Some deconstruction was going on in South Knoxville 70 years ago that had nearby residents concerned. A building adjacent to an aged livery stable would be demolished and residents were concerned that the local landmark was going to be torn down.
No, no, they were assured. The city had only condemned the shed, added later to the large livery that was built sometime in the 1880s. In 1955 it sat on property owned by the D. M. Rose & Company (saw mill, lumber yard, etc.). By that time, the need for large horse stables in the city had significantly diminished, and the building was being used for a storehouse.
Despite what was reported in The Knoxville Journal in March that year, five years later the old livery was gone. Sadly, there are not any really good pictures of it that I could find. It was located on the south side of the currently dysfunctional Gay Street Bridge, on the left pretty immediately after crossing the bridge.
It was on the river side of Council Place, that curvy short street that runs around the bluff to bring you back to Gay Street from the section of Sevier Avenue that runs one way east. Over 100 years ago there were several businesses in that odd spot, including the massive lumber yard. A look at Google Earth now shows the empty, cleared flat spot where the livery used to be and the remains of parking lots and driveways to nothing. Where the Rose lumber yard once was down on the river is now part of Holston Gases property.
During its early decades of operation, the livery was a neighbor of Cal Johnson’s first race track, known as South Side, located on the river, east of Jones Street. The half mile oval would have been, I believe, partially on the east end of Holston Gases and the west end of Suttree Landing. It was owned by Joe Jones in the late 1800s (ergot, Jones Street) who also had a nearby brickyard.
In 1895, Jones was badly hurt in a horse wreck at the intersection of Patton Street (now mostly in the new baseball park) and the vanished Hardee Street. The horse spooked at a street car, bolted and crashed into a trolley pole. Jones had a few gnarly injuries, worst among them a dislocated hip. Four years later, the business had changed hands, and did again when it was bought by Rose in 1905.
At one time it was run by R. H. (Robert Horatio) Giffin, who was often referred to simply as Horatio at the Bridge. Giffin was from a well-known South Knoxville family. Born in 1868, he had an interesting work history from running the livery, operating grocery stores, to working as a stone cutter, primarily for the U.S. government. He did a great deal of work in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, particularly Kuwohi (Clingman’s Dome) Road. He’s also one of the last people to see the escaped bandit Kid Curry (Harvey Logan) as he was riding out of Knoxville on the sheriff’s bay mare (she made her way back home, eventually).
Beth Kinnane writes a history feature for KnoxTNToday.com. It’s published each Tuesday and is one of our best-read features.
Sources: McClung digital collection-Knox County Library, Knoxville Journal digital archives
This was very interesting. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
Thanks, Beth. I have wondered about the history of that circle of land in the two one way parts of Sevier. When I came to Knoxville thirty-plus years ago there was a, maybe, three or four storey building there, that I believe was apartments.
I do want to note that, while this article was of interest and well researched, it is riddled with errors, not factual but in syntax. It starts in the second sentence, where it appears as though you intended an entirely different statement, then changed tack. Perhaps this is the hand of an editor at work. Regardless, it shouldn’t have made it online as written, especially not from a one-time professional journalist. Sorry to be “that guy”, but I see this all over our local media, and today chose to say something.
Kid Curry (Harvey Logan) was well tracked after crossing the Gay Street Bridge into South Knoxville. As he road out Martin Mill Pike and Neubert Springs Road, neighbors called ahead so their friends could step outside and watch him pass. Logan hung out around Giffin’s store in the Valley Road area until people began to gather and whisper about him. He eventually took a by-path and disappeared into McCalls Woods in what would eventually become the Colonial Village neighborhood.