Old City, Knoxville
Wholesalers built large warehouses, such as the ones along Jackson Avenue, where rural East Tennessee merchants came to buy the goods with which they stocked their general stores.The neighborhood is roughly bounded by Magnolia Avenue on the north, Gay Street on the west, Summit Hill Drive on the south, and the interstate overpasses on the east."[6] After the Civil War, Irish businessmen began building saloons and shops along Central (originally Crozier) Street that served the city's railroad traffic.[7] In 1869, Knoxville's two main rail lines merged to form the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad, which in subsequent years constructed or acquired over 2,500 miles (4,000 km) of track across the southeast, leading to a wholesaling and industrial boom in the city.A 1900 article described the Bowery as being "congregated by nine-tenths of the criminal element" of Knoxville,[3] and according to historian Jack Neely, "saloons, whorehouses, cocaine parlors, gambling dens, and poolrooms" lined Central from the tracks to the river.The most well-known of the Bowery's gunfights occurred at Ike Jones' bar on Central on December 13, 1901, when outlaw Kid Curry (a member of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch) shot two Knoxville police officers.[4] Peace Corps "progenitor" James Herman Robinson (1907–1972) grew up in a polluted and disease-ridden slum known as "The Bottoms," which lay adjacent to the Bowery on the banks of First Creek.That afternoon, a lynch mob broke into the jail, and failing to find Mays, freed several inmates and looted the liquor storage room.In the 1940s, JFG Coffee, which had opened its processing plant on West Jackson in 1921, threatened to move to a new location, complaining that the company's truck drivers were consistently mobbed by prostitutes.Manhattan's became a thriving first-start gathering spot and Curl's construction crew worked doggedly on multiple builder restorations simultaneously as the district's popularity exploded.To improve overall infrastructure Calandruccio applied for and secured a $1.2m federal Urban Development Action Grant for the placement of overhead utility wires underground, new sidewalks, landscaping, and new outdoor lighting.With this focused vision, he was able to gain critical publicity for the bringing-in of other developers, tenants, and residents to the area, thus setting in motion the revitalization that stimulated the rebirth of Knoxville's Central Business District.
U.S. National Register of Historic PlacesU.S. Historic districtTennesseeKnoxville, TennesseeFrank Pierce MilburnCivil WarrailyardNorfolk SouthernGay StreetInterstate 40Market SquareEmory PlaceEast Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia RailroadNew York neighborhood of similar reputered-light districtKid CurryButch Cassidy's Wild BunchPeace CorpsJames Herman RobinsonKnoxville Riot of 1919mulattolynch mobNational GuardCormac McCarthySuttreewarehousestailoringapartmentsUniversity of TennesseenightlifeBattle of Depot StreetJackson Avenue Warehouse DistrictSouth Market Historic DistrictNational Register of Historic PlacesNational Park ServiceCity of KnoxvilleDowntownFort SandersFourth and GillLonsdaleMechanicsvilleOakwood-Lincoln ParkOld North KnoxvilleEast KnoxvilleChilhowee ParkParkridgeStrawberry PlainsNorth KnoxvilleFountain CityNorth HillsNorwoodPowellSouth KnoxvilleColonial VillageIsland Home ParkLake ForestLindbergh ForestWest KnoxvilleBeardenCedar BluffForest HeightsRocky HillSequoyah HillsTurkey CreekWest HillsAlcoa HighwayJames White ParkwayKingston PikeKnoxville Area TransitMcGhee Tyson AirportPellissippi ParkwayKnox County SchoolsAustin-East HSBearden HSCentral HSFulton HSWest HSTennessee School for the DeafBerean ChristianChristian Academy of KnoxvilleKnoxville Catholic HSWebb SchoolPellissippi State Community CollegeRoman Catholic Diocese of KnoxvilleOld City HallWorld's Fair ParkKnoxville Museum of ArtSunsphereTennessee AmphitheaterTennessee TheatreZoo KnoxvilleKnoxville Christian School