. It seems safe to assume that the Booth had a decent built-in base of customers, being in the University of Tennessee area. Also, the theater was in what was then known as West Knoxville, the residential section now called the Fort Sanders Neighborhood.
BROADWAY. 2411 Broadway. The Broadway was on the west side of North Broadway, in the group of buildings across from Fairmont Boulevard. It opened in 1939. Having discovered girls when I was in junior high school at Christenberry, I often took dates to this movie theater. The Broadway closed in 1957.
CAPITOL. 810 North Central. The Capitol Theater opened in 1946. It was located on the east side of North Central, just south of Broadway. Until a few years ago, the marquee, in the shape of the U.S. Capitol dome, was still on the exterior of the building. For people living in the area, it was another theater to attend besides the Joy in Happy Holler. Not unlike other theaters at the time, where various promotions were held to attract customers, the Capitol had Bingo games on selected nights. It closed in 1950.
CRYSTAL. 31 Market Street. In 1948, the Crystal was the only movie theater left on Market Square. Just a few years earlier, one also could attend the Rialto, located down the street at 19 Market, but defunct by '48. Both were small movie houses, showing cowboy flicks, "B" movies, and reruns of older films. The Crystal continued that tradition in 1948, but soon its demise stripped Market Square of it last movie house.
DAWN. 142 Ailor. The Dawn was next door to the White Store, at the southeast corner of Ailor, at the intersection with Fort Sanders (now Seventeenth Street.) In addition to movies, a regular activity at this movie house was their weekly amateur talent contests. The theater opened in 1946 and closed in 1954. It was located near the neighborhood known as McAnally Flats.
GAY. 3811 McCalla. The building where the Gay Theater was located is still standing, on the north side of the street, in Burlington. Until a few years ago, the outdoor marquee remained at the structure. The theater opened here as the Rivoli in 1928, and was renamed the Burlington the next year. It closed soon thereafter, reopening in 1931 as the Gay. The Gay closed in 1958. Some may be confused with the name of this theater in earlier years, because another Gay Theater earlier opened on Gay Street in downtown Knoxville in 1911. Later, that was the location of the Strand Theater.
GEM THEATER. 106 East Vine. The Gem was located just east of Central, on the south side of Vine. Originally opened around 1913, for many years it was the only movie theater for black patrons in Knoxville, other for a few other short-lived theaters. In the days before air conditioning, the stench from the infamous First Creek, over which the Gem was constructed, was an unwelcome distraction for audiences, particularly during summer months. The screen at the Gem was at the front of the theater, thus the first thing patrons saw upon entering was the audience. Obviously, there was no "sneaking in" from a door behind the screen as was the often attempted but rarely successful practice at the Joy down in Happy Holler. The Gem was not only a movie house, but sometimes a place of live entertainment, where such entertainers as Moms Mably, Ida Cox and her "Darktown Scandals", and other popular and well-known black performers appeared.
GRAND. 216 South Central. The Grand was a theater for black patrons. It opened in 1945 and closed in 1950. The Gem, just off the corner of Central and Vine, had for many years been the only theater for African Americans in segregated Knoxville, aside from several earlier short-lived movie houses, including the Lincoln, the Lyric, the Dixie and the Iola - - all of which had been located in the same general area around Central and Vine.
HORNE. 4303 Chapman Highway. The Horne was located on the west side of Chapman Highway, north of Young High Pike, near where Young High School stood at that intersection. It was near a popular local eatery called Jack's Shack, both being located across the street from Young's football stadium, Duff Field. The Horne was owned by Sam Horne. It opened in 1947 and closed in 1956.
JOY. 1205 North Central. The Joy was on the west side of Central, north of Sharp's Grocery, in the middle of Happy Holler. It probably operated under as many names as any Knoxville theater. It originally opened in 1916, as the Picto Theatre, as Knoxville's first neighborhood theater. Later names included the Liberty, the Central, and the Cameo. In 1949 it became the Center. As with many neighborhood movie houses, 'B' movies and reruns played at the Joy, but Saturdays always featured cowboy movies for the youngsters. Included of course were the Previews, a cartoon, and that weeks' chapter of one of the seemingly never-ending serials, when last week's ending was cleverly changed just enough to permit the hero to escape a tragic end. They rarely had Bingo or other special gimmicks to attract customers at the Joy Theater. But the management did have an obvious aversion to sweeping the floors.
KNOXVILLE DRIVE-IN. Kingston Pike. This was one of Knoxville's first drive-in theaters, the other being the Skyway. The Knoxville was at Kingston Pike and Forest Hills Blvd. A scant three years later there were five more drive in theaters in Knoxville - - Chapman Highway, Family, Sunset, Lakemont, and River Breeze. Although they have faded from the scene, drive-in theaters are fondly remembered by many couples as places of entertainment, including a few who went there to actually watch the movie.
LAKE. The Lake was located at Sevier Avenue and Island Home. Sevier and Island Home have since been configured, and I'm not sure that the exact location of this theater still exists. This short-lived theater opened in 1947 and closed in 1950.
LEE. 141 Tennessee Avenue. Lonsdale's finest, and only, movie theater. The Lee was at the corner of Tennessee Avenue and Bragg Street. Certainly there were enough residents in Lonsdale to support this theater. The Lee opened in 1941 and closed in 1956.
PALACE. 4222 North Broadway, Fountain City. The Palace was in the middle of Fountain City, located on the eastern side of Broadway, at the intersection with Essary Road. It opened in 1936 and closed in 1948. It adjoined the Palace Roller Skating Rink.
PARK. 2301 Magnolia. The Park was on the north side of Magnolia, at the corner of Olive Street. It opened in 1938 and was in continuous operation apparently longer than any other neighborhood theater in Knoxville. It continued as the Park until 1975, when the name was changed to Studio One, which eventually closed in 1982. The building was still standing until it was demolished in recent years. .
PIKE. 4220 Kingston Pike. The Pike opened in 1946, on the south side of Kingston Pike, west of Mohican Street. It was later obviously under the same ownership as the Tower, as joint newspaper advertisements for the two theaters were common. It was renamed the Capri Cinema in 1963.
RITZ. 1301 Western. The Ritz was on the northern side of Western, at Deaderick Avenue. The theater originally opened as the Sunset Theater in 1941. (Besides downtown's Bijou, the Sunset was the only white movie house in the city where black patrons attended, those customers watching from the balcony.) The Sunset theater closed, and when it reopened in 1946 it was called the Ritz theater, then a movie house for black patrons. Under different names, this was the only movie theater that ever existed near the Mechanicsville community, although in 1948 the section where the theater was located was nearer communities called Western Heights and McAnally Flats. The old name of Mechanicsville had essentially disappeared then, that community name having been resurrected in more modern times. The theater was renamed the Savoy in 1950, then the was name changed again, to the Booker T theater, in 1953. It closed soon afterwards.
RIVIERA. 512 Gay Street. The spelling and probable correct pronunciation notwithstanding, most people around here called this theater the "RI-VEEER-a", not the "RI-VE-ERA". The Tennessee Theater was generally the first run movie house in town, but with various commitments for other movies, they rarely showed movies more than a few days, although sometimes movies were held over at the Bijou. That inflexible policy apparently was the reason a new film, "Gone with the Wind", premiered in Knoxville at the Riviera back in early 1940, instead of at the Tennessee, where it played for several weeks, and was so popular that it was necessary to secure advance reservations for tickets to see the movie, even if the censors had edited the movie in order that the public's delicate ears would not hear Clark, alias Rhett, utter the forbidden word "damn". In its earlier existence, the Riviera also offered live state entertainment.
ROXY. 413-417 Union Avenue. The live stage shows were already history in 1948, as the last Knoxville newspaper ads promoting that additional entertainment to the movies seem to disappear around 1947. The 1948 ads indicate that only movies were the fare at the Roxy. In those earlier days, seemingly there were few if any rules or restrictions about admitting the younger set. If so, they must have been very lax. Young boys usually were scattered throughout the audience, joining a mixture of the curious, sometimes strange, patrons, occasionally including a few women, and invariably the ever-present lecherous old men. They always had double feature movies, after which the thundering sounds of the old piano and drums signaled the beginning of the stage show. The most well-known performer was Arthur Watts, who is listed in the city directory back then as an actor, living at the Gilbert Hotel on Wall Street. He performed under the stage name of "Cotton" Watts, but when I went to the Roxy as a youngster the name of the "star" on stage was Webfoot Watts. Those were two different entertainers, apparently relatives. Anyway, Webfoot and associates, with their off-color skits, and periodically joined by the bevy of scantily-clad females of the chorus line, performed to the delight of their audience. In general, although certainly it made no difference to those in attendance, few of those girls would have qualified as contestants in that year's Miss America Pageant. But everybody who attended that old vaudeville-type show felt a surge of excitement and obviously enjoyed the old Roxy stage show, one of the few - - and maybe for many youngsters, their first - - exposure to such risque' "live" entertainment in Bible-Belt Knoxville.
SKYWAY DRIVE-IN . The Skyway opened in 1947, past Fountain City, over the top of the hill, on the left side of the highway. This and the other drive-in theaters apparently made some of their profit selling overpriced popcorn, candy, hot dogs, and the like. They always managed to sneak in messages over your car speaker, and during double features they simply turned off the projector for a half hour or so and encouraged patrons to come to the "snack bar". On the other hand, the popcorn that cost fifteen cents instead of the usual nickel was certainly a far cry from the ridiculous price of a simple bag of theater popcorn these days.
STATE. 1505 Washington Ave. The State was on the north side of Washington Avenue, east of the railroad tracks and across the street from the Standard Knitting Mills. It was in a group of connected buildings. Adjoining the State were Jones Jewelers to the west and Lena's Beauty Shop to the east. The State opened in 1937 and closed in 1954.
STRAND. 403-405 Gay Street. Very often, cowboy movies were shown at the Strand, in addition to second run movies of various types. I may have written elsewhere that one time as a youngster I had assumed that any downtown theater would naturally show movies before they made it to neighborhood theaters. I made a trip downtown to the Strand one summer, only to find that the featured movie that day was one I had seen down in Happy Holler at the lowly Joy Theater a couple of weeks previous. Somehow. the aura of a downtown theater was no longer the same thereafter.
TENNESSEE. 604-606 Gay Street. The Tennessee was Knoxville's first run movie house, at least for those features that were considered the better offerings from filmdom. Occasionally, the Tennessee also offered live stage entertainment, often in addition to the usual movie fare. I remember seeing Vaughn Monroe and his orchestra at the Tennessee. And of course they had the mighty Wurlitzer organ. Ushers led you to your seat, dressed to the nines, gloves and all. Certainly of all the theaters in Knoxville, the Tennessee was by far the most magnificent. But the renovated theater is no longer a continuously operating daily movie theater, rather being a place for periodic live entertainment, with an occasional brief showings of vintage movies.
TILLERY. The Tillery opened in 1947. It was located on Clinton Highway, then called the "New Clinton Highway", to distinguish it from the original Clinton Road, which was what today is Western Avenue, west from University Avenue, along Pleasant Ridge Road, north and beyond the site of the old airplane service station. Clinton Highway was not dissimilar from Chapman Highway in the 1940's, with relatively few businesses, compared to today's wall-to-wall commercialization. The only two eating places I remember, north from Sharp's Gap all the way to Merchant's Road, were a Blue Circle and Malcolm's Drive-in eatery. Admission to this neighborhood theater at the time was nine cents for children under twelve and twenty-five cents for adults. At the Tillery, Wednesday night was Family Night, when Mom, Dad, and all the kids were admitted for a total cost of thirty-six cents. The Tillery closed in 1959.
TOWER. 3400 Broadway. The Tower opened around 1947. The theater was near the Fountain City area, facing Broadway, near the Tazewell Pike intersection, across the street from the Lynnhurst Cemetery. It was renamed the Lennox Theater in 1963. The theater closed in 1966.
IN 1948, KNOXVILLE'S MOVIE THEATERS WERE ...
In Happy Holler, the Joy Theater was seedy, and really uncouth
the Roxy's Webfoot and his troops would spin dirty jokes to the youths
the Broadway was in North Knoxville, the Tower was out past there
on Central, the Capitol's Bingo was free ( if you'd paid your fare)
down at the Lee in Lonsdale one time, the gross "Mom and Dad" was the movie
if you weren't sick, then you hadn't watched, (and some kid had told you "It's groovy"!)
out south some went to the Horne, if that was the one that was near
still others attended the Lake, at Island Home, down on Sevier
on Market Square was the Crystal - if you didn't like their cowboys there
you'd go up on Gay to the Strand, where such movies oft were the fare
the Tennessee surely was regal, and clean, little trash and no pests
the Bijou and Riviera a slight cut below (but both above all downtown's rest)
on Central the Grand was now open, to compete with the Gem down the street
on Clinton Highway the Tillery sat, where north Knoxville folks took retreat
the Pike was out west, in Bearden -- 'round U. T. the Booth showed some hits
over the hill, the Dawn was on Ailor -- just past it, on Western, the Ritz
eastward the Park on Magnolia was here -- the State a bit north, near the mill
the Gay was in Burlington for many years, its decayed marquee is there still
the Palace was in Fountain City -- past there, a drive-in, the Skyway
just one other drive-in existed back then, the Knoxville, out Kingston Pike way
twenty-six movie theaters, remembered in terrible rhyme
forever gone are twenty-four -- the remaining two now only part-time
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I wrote the following sometime in the 1980's. Today's downtown renovation projects have somewhat changed the scene, but perhaps not that much, particularly most evenings. Anyway, the following described Gay Street as I saw it on a daily basis back then.
GAY STREET SLEEPS
businesses have long been dead
city streets of boring dread
hats no longer cover heads
for the homeless, sidewalk beds
long ago the people fled
Gay Street sleeps
trains no longer make their sounds
few pedestrians around
no tamale peddlers found
where is Lowell's Merry-Go-Round?
See the ugly World's Fair mound
Gay Street sleeps
gone the streetcar and its tracks
drunks and pimps the night attracts
with their wine in paper sacks
shuffling over sidewalk cracks
vacant stores with empty racks
Gay Street sleeps
derelicts now have their day
movie houses gone away
eerily the dark winds play
through the silent streets today
now their muted voices say
Gay Street sleeps
hear the message, bells now toll
hollow new, forgotten old
can't deny, the story's told
if you think I'm much too bold
see the scenery and behold
Gay Street sleeps
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and finally, a few personal remembrances from childhood days in 1948 Knoxville ...
Moon pie and a dope -- Pepsodent and Bob Hope
shoes from Kenneys -- cigarettes for a penny
Harry Gilmer -- Hot Shot Elmer
arcade machines with penny slots -- Roxy shows with Webfoot Watts
notebooks we called binders -- a school they called Mynders
comebacks were rallys -- between streets were alleys
freak shows we saw at the Fair -- Vitalis to slicken your hair
care packages to folks overseas -- old tires hung with rope from trees
Burma Shave signs -- Crackerjack finds
June bugs on a string -- songs by der Bing
swishing from knickers as you walked -- staring out the window when teachers talked
school desks with ink wells -- Grandma's ghost tales
fountain pens -- "Let's Pretend"
"Amos and Andy" -- nickel candy
the pool at Whittles -- Little Lulu riddles
a bad word was heck -- a school called Stair Tech
riding the back of the ice wagon lift -- High Noon in New York and time for Kate Smith
seven cent loaves of bread -- mohawks on boys' heads
all summer barefoot -- railroad train soot
stumping your big toe -- watching the radio
Lionel trains -- model airplanes
neighborhood fights -- newspaper kites
beating the dust out of dirty rugs -- jar lid holes for lightning bugs
seeing the Smokies with the Knothole Gang -- when the war ended and church bells rang
coal you bought by the ton -- Red Ryder bb guns
First Creek's stinks -- roller skate rinks
fruit jars -- street cars
cellar doors -- neighborhood stores
wooden rulers -- cod coolers
cleaning wallpaper with stuff called Climax -- drinks that came in small bottles of wax
Louis and Conn -- Red Barry (Don)
going to movies and getting free dishes -- hating to eat those bone-laden fishes
Benny's sponsor Jello -- Tammy Mariello
Grapette and Orange Crush -- yucky food they called mush
Whammy Burgers from the Dixieland -- music at Old Gray, with uniformed bands
songs heard on scratchy seventy-eights -- hot steam rising from sidewalk grates
tackle football without any gear -- hoping you's get that bicycle next year
playing marbles in a circle on dirt -- wearing those awful scratchy wool shirts
overall pants -- the boil that you lanced
hot summer nights of rising steam -- cardboard tubes with push-up ice cream
Allstate cars sold by Sears -- Cas' red neon "Sign of the Shears"
chocolate shakes bought at Kays -- Superman drained by Kryptonic Rays
cowboy movies starring Bob Steele -- cloths pins with cardboard on your bike wheel
we laughed 'til we hardly could stand -- when "Hoof-Hearted" played at the Strand
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