Knoxville, TN

Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. 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 largest city after Nashville and Memphis.U.S. Census Bureau
2010 Census Interactive Population Search
. Retrieved: December 20, 2011. Knoxville is the principal city of the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had an estimated population of 869,046 in 2019.

First settled in 1786, Knoxville was the first capital of Tennessee. The city struggled with geographic isolation throughout the early 19th century. The arrival of the railroad in 1855 led to an economic boom. The city was bitterly divided over the secession issue during the American Civil War and was occupied alternately by Confederate and Union armies, culminating in the Battle of Fort Sanders in 1863. Following the war, Knoxville grew rapidly as a major wholesaling and manufacturing center. The city's economy stagnated after the 1920s as the manufacturing sector collapsed, the downtown area declined and city leaders became entrenched in highly partisan political fights. Hosting the 1982 World's Fair helped reinvigorate the city, and revitalization initiatives by city leaders and private developers have had major successes in spurring growth in the city, especially the downtown area.

Knoxville is the home of the flagship campus of the University of Tennessee, whose sports teams, the Tennessee Volunteers, are popular in the surrounding area. Knoxville is also home to the headquarters of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Tennessee Supreme Court's courthouse for East Tennessee, and the corporate headquarters of several national and regional companies. As one of the largest cities in the Appalachian region, Knoxville has positioned itself in recent years as a repository of Appalachian culture and is one of the gateways to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

History

Early history

The first people to form substantial settlements in what is now Knoxville were indigenous people who arrived during the Woodland period ().Fletcher Jolly III, "40KN37: An Early Woodland Habitation Site in Knox County, Tennessee", ''Tennessee Archaeologist'' 31, nos. 1–2 (1976), 51. One of the oldest artificial structures in Knoxville is a burial mound constructed during the early Mississippian culture period (). The earthwork mound has been preserved, but the campus of the University of Tennessee developed around it.

Other prehistoric sites include an Early Woodland habitation area at the confluence of the Tennessee River and Knob Creek (near the Knox–Blount county line), and Dallas phase Mississippian villages at Post Oak Island (also along the river near the Knox–Blount line), and at Bussell Island (at the mouth of the Little Tennessee River near Lenoir City).

By the 18th century, the Cherokee, an Iroquoian language people, had become the dominant tribe in the East Tennessee region; they are believed to have migrated centuries before from the Great Lakes area. They were consistently at war with the Creek (who spoke Muskogee) and Shawnee (who spoke Central Algonquian). The Cherokee people called the Knoxville area ''kuwanda'talun'yi'', which means "Mulberry Place". Most Cherokee habitation in the area was concentrated in what the American colonists called the Overhill settlements along the Little Tennessee River, southwest of Knoxville.

The first white traders and explorers were recorded as arriving in the Tennessee Valley in the late 17th century. There is significant evidence that Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto visited Bussell Island in 1540. The first major recorded Euro-American presence in the Knoxville area was the Timberlake Expedition, which passed through the confluence of the Holston and French Broad into the Tennessee River in December 1761. Henry Timberlake, an Anglo-American emissary from the Thirteen Colonies to the Overhill settlements along the Little Tennessee River, recalled being pleased by the deep waters of the Tennessee after his party had struggled down the relatively shallow Holston for several weeks.

Settlement

The end of the French and Indian War and confusion brought about by the American Revolution led to a drastic increase in Euro-American settlement west of the Appalachians. By the 1780s, white settlers were already established in the Holston and French Broad valleys. The U.S. Congress ordered all illegal settlers out of the valley in 1785, but with little success. As settlers continued to trickle into Cherokee lands, tensions between the settlers and the Cherokee rose steadily.

In 1786, James White, a Revolutionary War officer, and his friend James Connor built White's Fort near the mouth of First Creek, on land White had purchased three years earlier.Kim, ''The Sevierville Hill Site'', 9. In 1790, White's son-in-law, Charles McClung—who had arrived from Pennsylvania the previous year—surveyed White's holdings between First Creek and Second Creek for the establishment of a town. McClung drew up 64 lots. The waterfront was set aside for a town common. Two lots were set aside for a church and graveyard (First Presbyterian Church, founded 1792). Four lots were set aside for a school. That school was eventually chartered as Blount College and it served as the starting point for the University of Tennessee, which uses Blount College's founding date of 1794, as its own. Also in 1790, President George Washington appointed North Carolina surveyor William Blount governor of the newly created Territory South of the River Ohio.

One of Blount's first tasks was to meet with the Cherokee and establish territorial boundaries and resolve the issue of illegal settlers. This he accomplished almost immediately with the Treaty of Holston, which was negotiated and signed at White's Fort in 1791. Blount originally wanted to place the territorial capital at the confluence of the Clinch River and Tennessee River (now Kingston), but when the Cherokee refused to cede this land, Blount chose White's Fort, which McClung had surveyed the previous year. Blount named the new capital Knoxville after Revolutionary War general and Secretary of War Henry Knox, who at the time was Blount's immediate superior.

Problems immediately arose from the Holston Treaty. Blount believed that he had "purchased" much of what is now East Tennessee when the treaty was signed in 1791. However, the terms of the treaty came under dispute, culminating in continued violence on both sides. When the government invited Cherokee chief Hanging Maw for negotiations in 1793, Knoxville settlers attacked the Cherokee against orders, killing the chief's wife. Peace was renegotiated in 1794.

Antebellum era

Knoxville served as capital of the Southwest Territory and as capital of Tennessee (admitted as a state in 1796) until 1817, when the capital was moved to Murfreesboro. Early Knoxville has been described as an "alternately quiet and rowdy river town". Early issues of the '' Knoxville Gazette''—the first newspaper published in Tennessee—are filled with accounts of murder, theft, and hostile Cherokee attacks. Abishai Thomas, a friend of William Blount, visited Knoxville in 1794 and wrote that, while he was impressed by the town's modern frame buildings, the town had "seven taverns" and no church.

Knoxville initially thrived as a way station for travelers and migrants heading west. Its location at the confluence of three major rivers in the Tennessee Valley brought flatboat and later steamboat traffic to its waterfront in the first half of the 19th century, and Knoxville quickly developed into a regional merchandising center. Local agricultural products—especially tobacco, corn, and whiskey—were traded for cotton, which was grown in the Deep South. The population of Knoxville more than doubled in the 1850s with the arrival of the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad in 1855.'

Among the most prominent citizens of Knoxville during the Antebellum years was James White's son, Hugh Lawson White (1773–1840). White first served as a judge and state senator, before being nominated by the state legislature to replace Andrew Jackson in the U.S. Senate in 1825. In 1836, White ran unsuccessfully for president, representing the Whig Party.

American Civil War

Anti-slavery and anti-secession sentiment ran high in East Tennessee in the years leading up to the American Civil War. William "Parson" Brownlow, the radical publisher of the Knoxville Whig, was one of the region's leading anti-secessionists (although he strongly defended the practice of slavery). Blount County, just south of Knoxville, had developed into a center of abolitionist activity, due in part to its relatively large Quaker faction and the anti-slavery president of Maryville College, Isaac Anderson. The Greater Warner Tabernacle AME Zion Church, Knoxville was reportedly a station on the underground railroad.

Business interests, however, guided largely by Knoxville's trade connections with cotton-growing centers to the south, contributed to the development of a strong pro-secession movement within the city. The city's pro-secessionists included among their ranks Dr. J. G. M. Ramsey, a prominent historian whose father had built the Ramsey House in 1797.

Thus, while East Tennessee and greater Knox County voted decisively against secession in 1861, the city of Knoxville favored secession by a 2-1 margin. In late May 1861, just before the secession vote, delegates of the East Tennessee Convention met at Temperance Hall in Knoxville in hopes of keeping Tennessee in the Union. After Tennessee voted to secede in June, the convention met in Greeneville and attempted to create a separate Union-aligned state in East Tennessee.

In July 1861, after Tennessee had joined the Confederacy, General Felix Zollicoffer arrived in Knoxville as commander of the District of East Tennessee. While initially lenient toward the city's Union sympathizers, Zollicoffer instituted martial law in November, after pro-Union guerrillas burned seven of the city's bridges. The command of the district passed briefly to George Crittenden and then to Kirby Smith, who launched an unsuccessful invasion of Kentucky in August 1862. In early 1863, General Simon Buckner took command of Confederate forces in Knoxville. Anticipating a Union invasion, Buckner fortified Fort Loudon (in West Knoxville, not to be confused with the colonial fort to the southwest) and began constructing earthworks throughout the city. However, the approach of stronger Union forces under Ambrose Burnside in the summer of 1863 forced Buckner to evacuate Knoxville before the earthworks were completed.

Burnside arrived in early September 1863, beginning the Knoxville Campaign. Like the Confederates, he immediately began fortifying the city. The Union forces rebuilt Fort Loudon and erected 12 other forts and batteries flanked by entrenchments around the city. Burnside moved a pontoon bridge upstream from Loudon, allowing Union forces to cross the river and build a series of forts along the heights of South Knoxville, including Fort Stanley and Fort Dickerson.

As Burnside was fortifying Knoxville, a Confederate army under Braxton Bragg defeated Union forces under William S. Rosecrans at the Battle of Chickamauga (near the Tennessee-Georgia line) and laid siege to Chattanooga. On November 3, 1863, the Confederates sent General James Longstreet to attack Burnside at Knoxville and prevent him from reinforcing the Union at Chattanooga. Longstreet wanted to attack the city from the south, but lacking the necessary pontoon bridges, he was forced to cross the river further downstream at Loudon (November 14) and march against the city's heavily fortified western section. On November 15, General Joseph Wheeler unsuccessfully attempted to dislodge Union forces in the heights of South Knoxville, and the following day Longstreet failed to cut off retreating Union forces at the Battle of Campbell's Station (now Farragut). On November 18, Union General William P. Sanders was mortally wounded while conducting delaying maneuvers west of Knoxville, and Fort Loudon was renamed Fort Sanders in his honor. On November 29, following a two-week siege, the Confederates attacked Fort Sanders, but failed after a fierce 20-minute engagement. On December 4, after word of the Confederate defeat at Chattanooga reached Longstreet, he broke his siege of Knoxville and went into winter quarters at Russellville. He rejoined the Army of Northern Virginia the following spring. The Union victory in the Knoxville Campaign and at Chattanooga put much of East Tennessee under Union control for the rest of the war.

Reconstruction and the Industrial Age

After the war, northern investors such as brothers Joseph and David Richards helped Knoxville recover relatively quickly. The Richards brothers convinced 104 Welsh immigrant families to migrate from the Welsh Tract in Pennsylvania to work in a rolling mill then co-owned by Thomas Walker. These Welsh families settled in an area now known as Mechanicsville.The Old Atkin Street Church and Knoxville's Welsh Community
. Originally published in the ''Knoxville Journal and Tribune''. Retrieved: 7 September 2010. The Richards brothers also co-founded the Knoxville Iron Works beside the L&N Railroad, also employing Welsh workers. Later, the site was used as the grounds for the 1982 World's Fair.

Other companies that sprang up during this period were Knoxville Woolen Mills, Dixie Cement, and Woodruff's Furniture. Between 1880 and 1887, 97 factories were established in Knoxville, most of them specializing in textiles, food products, and iron products.William Bruce Wheeler, "Knoxville, Tennessee". ''The Encyclopedia of Appalachia'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, 2006), 375. By the 1890s, Knoxville was home to more than 50 wholesaling houses, making it the third largest wholesaling center by volume in the South. The Candoro Marble Works, established in the community of Vestal in 1914, became the nation's foremost producer of pink marble and one of the nation's largest marble importers. In 1896, Knoxville celebrated its achievements by creating its own flag. The Flag of Knoxville, Tennessee represents the city's progressive growth due to agriculture and industry.

In 1869, Thomas Humes, a Union sympathizer and president of East Tennessee University, secured federal post-war damage reimbursement and state-designated Morrill Act funding to expand the college, which had been occupied by both armies during the war. Charles Dabney, who became president of the university in 1887, overhauled the faculty and established a law school in an attempt to modernize the scope of the university. In 1879, the state changed its name to the University of Tennessee, at the request of the trustees, who hoped to secure more funding from the Tennessee state legislature.Milton Klein,
University of Tennessee
". ''The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2002. Retrieved: February 28, 2008.''

The post-war manufacturing boom brought thousands of immigrants to the city. The population of Knoxville grew from around 5,000 in 1860 to 32,637 in 1900. West Knoxville was annexed in 1897, and over 5,000 new homes were built between 1895 and 1904.W. Bruce Wheeler,
Knoxville
". ''The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture'', 2002. Retrieved: February 28, 2008.

In 1901, train robber Kid Curry (whose real name was Harvey Logan), a member of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch was captured after shooting two deputies on Knoxville's Central Avenue. He escaped from the Knoxville Jail and rode away on a horse stolen from the sheriff.

The Progressive Era and the Great Depression

Knoxville hosted the Appalachian Exposition in 1910 and 1911 and the National Conservation Exposition in 1913. The latter is sometimes credited with giving rise to the movement to create a national park in the Great Smoky Mountains, some south of Knoxville.Jack Neely, "Knoxville, Tennessee". ''The Encyclopedia of Appalachia'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, 2006), 654. Around this time, a number of affluent Knoxvillians began purchasing summer cottages in Elkmont and began to pursue the park idea more vigorously. They were led by Knoxville businessman Colonel David C. Chapman, who, as head of the Great Smoky Mountains Park Commission, was largely responsible for raising the funds for the purchase of the property that became the core of the park. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park opened in 1933.

Knoxville's reliance on a manufacturing economy left it particularly vulnerable to the effects of the Great Depression. The Tennessee Valley also suffered from frequent flooding, and millions of acres of farmland had been ruined by soil erosion. To control flooding and improve the economy in the Tennessee Valley, the federal government created the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933. Beginning with Norris Dam, TVA constructed a series of hydroelectric and other power plants throughout the valley over the next few decades, bringing flood control, jobs, and electricity to the region.W. Bruce Wheeler,
Tennessee Valley Authority
". ''The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture'', 2002. Retrieved: February 28, 2008. The Federal Works Projects Administration, which also arrived in the 1930s, helped build McGhee-Tyson Airport and expand Neyland Stadium. TVA's headquarters, which consists of two twin high rises built in the 1970s, were among Knoxville's first modern high-rise buildings.

In 1947, John Gunther dubbed Knoxville the "ugliest city" in America in his best-selling book '' Inside U.S.A.'' Gunther's description jolted the city into enacting a series of beautification measures that helped improve the appearance of the Downtown area.

1982 World's Fair and 20th century

Knoxville's textile and manufacturing industries largely fell victim to foreign competition in the 1950s and 1960s, and after the establishment of the Interstate Highway system in the 1960s, the railroad—which had been largely responsible for Knoxville's industrial growth—began to decline. The rise of suburban shopping malls in the 1970s drew retail revenues away from Knoxville's downtown area. While government jobs and economic diversification prevented widespread unemployment in Knoxville, the city sought to recover the massive loss of revenue by attempting to annex neighboring communities. Knoxville would successfully annex the communities of Bearden and Fountain City, which were Knoxville's biggest suburbs prior to their annexations in 1962. Knoxville officials would attempt the annexation of the neighboring Farragut-Concord community in West Knox County, but would fail following the incorporation of Farragut in 1980. These annexation attempts often turned combative, and several attempts to consolidate Knoxville and Knox County into a metro government failed, while school boards and the planning commissions would merge on July 1, 1987.

With further annexation attempts stalling, Knoxville initiated several projects aimed at boosting revenue in its downtown area. The 1982 World's Fair—the most successful of these projects, with eleven million visitors—became one of the most popular expositions in U.S. history. The fair's energy theme was selected due to Knoxville being the headquarters of the Tennessee Valley Authority and for the city's proximity to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The Sunsphere, a steel truss structure topped with a gold-colored glass sphere, was built for the fair and remains one of Knoxville's most prominent structures, along with the adjacent Tennessee Amphitheater which underwent a renovation that was completed in 2008.

During the 1980s and into the 1990s, the city would see one of its largest expansions of its city limits, with a reported 26 square miles of " shoestring annexation" under the administration of Mayor Victor Ashe. Ashe's efforts would be controversial, largely consisting of annexation of interstate right-of-ways, highway-oriented commercial clusters, and residential subdivisions to increase tax revenue for the city. Residents would voice opposition, citing claims of urban sprawl and government overreach.

21st century and economic renaissance

With the dawn of the 21st century, Knoxville's downtown has been developing, with the opening of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame and the Knoxville Convention Center, the redevelopment of Market Square, a new visitors center, a regional history museum, a Regal Cinemas theater, several restaurants and bars, and many new and redeveloped condominiums. Since 2000, Knoxville has successfully brought business back to the downtown area. The arts in particular have begun to flourish; there are multiple venues for outdoor concerts, and Gay Street hosts a new arts annex and gallery surrounded by many studios and new businesses as well. The Bijou and Tennessee Theatres underwent renovation, providing an initiative for the city and its developers to re-purpose the old downtown.

Development has also expanded across the Tennessee River on the South Knoxville waterfront. In 2006, the City of Knoxville adopted the South Waterfront Vision Plan, a long-term improvement project to revitalize the 750 acre waterfront fronting three miles of shoreline on the Tennessee River. The project's primary focus is the commercial and residential development over a 20-year timeline. The former Knoxville Baptist Hospital, located on the waterfront, was demolished in 2016 to make for mixed-use project called One Riverwalk. The development consisted of three office buildings, including a new headquarters for Regal Entertainment Group, a hotel, student housing, and 300 multi-family residential units.

In June 2020, the Knoxville City Council announced the investment of over $5.5million dollars in federal and local funds towards the development of a business park along the Interstate 275 corridor in North Knoxville. The project was first proposed by a study prepared Knoxville-Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission in 2007.

In August 2020, UT President and Tennessee Smokies owner Randy Boyd announced plans of a mixed-use baseball stadium complex in the Old City neighborhood of Knoxville.

Geography

Topography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and , or 5.42%, is water. Elevations range from just over along the riverfront to just over on various hilltops in West Knoxville, with the downtown area resting at just over . High points include Sharp's Ridge in North Knoxville at and Brown Mountain in South Knoxville at . House Mountain, the highest point in Knox County at , is located east of the city near Mascot.

Knoxville is situated in the Great Appalachian Valley (known locally as the Tennessee Valley), about halfway between the Great Smoky Mountains to the east and the Cumberland Plateau to the west. The Great Valley is part of a sub-range of the Appalachian Mountains known as the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, which is characterized by long, narrow ridges, flanked by broad valleys. Prominent Ridge-and-Valley structures in the Knoxville area include Sharp's Ridge and Beaver Ridge in the northern part of the city, Brown Mountain in South Knoxville, parts of Bays Mountain just south of the city, and parts of McAnnally Ridge in the northeastern part of the city.

The Tennessee River, which slices through the downtown area, is formed in southeastern Knoxville at the confluence of the Holston River, which flows southwest from Virginia, and the French Broad River, which flows west from North Carolina. The section of the Tennessee River that passes through Knoxville is part of Fort Loudoun Lake, an artificial reservoir created by TVA's Fort Loudoun Dam about downstream in Lenoir City. Notable tributaries of the Tennessee in Knoxville include First Creek and Second Creek, which flow through the downtown area, Third Creek, which flows west of U.T., and Sinking Creek, Ten Mile Creek, and Turkey Creek, which drain West Knoxville.

Climate

Knoxville falls in the humid subtropical climate (Köppen: ''Cfa''). Summers are hot and humid, with the daily average temperature in July at , and an average of 36 days per year with temperatures reaching .NOAA
, Mean Number of Days With Maximum Temperature 90 Degrees F or Higher. Winters are generally much cooler and less stable, with occasional small amounts of snow. January has a daily average temperature of , although in most years there is at least one day (average 5.3) where the high remains at or below freezing. The record high for Knoxville is on June 30 and July 1, 2012, while the record low is on January 21, 1985. Annual precipitation averages just under , and normal seasonal snowfall is . Usually no snow occurs outside of January and February. The one-day record for snowfall is , which occurred on February 13, 1960.

Metropolitan Area

Knoxville is the central city in the Knoxville Metropolitan Area, an Office of Management and Budget (OMB)-designated metropolitan statistical area (MSA) that covers Knox, Anderson, Blount, Campbell, Grainger, Loudon, Morgan, Roane and Union counties. MSAs consist of a core urban center and the outlying communities and rural areas with which it maintains close economic ties. They are not administrative divisions, and should not be confused with a consolidated city-county government, which Knoxville and Knox County is absent of.

The Knoxville Metropolitan area includes unincorporated communities such as Halls Crossroads, Powell, Karns, Corryton, Concord, and Mascot, which are located in Knox County outside of Knoxville's city limits. Along with Knoxville, major municipalities in the Knoxville Metropolitan Area include Alcoa, Blaine, Maryville, Lenoir City, Loudon, Farragut, Oak Ridge, Rutledge, Clinton, Bean Station, and Maynardville. As of 2012, the population of the Knoxville Metropolitan Area was 837,571.Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas
, U.S. Census Bureau

Additionally, the Knoxville MSA is the chief component of the larger OMB-designated Knoxville- Sevierville- La Follette TN Combined Statistical Area (CSA). The CSA also includes the Morristown Metropolitan Statistical Area ( Hamblen, Grainger, and Jefferson counties) and the Sevierville ( Sevier County), La Follette ( Campbell County), Harriman ( Roane County), and Newport ( Cocke County) Micropolitan Statistical Areas. Municipalities in the CSA, but not the Knoxville MSA, include Morristown, Rutledge, Dandridge, Jefferson City, Sevierville, Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, LaFollette, Jacksboro, Harriman, Kingston, Rockwood, and Newport. The combined population of the CSA as of the 2000 Census was 935,659. Its estimated 2008 population was 1,041,955.

Georgia Tech researchers have mapped the Knoxville Metropolitan area as one of the 18 'Major Cities' in the Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion.

Cityscape

Architecture

Knoxville's two tallest buildings are the 27-story First Tennessee Plaza and the 24-story Riverview Tower, both on Gay Street. Other prominent high-rises include the Tower at Morgan Hill (21 stories), the Andrew Johnson Building (18), the Knoxville Hilton (18), the General Building (15), the Holston (14), the TVA Towers (12), and Sterchi Lofts (12). The city's most iconic structure is arguably the Sunsphere, a steel truss tower built for the 1982 World's Fair and, with the Tennessee Amphitheater, one of only two structures that remain from that World's Fair.

The downtown area contains a mixture of architectural styles from various periods, ranging from the hewn-log James White House (1786) to the modern Knoxville Museum of Art (1990). Styles represented include Greek Revival ( Old City Hall), Victorian (Hotel St. Oliver and Sullivan's Saloon), Gothic ( Church Street Methodist Church and Ayres Hall), Neoclassical (First Baptist Church), and Art Deco ( Knoxville Post Office). Gay Street, Market Square, and Jackson Avenue contain numerous examples of late-19th and early-20th century commercial architecture.

Residential architecture tends to reflect the city's development over two centuries. Blount Mansion (1791), in the oldest part of the city, is designed in a vernacular Georgian style. "Streetcar suburbs" such as Fourth and Gill, Parkridge, and Fort Sanders, developed in the late 19th century with the advent of trolleys, tend to contain large concentrations of Victorian and Bungalow/ Craftsman-style houses popular during this period. Early automobile suburbs, such as Lindbergh Forest and Sequoyah Hills, contain late-1920s and 1930s styles such as Tudor Revival, English Cottage, and Mission Revival. Neighborhoods developed after World War II typically consist of Ranch-style houses.

Knoxville is home to the nation's largest concentration of homes designed by noted Victorian residential architect George Franklin Barber, who lived in the city. Other notable local architects include members of the Baumann family, Charles I. Barber (son of George), R. F. Graf, and more recently, Bruce McCarty. Nationally renowned architects with works still standing in the city include Alfred B. Mullett ( Greystone), John Russell Pope (H.L. Dulin House), and Edward Larrabee Barnes (Knoxville Museum of Art).

Neighborhoods

Knoxville is roughly divided into the Downtown area and sections based on the four cardinal directions: North Knoxville, South Knoxville, East Knoxville, and West Knoxville. Downtown Knoxville traditionally consists of the area bounded by the river on the south, First Creek on the east, Second Creek on the west, and the railroad tracks on the north, though the definition has expanded to include the U.T. campus and Fort Sanders neighborhood, and several neighborhoods along or just off Broadway south of Sharp's Ridge ("Downtown North"). While primarily home to the city's central business district and municipal offices, the Old City and Gay Street are mixed residential and commercial areas.

South Knoxville consists of the parts of the city located south of the river,City of Knoxville
Parks
. Retrieved: January 7, 2012. and includes the neighborhoods of Vestal, Lindbergh Forest, Island Home Park, Colonial Hills, and Old Sevier. This area contains major commercial corridors along Chapman Highway and Alcoa Highway.

West Knoxville generally consists of the areas west of U.T., and includes the suburban neighborhoods of Sequoyah Hills, West Hills, Bearden, Cumberland Estates, Westmoreland, Suburban Hills, Cedar Bluff, Rocky Hill, and Ebenezer. This area, concentrated largely around Kingston Pike, is home to thriving retail centers such as West Town Mall and Turkey Creek.

East Knoxville consists of the areas east of First Creek and the James White Parkway and includes the neighborhoods of Parkridge, Burlington, Morningside, and Five Points. This area, concentrated along Magnolia Avenue, is home to Chilhowee Park and Zoo Knoxville.

North Knoxville consists of the areas north of Sharp's Ridge, namely the Fountain City and Inskip-Norwood areas. This area's major commercial corridor is located along Broadway.

List of notable neighborhoods

* Bearden
* Cedar Bluff
* Chilhowee Park
* Colonial Village
* Cumberland Estates
* Downtown
* Emory Place
* Fort Sanders
* Fountain City
** Oakland (former)
* Fourth & Gill
* Island Home Park
* Lindbergh Forest
* Lonsdale
* Mechanicsville
* North Hills
* Oakwood-Lincoln Park
* Old City
* Old North Knoxville
* Parkridge
* Rocky Hill
* Sequoyah Hills
* South Knoxville
* West Hills

Important suburbs

* Alcoa
* Blaine
* Clinton
* Concord
* Corryton
* Dandridge
* Farragut
* Halls Crossroads
* Hardin Valley
* Heiskell
* Karns
* Lenoir City
* Louisville
* Maryville
* Mascot
* Maynardville
* Oak Ridge
* Powell
* Sevierville
* Seymour
* Strawberry Plains

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 190,740 people, 83,492 households, and 40,405 families residing in the city.

2010 census

As of the census of 2010, the population of Knoxville was 178,874, a 2.9% increase from 2000.U.S. Census Bureau
QuickFacts sheet for Knoxville (city), Tennessee
. Retrieved: December 20, 2011. The median age was 32.7, with 19.1% of the population under the age of 18, and 12.6% over the age of 65. The population was 48% male and 52% female. The population density was 1,815 persons per square mile.

The racial and ethnic composition of the city was 76.1% white, 17.1% black, 0.4% Native American, 1.6% Asian, and 0.2% Pacific Islander. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.6% of the population. People reporting more than one race formed 2.5% of the population.

Data collected by the Census from 2005 to 2009 reported 83,151 households in Knoxville, with an average of 2.07 persons per household. The home ownership rate was 51%, and 74.7% of residents had been living in the same house for more than one year. The median household income was $32,609, and the per capita income was $21,528. High school graduates were 83.8% of persons 25 and older, and 28.3% had earned a bachelor's degree or higher. The city's poverty rate was 25%, compared with 16.1% in Tennessee and 15.1% nationwide.

According to the opinion of the Economic Research Institute in a 2006 study, Knoxville was identified as the most affordable U.S. city for new college graduates, based on the ratio of typical salary to cost of living. In 2014, ''Forbes'' ranked Knoxville one of the top five most affordable cities in the United States.

Crime

FBI Uniform Crime Reports for Knoxville for 2017:

Economy

After the arrival of the railroads in the 1850s, Knoxville grew to become a major wholesaling and manufacturing center. Following the collapse of the city's textile industry in the 1950s, Knoxville's economy grew more diversified. In 2011, 15.9% of the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area's (MSA) work force was employed by government entities, while 14.1% were employed in the professional service sector, 14% worked in education or health care, 12.7% were employed in the retail sector, 10.5% worked in leisure and hospitality, and 8.9% worked in the manufacturing sector. The region had an unemployment rate of 7.9% in 2011.

In the 2010 ACCRA Cost of Living Index, Knoxville was rated 89.6 (the national average was 100). Kiplinger ranked Knoxville at No. 5 in its list of ''Best Value Cities 2011'' citing "college sports, the Smoky Mountains and an entrepreneurial spirit". In April 2008, ''Forbes'' magazine named Knoxville among the Top 10 Metropolitan Hotspots in the United States, and within Forbes's Top5 for Business & Careers, just behind cities like New York and Los Angeles.

In 2007, there were over 19,000 registered businesses in Knoxville. The city's businesses are served by the 2,100-member Knoxville Area Chamber Partnership. The Knoxville Chamber is one of six partners in the Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley, which promotes economic development in Knox and surrounding counties.

Major corporations

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the nation's largest public power provider, is a federally owned corporation headquartered in Knoxville. TVA reported $10.5billion in revenue in 2021 and employs over 12,000 region-wide.

The largest company based in Knoxville is privately held Pilot Flying J, the nation's largest truck stop chain and sixth largest private company, which reported over $29.23billion in revenue in 2012. Knoxville is also home to the nation's fourth largest wholesale grocer, The H. T. Hackney Company, which reported $3.8billion in revenue in 2012, and one of the nation's largest digital-centric advertising firms, Tombras Group, which reported $80million in revenue in 2011. Other notable privately held companies based in the city include Bush Brothers, Sea Ray (and its parent company, Brunswick Boat Group), Thermocopy, Petro's Chili & Chips, EdFinancial, 21st Mortgage and AC Entertainment. Also based in Knoxville are movie theater chain Regal Cinemas,Knoxville-Area Public Companies Ranked According to Revenue
, Knoxville Book of Lists (''Knoxville News Sentinel''), 2012. Retrieved: January 14, 2012. major operations of Discovery, Inc. (which acquired Scripps Networks Interactive), and health care-staffing firm TeamHealth.

Major companies located within the Knoxville MSA include Clayton Homes and Ruby Tuesday (both in Maryville), and DeRoyal and Weigel's (both in Powell).

Real estate

As of 2011, the median price for a home in the Knoxville MSA was $140,900, compared with $173,300 nationally.Knoxville-Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission
Facts & Figures 2011
. Retrieved: January 14, 2012. The average apartment rental was $658 per month. In March 2009, CNN ranked Knoxville as the 59th city in the top 100 US metro areas in terms of real estate price depreciation.

The Knoxville area is home to 596 office buildings which contain over 21million square feet of office space. As of 2010, the average rental rate per square foot was $14.79. The city's largest office building in terms of office space is the City-County Building, which has over 537,000 square feet of office space. The First Tennessee Plaza and the Riverview Tower were the largest privately owned office buildings, with 469,672 square feet and 367,000 square feet, respectively.

Knoxville's largest industrial park is the Forks of the River Industrial Park in southeastern Knoxville. Other major industrial and business parks include the EastBridge Industrial Park and Midway Business Park in eastern Knox County and the WestBridge Industrial Park in western Knox County.

Finance

The largest bank operating in Knoxville in terms of local deposits is Memphis-based First Tennessee, with $2.6billion in local deposits, representing about 16% of Knoxville's banking market. It is followed by Charlotte-based Truist Financial ($2.5billion), Birmingham-based Regions Bank ($1.9billion), and locally headquartered Home Federal Bank of Tennessee ($1.6billion).Knoxville Area Banks Ranked According to Local Deposits
, Knoxville Book of Lists (''Knoxville News Sentinel''), 2012. Retrieved: January 11, 2012. Other banks with significant operations in the city include Bank of America, First Bank (based in Lexington, Tennessee), and locally owned Clayton Bank and Trust.

Major brokerage firms with offices in Knoxville include Edward Jones, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Wells Fargo, and Merrill Lynch. As of 2011, Knox County's largest mortgage lender (by dollar volume) was Wells Fargo with over $300million (13% of the local market), followed by Mortgage Investors Group, SunTrust, Regions, and Home Federal. Knoxville's largest accounting firm as of 2012 is Pershing Yoakley & Associates, with 49 local CPAs, followed by Coulter & Justus (44), and Pugh CPA's(43).

Manufacturing

Over 700 manufacturing establishments are scattered throughout the Knoxville area. Sea Ray Boats is the city's largest manufacturer, employing 760 at its southeast Knoxville complex in 2009.Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley, ww.knoxvillechamber.com/pdf/demographics/MajorManufacturers.doc Top 50 Major Manufacturers in the Knoxville Area—2009 Retrieved: January 14, 2012. The city is home to several automobile parts operations, including ARC Automotive (air bag actuators) and a Key Safety Systems plant (seat belts and other restraints). Other major manufacturing operations include a Melaleaca plant (personal care products), a Coca-Cola bottling plant, and a Gerdau Ameristeel plant that produces steel rebar. Aircraft manufacturer Cirrus also has its main customer delivery center based in Knoxville, that deals with aircraft maintenance & repair, flight training, and design personalization. Major manufacturing operations in the Knoxville MSA are conducted at the Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge, the DENSO plant and the Clayton Homes manufacturing center (both in Maryville), and the ALCOA plants in Alcoa.

Retail

The Knoxville area is home to 182 shopping centers and factory outlets, and over 2,400 retail establishments. One regional mall (West Town Mall) is located within the city, and two others ( Foothills Mall in Maryville and Oak Ridge City Center in Oak Ridge) are located within the Knoxville MSA. Knoxville retailers reported $6.47billion in sales in 2007, with just over $35,000 of retail sales per capita.

Knoxville's primary retail corridor is located along Kingston Pike in West Knoxville. This area is home to West Town Mall, the 358-acre Turkey Creek complex (half is in Knoxville and half is Farragut), and over 30 shopping centers. Downtown Knoxville contains a number of specialty shops, clubs, and dining areas, mostly concentrated in the Old City, Market Square, and along Gay Street. Other significant retail areas are located along Cumberland Avenue on the U.T. campus (mostly restaurants), Broadway in the vicinity of Fountain City, and Chapman Highway in South Knoxville.

Technology and research

The University of Tennessee is classified by the Carnegie Commission as a university with "very high research activity", conducting more than $300million in externally funded research annually.About UT-Battelle
. Retrieved: January 14, 2012. U.T.-connected research centers with multimillion-dollar National Science Foundation grants include the Appalachian Collaborative Center for Learning, Assessment and Instruction in Mathematics, the National Institute for Computational Sciences, the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, and the Center for Ultra-wide-area Resilient Electric Energy Transmission Networks (CURENT). U.T. and the nearby Oak Ridge National Laboratory jointly conduct numerous research projects and co-manage the National Transportation Research Center.

The Tennessee Technology Corridor stretches across between West Knoxville and Oak Ridge. The Corridor is home to 13 research and development firms employing nearly 2,000.

Culture

Knoxville is home to a rich arts community and has many festivals throughout the year. Its contributions to old-time, bluegrass and country music are numerous, from Flatt & Scruggs and Homer & Jethro to the Everly Brothers.

The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra (KSO), established in 1935, is the oldest continuing orchestra in the southeast. The KSO maintains a core of full-time professional musicians, and performs at more than 200 events per year. Its traditional venues include the Tennessee Theatre, the Bijou Theatre, and the Civic Auditorium, though it also performs at a number of non-traditional venues.

The Knoxville Opera performs a season of opera every year, accompanied by a chorus. Knoxville was the location of Sergei Rachmaninoff's final concert in 1943, performed at Alumni Memorial Auditorium at the University of Tennessee.

Knoxville's underground music scene is rooted with the promotion by AC Entertainment founder Ashley Capps around 1979. AC Entertainment, a local entertainment group, sought to expand the city's scene. In the 1990s, noted alternative rock critic Ann Powers, author of ''Weird Like Us: My Bohemian America'', referred to the city as "Austin without the hype". Knoxville is also home to a vibrant punk rock scene, having emerged from venues in the Old City district, specifically the Mill & Mine and Pilot Light venues. Its underground music scene in punk and hardcore grew as early as 1979. Such punk and hardcore bands included UXB, the STDs, and Koro. Spurred by Capps, Knoxville hosts the Big Ears music festival since 2009. The festival, dubbed the "most ambitious avant-garde festival in America in more than a decade" in a 2014 ''Rolling Stone'' article, hosts musicians ranging from the aforementioned punk rock to chamber pop.Weingarten, Christopher. "Big Ears 2014 Celebrates Steve Reich Via Punk, Drone, Jazz, Radiohead."
Rolling Stone. March 31, 2014: C1

The city also hosts numerous art festivals, including the 17-day Dogwood Arts Festival in April, which features art shows, crafts fairs, food and live music. Also in April is the Rossini Festival, which celebrates opera and Italian culture. June's Kuumba (meaning creativity in Swahili) Festival commemorates the region's African American heritage and showcases visual arts, folk arts, dance, games, music, storytelling, theater, and food.

Appearances in popular culture

Knoxville has appeared in music, literature and television. Film director Quentin Tarantino was born in Knoxville, and the city and East Tennessee are frequently mentioned in his films, such as in the 1994 film ''Pulp Fiction'', in which Bruce Willis' character (and the watch given to him by Christopher Walken's character) is from Knoxville.

A number of films and television programs were filmed in the city, such as the 1999 film ''October Sky'', the 2000 film ''Road Trip'' at the University of Tennessee campus, ''Box of Moonlight'', starring John Turturro and Sam Rockwell, scenes from the 2004 film ''The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things'', ''Woman In Hiding'', a 1949 film noir starring actress Ida Lupino, and the 2017 film, ''The Last Movie Star'', which was one of the last films to star Burt Reynolds.

In literature, author Cormac McCarthy is from Knoxville, and several of his books feature the city, such as " Suttree", a 1979 semi-autobiographical novel. James Agee also lived in the city, and his 1957 posthumous autobiographical novel ''A Death in the Family'' provides a portrait of life in Knoxville, while also wrestling with the death of Agee's father in a car accident, and the impact this had on his family.

Mark Twain wrote about a gunfight in downtown Knoxville involving Joseph Mabry Jr., owner of the city's antebellum Mabry-Hazen House in '' Life on the Mississippi'' from 1883. Several other books take place in fictionalized versions of the city, such as the 1915 Anne W. Armstrong novel, ''The Seas of God'', and David Madden's 1974 novel, ''Bijou'', is set in a fictional city known as "Cherokee", based on Knoxville.The Mighty Metro Pulse Collection of Awesome Knoxville Lists
, ''Metro Pulse'', June 23, 2010. Accessed at the Internet Archive, October 1, 2015.

The first part of James Herman Robinson's 1950 autobiography, ''The Road Without Turning'', takes place in Knoxville, and "The Man in the Overstuffed Chair", a 1985 short story by playwright Tennessee Williams, gives a brief description of the death of Williams' father, Cornelius, at a Knoxville hospital, and his subsequent burial at Old Gray Cemetery.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Peter Taylor's last novel in 1994, ''In the Tennessee Country'', refers to a "Knoxville cemetery" where the main character's grandfather (a fictitious politician) is buried. This may refer to Old Gray Cemetery, where Taylor's own grandfather, Governor Robert Love Taylor, was originally buried in 1912.

Swiss travel writer Annemarie Schwarzenbach visited Knoxville in the 1930s, and wrote an essay about the city, "Auf der Schattenseite von Knoxville", which was published in the December 1937 edition of the Swiss magazine, ''National Zeitung''.

A number of songs and music compositions are about or feature Knoxville as well. "The Knoxville Girl", first recorded in 1924, is traditional Appalachian ballad. Classical composer Samuel Barber's " Knoxville: Summer of 1915" from 1947 is a voice & orchestra piece based on 1938 short prose by James Agee. Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler recorded a song entitled "Daddy's Gone to Knoxville" on his 2002 solo album, ''The Ragpicker's Dream'', "The Ballad of Thunder Road" by Robert Mitchum references Knoxville's Bearden community, and other musicians such as Steve Earle, Ronnie Milsap, and Hank Williams, Jr. have mentioned the city in lyrics. Hank Williams, Hank Jr.'s father, spent his last day alive in Knoxville as well. Country singer Kenny Chesney is from Knoxville.

A number of early country music songs were recorded in Knoxville as the "St. James Sessions" in 1930, such as "Satan is Busy In Knoxville" by Leola Manning.

Events

The Knoxville Christmas in the City event runs for eight weeks of events at locations throughout the city including the Singing Christmas Tree and ice skating on the Holidays on Ice skating rink.

* Asian Festival
* Big Ears Festival
* Boo At The Zoo
* Boomsday (discontinued)
* Brewfest
* Concerts on the Square
* Dogwood Arts Festival
* Fantasy of Trees
* Festival on the Fourth
* First Friday ArtWalk
* Greek Fest
* HoLa Festival
* International Biscuit Festival
* Knox Food Fest
* Knoxville Hardcore Fest
* Knoxville Horror Film Festival
* Knoxville Marathon
* Knoxville Powerboat Classic
* Market Square Farmers' Market
* NSRA Street Rod Nationals South
* Pride Fest
* Rhythm & Blooms Festival
* Rossini Festival
* Tennessee Valley Fair
* Vestival
* Volapalooza

Sites of interest

* Beck Cultural Exchange Center
* Bijou Theatre
* Bleak House
* William Blount Mansion
* Fountain City Art Center
* Candoro Marble Works
* Civic Coliseum
* Fort Dickerson
* Haley Heritage Square
* Ijams Nature Center
* James White's Fort
* Knoxville Botanical Gardens and Arboretum
* Knoxville Convention Center
* Knoxville Greenways
* Knoxville Museum of Art
* Knoxville Police Museum
* Zoo Knoxville
* Mabry-Hazen House
* Marble Springs
* Market Square

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