Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee, United States, on the Tennessee River. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state's third-most-populous city after Nashville and Memphis. It is the principal city of the Knoxville metropolitan area, which had a population of 879,773 in 2020.
The Great Smoky Mountains are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains and form part of the Blue Ridge Physiographic Province. The range is sometimes called the Smoky Mountains, and the name is commonly shortened to the Smokies. The Smokies are best known as the home of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which protects most of the range. The park was established in 1934 and, with over 11 million visits per year, is the most visited national park in the United States.
Elkmont is a region situated in the upper Little River valley of the Great Smoky Mountains of Sevier County, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Throughout its history, the valley has been home to a pioneer Appalachian community, a logging town, and a resort community. Today, Elkmont is home to a large campground, ranger station, and historic district maintained by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The East Tennessee Historical Society (ETHS), headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the study of East Tennessee history, the preservation of historically significant artifacts, and educating the citizens of Tennessee. The society operates a museum and museum shop in the East Tennessee History Center on Gay Street in downtown Knoxville. The East Tennessee Historical Society was established in 1834, 38 years after the establishment of the state of Tennessee, to record the history of the development and settlement of the area.
Chilhowee was a prehistoric and historic Native American site in present-day Blount and Monroe counties in Tennessee, in what were the Southeastern Woodlands. Although now submerged by the Chilhowee Lake impoundment of the Little Tennessee River, the Chilhowee site was home to a substantial 18th-century Overhill Cherokee town. It may have been the site of the older Creek village "Chalahume" visited by Spanish explorer Juan Pardo in 1567. The Cherokee later pushed the Muscogee Creek out of this area.
The National Conservation Exposition was an exposition held in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, between September 1, 1913, and November 1, 1913. The exposition celebrated the cause of bringing national attention to conservation activities, especially in the Southeastern United States. The fair was held in what is now Knoxville's Chilhowee Park in East Knoxville.
David Carpenter Chapman was an American soldier, politician, and business leader from Knoxville, Tennessee who led the effort to establish the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the 1920s and 1930s. Mount Chapman and Chapman Highway, are named in his honor.
East Knoxville is the section of Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, that lies east of the city's downtown area. It is concentrated along Magnolia Avenue (US-70/US-11), Martin Luther King, Jr., Boulevard, Dandridge Avenue, and adjacent streets, and includes the neighborhoods of Holston Hills, Parkridge, Chilhowee Park, Morningside, Five Points, and Burlington. East Knoxville is home to Zoo Knoxville, the Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum, and Chilhowee Park.
Parkridge is a neighborhood in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, located off Magnolia Avenue east of the city's downtown area. Developed as a streetcar suburb for Knoxville's professional class in the 1890s, the neighborhood was incorporated as the separate city of Park City in 1907, and annexed by Knoxville in 1917. In the early 1900s, the neighborhood provided housing for workers at the nearby Standard Knitting Mill factory.
Enoch Lloyd Branson (1853–1925) was an American artist best known for his portraits of Southern politicians and depictions of early East Tennessee history. One of the most influential figures in Knoxville's early art circles, Branson received training at the National Academy of Design in the 1870s and subsequently toured the great art centers of Europe. After returning to Knoxville, he operated a portrait shop with photographer Frank McCrary. He was a mentor to fellow Knoxville artist Catherine Wiley, and is credited with discovering twentieth-century modernist Beauford Delaney.
Anna Catherine Wiley was an American artist active primarily in the early twentieth century. After training with the Art Students League of New York and receiving instruction from artists such as Lloyd Branson and Frank DuMond, Wiley painted a series of impressionist works that won numerous awards at expositions across the Southern United States, and have since been displayed in museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Morris Museum of Art. In 1926, Wiley was institutionalized after suffering a mental breakdown, and never painted again.
James Gilbert Sterchi was an American businessman, best known as the cofounder and head of the furniture wholesaler, Sterchi Brothers Furniture Company. At its height, Sterchi Brothers was the world's largest furniture store chain, with sixty-five stores across the southeastern United States and a worldwide customer base. In 1946, the company became the first Knoxville-based firm to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The company's ten-story headquarters, now called Sterchi Lofts, stands prominently along Knoxville's skyline, and Sterchi's home in northern Knoxville, Stratford Mansion, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Chilhowee Park is a residential neighborhood in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, located off Magnolia Avenue in the East Knoxville area. Developed as a streetcar suburb in the 1890s, this neighborhood was initially part of Park City, which was incorporated as a separate city in 1907, and annexed by Knoxville in 1917. Chilhowee Park lies adjacent to one of Knoxville's largest municipal parks, as well as Zoo Knoxville. The neighborhood contains a notable number of early-20th-century houses.
Caldonia Fackler Johnson was an American businessman and philanthropist, active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born into slavery, he rose to become a prominent Knoxville racetrack and saloon owner, and by the time of his death, was one of the wealthiest African-American businessmen in the state. He also owned several thoroughbred racehorses, one of which captured a world speed record in 1893.
Richard Franklin Graf (1863–1940) was an American architect active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee and the vicinity in the early 20th century. His works include Stratford Mansion (1910), Sterchi Building (1921), St. John's Lutheran Church (1913), and the Journal Arcade (1924). His home, the Prairie School-inspired Graf House, is considered Knoxville's first modern home. Several buildings designed by Graf have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The History of Knoxville, Tennessee, began with the establishment of James White's Fort on the Trans-Appalachian frontier in 1786. The fort was chosen as the capital of the Southwest Territory in 1790, and the city, named for Secretary of War Henry Knox, was platted the following year. Knoxville became the first capital of the State of Tennessee in 1796, and grew steadily during the early 19th century as a way station for westward-bound migrants and as a commercial center for nearby mountain communities. The arrival of the railroad in the 1850s led to a boom in the city's population and commercial activity.
The Tennessee Valley Fair is an annual regional fair held in Knoxville, Tennessee at Chilhowee Park & Exposition Center. The Tennessee Valley Fair takes place every September and lasts ten days.
Adelia Armstrong Lutz was an American artist active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She organized art circles in Knoxville, Tennessee, as director of the Knoxville Art Club and as a co-organizer of the Nicholson Art League. Her still lifes and portraits were exhibited throughout the American South, and they are to be the subject of a permanent exhibit at her former home, Historic Westwood.
The Knoxville Reds were a minor league baseball team that played in Knoxville, Tennessee, from 1909 to 1914. The team was known as the Knoxville Appalachians from 1909 to 1911 before adopting the Reds moniker. They were members of the Class B South Atlantic League (1909) and the Southeastern League (1910) and Appalachian League (1911–1914), both Class D circuits. They played their home games at Chilhowee Park.
The Appalachian Exposition, also known as the Appalachian Exhibition, was an event held in 1910 and 1911 in Knoxville, Tennessee's on property owned by Knoxville Railway and Light. The park grounds were 65 acres and included two lakes. The exhibitions demonstrated progress in Southern industry. Former president Theodore Roosevelt spoke at the 1910 exposition, and president William Howard Taft spoke in 1911.
