Knoxville Lost and Found

In recent decades Knoxville has made earnest, albeit small, attempts to recognize it's musical history. There was the "Tribute to Country Music Park," complete with a fiberglass sculpture of a giant treble clef. The clef is gone, but the park remains. We have the "Cradle of Country Music Walking Tour", however I can't say that I've seen many people walking it. We used to have the Midday Merry Go Round, when WNOX featured artists that shaped early country music, weekdays at lunch. Now we have the WDVX Blue Plate Special, not exactly the same thing but it makes for good listening. One particular item that will stand out in the minds of old time music lovers would be the digitalization of the St. James recordings. Back in 1929, a billards concern turned big record company, Brunswick, came to Knoxville from Michigan looking for musical talent. Brunswick had a reputation for scouting out new sounds before they had been discovered. They set up shop in the bu...

There has been a lot of discussion in the local property blogs about the proposal of a new shopping development located at the intersection of Cumberland Ave. and Alcoa Hwy. Anyone who has played or follows rugby in Knoxville knows this place very well. It's called Fulton bottoms and the reason it is called Fulton bottoms is that just across third creek was once the principal factory of the Fulton Company.  The Fulton Bellows factory as it appeared in the 1930's. This is looking from the Southeast. Note the train tracks which still exist and Cumberland Ave./Kingston Pk. looking very rural. Most of the background in this picture is taken up by the Alcoa Hwy/Kingston Pike interchange.  Roughly the same view today. The factory is gone. The foundation pads are all that remain. The story of the Fulton Co. is an interesting but long one. It's probably a subject for another entry, however if you'd like to read the whole story you can find ...

I apologize for the long delay in between my last post and this new one. A lot has come up and I wanted to make sure that this post was thoroughly researched before I published it. Disclaimer over, let's go back in time. In the late 1800's, several newly minted and studied architects made their way from places north to the burgeoning, modern city that was Knoxville, TN. Knoxville had really come a long way since the beginnings of reconstruction, no doubt due to the presence of a number of Union sympathizers during the war. Knoxville was a city that attracted bright minds who were looking to make a name for themselves. One of those folks was a man by the name of R.Z. Gill. Mr. Gill came to Knoxville in 1889, from Illinois. He had studied at the Illinois Industrial University in Urbana, graduating in 1886. His mentor was a man named N.C. Ricker (funny how these folks always went by initials in their professional lives). Mr. Gill worked for the prestigious Chicago architec...