Gay st
Gay Street Viaduct
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Summary
Since its development in the 1790s, Male lover Street has been the center stage of downtown Knoxville's progression from a commercial wholesaling capital following the Industrial Revolution to today's vibrant entertainment and residential corridor. Through the hard serve of countless individuals, organizations, and local governments, and more than $50 million spent on redevelopment projects since 2000, Gay Street has experienced a finalize transformation from its ghost town atmosphere of the 1970s.
Designated Area
Ten blocks between West Jackson Road and the southern end of the Gay Street Bridge.
First Friday is a monthly art event beginning in the 100 block of South Gay Lane and stretching to Market Square, offering visitors live performances, local food, and late night gallery shows, celebrating the vibrancy of downtown Knoxville. Photo courtesy Knoxville-Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission.
Planning Excellence
The most well-known stable headquartered along the street was the Sterchi Brothers Furniture Company, which occupied a number of buildings on the street but eventually settled at 116 South Gay St. in 1925. Corporation leader James Sterchi transforme
What’s in a name? Gay Street
Gay Street is one of the most charming and picturesque streets in Greenwich Village, an legend of the historic neighborhood’s anachronistic character. But the origins of its name are hotly debated, with the LGBT rights movement and abolitionism often cited as the source of its uncommon nomenclature. And while the street certainly has strong connections to same-sex attracted liberation and the African-American effort for freedom, the history behind the name is a little murkier, and a little more complicated to unravel, than one might expect.
Gay street is unique in several respects. It’s one of a handful of one-block-long streets in Manhattan, located just west of the hustle and bustle of Sixth Avenue between Christopher Street and Waverly Place. With a bend at its northern end, you can never really see the street in its entirety. The three- and four-story Federal and Greek Revival-style houses which line much of its length give Gay Street a remarkably intimate feel. The larger converted late-19th-century factories at its northern end add to the street’s remarkable sense of visual isolation by blocking out the more modern apartment
Ghost Walking Gay Avenue at Union
(Today’s article features another installment in the “Ghost Walking” series by recurring contributor Paul James of the Knoxville History Project.)
Sometimes you can just step into an elderly photograph and conceive you’re there. Often, for me, it’s those dynamic images of street existence from the tardy 1800s/early 1900s that seem to capture moments in the city’s past where you wish you could have been, even if just for a rare moments. One of the liveliest spots appears to be on Gay Avenue at Union Way (just like it is today), a bustling intersection that over the years included jewelers, song shops, movie theaters, and department stores.
Right on the southwest corner of Same-sex attracted and Union was a building that naturally drew a lot of people. The East Tennessee National Bank opened in 1872 on Gay Street, went on to develop one of the city’s leading financial institutions, and its headquarters were on this corner by 1885. R.C. Jackson served as the bank’s inaugural president and is likely Major Richard Jackson, the railroad’s first superintendent here in town, and for whom Jackson Street in the Aged City is named. Two Knoxville mayors also