Recently in Reconstruction Zone Category

East Knox County has survived as one the last places to see the rural history of our community. A drive out Washington Pike, beyond the sea of retail that has washed up around I-640, still provides scenic views of farmland and historic houses that have weathered the last century or more. In recent years though, the present began intruding in the form of subdivisions and strip centers. A cynic would proclaim the area is destined to suffer the same fate as the western part of the county. An optimist would be relieved to see a glimmer of hope just around the corner.

 In most cases these days the sight of freshly turned earth no longer signals the start of the planting season. Instead, it's usually the precursor of destruction and that's what I thought a while back as I passed through the intersection of Washington Pike and Murphy Road. The front yard of the beautiful old farmhouse I always admired had been transformed by a backhoe and construction equipment was visible. The new gas station, houses and proposed retail sprawl nearby caused me to assume the activity on the northeast corner was the next domino to fall on the way out toward the Ritta community and House Mountain. I was thrilled when I found out I was wrong.

 The Murphy family, originally from Virginia, first settled on the 180-acre-farm in 1797. The Gothic style farmhouse has stood since about 1841, but remained mostly empty for the last decade - expect for the annual family reunions that brought the Murphy clan back to the home place. The farm is like a snapshot of a way of life that is rapidly disappearing. The old spring house is still in place - right next to the smokehouse - and the old windows still frame views of woods and fields.

The family's connection to the house and the land has endured, but the Murphy Farm has only recently found the person determined to restore it and protect it for at least a few more generations. That person is Kevin Murphy and he's come home from Florida with a determination to do the job right.

The Mary Boyce Temple House stands like a sentinel on Hill Avenue at the northern end of the Henley Bridge. During the second half of the 20th century its original grandeur slowly faded and most Knoxvillians only remember it as a shabby apartment building or an abandoned building occupied by the homeless. Built in 1907, the Queen Style structure has endured an odyssey that would have destroyed most houses. Instead, it was saved from the brink of destruction by a mayor, many preservationists, a hotel developer and one very dedicated architect. It is a fitting outcome for the former home of one of Knoxville's first preservationists.

In January of 2005, it looked like six historic buildings in the 500 block of Gay Street, located between the Farragut Building to the south and the Fidelity Bank Building to the north, would be lost. They would be replaced by a sprawling new multi-screen cinema complex that government and business leaders hoped would be the missing link for downtown Knoxville's rebirth. It seemed that many Knoxvillians were ready to sacrifice the buildings for that ever-elusive thing known as "progress." That same month the Knox Heritage Board of Directors gathered and voted to oppose the demolition of the iconic structures, including the S&W Cafeteria Building, the Athletic House, the former WROL studios, the Walgreen's Building and the Gaut Ogden Stationers Building.

One phone call transformed that looming battle into a cooperative effort between Knox Heritage and the City of Knoxville. That call between Knox Heritage Board President Finbarr Saunders and Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam was the first step in pulling the 500 block of Gay Street back from the brink. For more than two decades most of the buildings had stood vacant as multiple redevelopment plans fell through. They dodged bullet after bullet - a Knox County government plan to demolish them for a new downtown justice center and jail; demolition for a City of Knoxville transit center combined with a theater multiplex; and general neglect that resulted in collapsed roofs and crumbling facades. 

As Mayor Haslam waited in an airport for a plane that day in January, he and now County Commissioner Saunders agreed to take a second look at the project and see if a compromise could be found. The final agreement they reached allowed 45 days for Knox Heritage to propose an alternative design that would preserve as much of the historic fabric as possible while meeting the goals of the city and the needs of Regal Entertainment Group.

That effort, begun more than four years ago, laid the groundwork for the construction of the new Regal Riviera and the preservation of some of Knoxville's most beloved historic buildings. Downtown now has its successful movie theatre and, thanks to the local development team of John Craig, Mike Hatcher, Tim Hill and Dane Baker, it will also have its historic buildings filled with the S&W Grand Cafe, Coolato Gelato, professional offices and retail space - all in the same space once set aside for the new cinema alone. The attention to detail in the restorations is rare and will surely be appreciated once they are unveiled. The first business, Coolato Gelato, will open within the week, many of the offices will be filled in the coming month and the S&W Grand Cafe is scheduled to open its doors in September. It's a success story few expected in the winter of 2005.

All historic photos courtesy of the McClung Collection - Knox County Public Library.

500 Block of Gay Street Looking North - June 2009

500 Block of Gay Street Looking North - 1925 

This photo from the McClung Collection shows the Farragut Building in the far right corner. The next building advertises Electro-Turkish Baths and was built in the alley that once led to the circa 1830 Crozier Mansion. The next two buildings to the north are what we know today as the WROL / Central House Hotel Building and the Athletic House / Knaffl Brothers Building. The next two buildings to the north were combined and given a new facade to create the S&W Cafeteria in 1937. The Gaut Ogden Stationers Building stood between the S&W and the original Riviera Theatre, but could not be saved after decades of neglect. The Walgreen's Building just south of the Fidelity Bank Building met the same fate.

The S&W Building - 1937

The S&W Building - June 2009

The Art Deco style exterior of the building retains most of its historic materials, unlike the interior which was largely destroyed by decades of neglect. The building will be the home of the S&W Grand Cafe that is scheduled to open in September.

One of my recent field trips took me 45 minutes north of downtown to a place called Sharps Chapel. Located in Union County, just north of Maynardville off Highway 33, it's a place I'd never thought to visit until friends undertook an extreme relocation from urban Knoxville to that rural community. They've been inviting me out to see their new, old digs for two years, but it took a driving tour with Union County historian Bonnie Peters to get me out there. Now I wonder why I waited so long.

My friends Dave Whaley and Tomica Miller were fixtures in the Old North Knoxville neighborhood for years. So was the bed and breakfast they operated - The Brimer House Inn. Their inn was a popular destination, but Dave discovered he preferred restoration work over changing sheets and dealing with the sometimes maddening behavior of their paying house guests. So he and Tomica began driving country roads looking for land and plotting their escape to a peaceful, rural setting.

The story of how they found their current project sounds like a combination of serendipity and fate.