Knoxville Photos

Photos by David Luttrell

  • Boyd’s Jig & Reel, Knoxville’s first Scottish-themed pub, draws a crowd even on a Sunday.
  • Preservation’s Exhibit A may always be Market Square. Established in the 1850s, it was less valued in the 1950s, when some pragmatic modernization proposals called for replacing it with parking. Though its original Market House was demolished, its 30-odd buildings, most of which date before 1930, have been preserved separately, and most house successful modern businesses.
  • Knoxville’s first modern-era coffee house, Java, still a home away from home for many.
  • To the right, amblers peruse Gay’s colorful 100 Block, which consists entirely of prewar buildings, and, with hundreds of residents, is said to constitute the city’s most popular residential address. In the background are imaginative modern restaurants Shuck and the brand-new Knox Mason.
  • Some modern businesses, notably busy Mast General Store, which in 2005 occupied a long-vacant building on Gay Street, prefer historic buildings.
  • The L&N, the train station closed since 1968, hosted restaurants and offices for many years but now serves a specialized public high school for students gifted in the sciences. Meanwhile, most of the buildings built anew for the 1982 fair, like the large U.S. Pavilion, have long since been torn down.
  • Old buildings gracefully serve multiple uses. Above, on World’s Fair Park, the Candy Factory, a former industrial building and warehouse, housed a beehive of restaurants and shops during the fair. It then served as a city-subsidized arts center, and is now an upscale residence—but still also houses a large chocolate-making shop.
  • The antebellum Walker-Sherrill house, one of the last antebellum buildings on Kingston Pike, was almost lost. Preservationist group Knox Heritage began trying to work deals to save it five years ago, as an array of developers attempted to remove or compromise it. During long controversy, thieves stole the house’s valuable mantels—but the house’s woodwork and elegant staircase are still intact. By a compromise okayed by City Council last week, it will be renovated by West Knoxville developer Bill Hodges for offices.
  • The 1927 Daylight Building on Union Avenue may be the young century’s most surprising success. Slated for demolition and overlooked by most preservationists, it has become one of downtown’s busiest buildings, a successful mixed-use project for Dewhirst Properties. An unexpected bonus, muffled beneath decades of paint, was the copper façade.
  • MAN WITH A PLAN, MAYBE: Gov. Bill Haslam announced on Monday that he will introduce legislation to enact a limited voucher system for schools, though its details were not released.
  • Karen Tindal
  • Madeline Rogero: Knoxville Mayor Rogero, a former planner herself, is a big fan of the MPC. She says there have been talks with the agency about the city taking it over.
  • Thomas Reed
  • Larry Silverstein
  • Madeline Rogero
  • Julia Tucker
  • Carol Evans
  • Holly and Peggy Hambright
  • Jill Sizemore, Pastor of Metropolitan Community Church of Knoxville
  • Rafiq Mahdi, Unofficial Imam of the Muslim Community of Knoxville
  • Rev. Dr. John Butler, Pastor of Clinton Chapel AME Zion Church
  • BRICOLAGE: At Holly’s Eventful Catering in Bearden, the more intuitive sister, sometimes described as a “mad scientist” tries crazy things that always seem to turn out delicious.
  • BRICOLAGE: At Holly’s Eventful Catering in Bearden, the more intuitive sister, sometimes described as a “mad scientist” (with Chris Vaden) tries crazy things that always seem to turn out delicious.
  • BRICOLAGE: At Holly’s Eventful Catering in Bearden, the more intuitive sister, sometimes described as a “mad scientist” tries crazy things that always seem to turn out delicious.
  • BRICOLAGE: At Holly’s Eventful Catering in Bearden, the more intuitive sister, sometimes described as a “mad scientist” tries crazy things that always seem to turn out delicious.
  • At 10 or 12, I always wanted to make it look just like the picture. I was visually oriented. I wanted to make pretty things.
  • WORKING FROM A RECIPE: Peggy Hambright, with trusted longtime assistant Maren Hilgert, at Magpies cake workshop on North Central.
  • Decorating a cake at Magpies Bakery
  • Peggy Hambright
  • Holly, left, holds one of Peggy’s famous stack cakes, while Peggy presents her sister’s candied bacon.
  • MOM: Holly’s café displays a smock prepared for their mother Hazel, who died five years ago, when she helped with a catering project.
  • Holly and Peggy Hambright
  • Program Director Rick Walker also came to Jellinek after having “lost it all” more than once as a dual alcoholic/cocaine addict in his mid-40s.
  • Sandy Kolinsky may be the center’s assistant director, but she also puts in a lot of hands-on work.
  • A group counseling session led by Program Director Rick Walker.
  • Executive Director Johnny Lewis came to Jellinek in 1982 as a scared teen from Cocke County. He never left, eventually becoming Frank Kolinsky’s right-hand man at the center.
  • Chris Bayless
  • David Berry was once “the high-school alcoholic” who got hooked on pain pills after a succession of knee surgeries in his 20s—now he’s a Jellinek Center facilitator.
  • Carl Richardson walked into Jellinek a few years ago as a convicted felon with an ankle monitor. Now he's a counselor there.
  • URBAN GROWTH: Under director Michele Hummel, who has headed CBID since 2000, the organization’s budget has more than doubled, and its reserve fund has become an important source of funding for private development.
  • CATALYTIC CONVERTOR: CBID board member and part-time developer Kevin Grimac supports strategic, big-money grants for “catalyst” projects that provide noticeable economic ripple effects.
  • HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT: Developer David Dewhirst has had a long and complicated relationship with the CBID, serving on its board in the 1990s and later benefitting from its grant program.
  • TAILOR-MADE: Former CBID board chair Joe Petre’s company was awarded a $100,000 grant this year to redevelop the Tailor Lofts in the former Arby’s building on Gay Street.

Latest Blog Entries