A little over 30 years ago I walked through the doors of a stately old building on Gay Street and entered a restaurant I didn’t know existed. I was meeting …
Bygone days at Bell House School
One of the great mysteries in Knoxville history is the location of Tennessee’s first state capitol building. In the early days when Knoxville was the capital of the Southwest Territory …
Bandit’s run ends in East Knoxville 90 years ago
He was public enemy No. 1 on East Tennessee’s most-wanted list. The mountain folk said the law would never take “Pee-Jem” alive, that he knew the hills and hollers better …
South Knoxville Baptist reduced to ashes 50 years ago
The ruse was pretty elaborate for a 19-year-old kid. On Sunday evening, July 28, 1974, one Bruce Michael Partlow of Akron, Ohio, was singing with the choir of the South …
Bootleggin’ in Lyons Bend
The defendant was hoping to skate on a technicality. The judge was having none of it. It was January 1926, and one Arthur Cox of Lyons Bend was in the …
Sorry, the Blizzard of ’93 was worse
I wasn’t planning to write about the weather again this week (see story here), but Mother Nature hasn’t accomplished much with “the melt” just yet, so here we are. The …
Snow day? How ‘bout a snow week …
The official word came down around lunch time on Monday: Knox County Schools were called out today and tomorrow because of the snow piling up outside and arctic temperatures on …
Grocery empire forged in bankruptcy
There were six brands of flour listed, ranging from $1 to $1.80 for a 24-pound bag. That’s a lot of flour. White Lily, of course, sat at the top of …