Sign In

My Timeline

GuRoute

Discover Your World

Share your Experiences

Record your Life

beta

Discover Your World

  1
   

Top Attractions in Knoxville

McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture

The McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture is a general museum located on the campus of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Built in 1963, exhibits focus on natural history, archaeology, anthropology, decorative arts, and local history. The Museum hosts various changing exhibits of art, history and culture. Currently, the Museum features two temporary exhibitions. The first is entitled "Glass of the Ancient Mediterranean" and is on loan from the Yale University Art Gallery. The second is entitled "Brightly Beaded: North American Indian Glass Beadwork" and is a collection of loaned items from private donors and the Museums own holdings. Permanent exhibits include: The Eternal Voice: A collection of artifacts from Egyptian spanning the pre-dynastic to the Ptolemaic periods. The Civil War Experience in Knoxville. Archaeology and the Native Peoples of Tennessee: artifacts found during the building of dams in the state in the 1930s and 1940s, with examples including the "Sandy" statue found at the Sellars Mound and the cache of ceramic figurines found at the Brick Church Mound and Village Site. Tennessee fossils and geological history. Freshwater pearl mussels. Decorative Arts Gallery: Art pieces in many media and from many countries and periods. The McClung Museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.

Airplane Service Station

The Airplane Service Station, also known as the Powell Airplane, is a service station built in 1930 in the shape of an airplane. Located at 6829 Clinton Highway in Powell, an unincorporated community in Knox County, Tennessee, it is on the National Register of Historic Places. The station was built by brothers Elmer and Henry Nickle. Their intent was to increase business by having a service station that was visually unique, both to area residents and to travelers on newly widened U.S. Highway 25. Elmer Nickle had a strong interest in airplanes, and so the station was constructed in the Fantastic architectural style in the shape of an airplane. The structure ceased being used as a service station in the 1960s, when it became a liquor store. It has also been a produce stand, bait and tackle shop, and a used car lot. Knox Heritage and a local organization, the Airplane Filling Station Preservation Association are working to preserve the structure.

William Blount Mansion

The Blount Mansion, also known as William Blount Mansion, located at 200 West Hill Avenue in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, was the home of the only territorial governor of the Southwest Territory, William Blount . Blount, also a signer of the United States Constitution and a U.S. Senator from Tennessee, lived on the property with his family and ten African-American slaves. The mansion served as the de facto capitol of the Southwest Territory. In 1796, much of the Tennessee Constitution was drafted at the mansion. Tennessee state historian John Trotwood Moore once called Blount Mansion "the most important historical spot in Tennessee." The house is a wood-frame home sheathed in wood siding, built with materials brought from North Carolina in an era when most homes in Tennessee were log cabins. The two-story central portion of the home is the oldest section. The one-story east wing is believed to have been constructed next; archaeologists suspect the east wing was originally an outbuilding, which was then moved and attached to the main house, and there is some evidence the east wing was originally the servants quarters. The one-story west wing was the final section to be constructed, perhaps as late as 1820. Blounts office, from which he governed and conducted his business affairs, was built along with the house and is a one-story, free-standing building with a modest front porch. By 1925, the house had deteriorated, and the City of Knoxville threatened to demolish it and replace it with a parking lot. The Blount Mansion Association was chartered the following year, and after a massive publicity campaign by the Bonnie Kate Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the East Tennessee Historical Society, the Association raised enough money to purchase the house in 1930. The Blount Mansion Association has since maintained the house as a museum, and has made numerous renovations to restore the house and property to its late 18th-century appearance. In the 1960s, the mansion was designated a National Historic Landmark.

Marble Springs

Marble Springs, also known as the Gov. John Sevier Home, is a state historic site in south Knox County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The site was the home of John Sevier — a Revolutionary War and frontier militia commander and later the first governor of Tennessee— from 1790 until his death in 1815. A cabin at the site was once believed to have been Seviers cabin, although recent dendrochronological analyses place the cabins construction date in the 1830s, well after Sevier had died. Along with the "Sevier" cabin, several out-buildings have been moved from elsewhere in East Tennessee and several have been reconstructed to simulate a typical pioneer farm from Seviers time. The 35.4-acre site also includes a pavilion and an outdoor stage. The site is managed for the Tennessee Historical Commission by the Governor John Sevier Memorial Association.

Bleak House

Bleak House is an antebellum Classical Revival style house in Knoxville, Tennessee. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. The house was first occupied by Robert Houston Armstrong and his wife, Louisa Franklin. It was built for the couple as a wedding gift by the brides father, Major L.D. Franklin. Robert Armstrongs father, Drury Armstrong, gave them the land. The Armstrongs named the house after Charles Dickens "Bleak House" novel of the same name. The bricks in the house were molded on-site using slave labor. The home was used by Confederate Generals James Longstreet and Lafayette McLaws as their headquarters during the 1863 Battle of Knoxville. Three Confederate sharpshooters who were stationed in the houses tower were killed by Union cannonballs. Two of the cannonballs are still embedded in the walls, and Civil War-era sketches of the slain soldiers are displayed on the walls of the tower. The home now belongs to local Chapter 89 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and is commonly called Confederate Memorial Hall. Crescent Bend, built by Robert Armstrongs father, Drury, and Westwood, built by Roberts daughter, Adelia Armstrong Lutz, still stand a few blocks from the Bleak House on Kingston Pike.

Crescent Bend

Crescent Bend is a historic home at 2728 Kingston Pike in Knoxville, Tennessee. The building is known as Crescent Bend because of its location on a bend of the Tennessee River. It is also known as the Armstrong-Lockett House, Longview and Logueval. Crescent Bend was built in 1834 by Drury Paine Armstrong, a farmer, merchant and public official who estimated that the house had cost him $5,517. The house was once the centerpiece of a 600-acre farm. This is one of three early homes built by the Armstrong family on Kingston Pike, the others being Bleak House, built by Drurys son, Robert H. Armstrong, and Westwood, built by Drurys granddaughter, Adelia Armstrong Lutz . It was later purchased by Percy Lockett. It was also Confederate General Joseph B. Kershaws headquarters during the Siege of Knoxville. It is a contributing property to the Kingston Pike Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The home is a traditional brick farmhouse. The homes contents include 18th-century English and American furniture, decorative arts and silver. The property includes formal Italian gardens with nine terraces and five fountains. The house and gardens are open to the public.

Mabry-Hazen House

The Mabry-Hazen House is an historic home located on an 8-acre site at 1711 Dandridge Avenue in Knoxville, Tennessee, at the crest of Mabrys Hill. Also known as the Evelyn Hazen House or the Joseph Alexander Mabry, Jr. House, when constructed in 1858 for Joseph Alexander Mabry, Jr. it was named Pine Hill Cottage. The house was in what was then the separate town of East Knoxville. Stylistically, the house exhibits both Italianate and Greek Revival elements. Additions in 1886 increased the size of the first floor. Having operated as a museum since the death of Evelyn Hazen, the house retains its original furniture and family collections, including antique china and crystal. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. At the outset of the American Civil War, Joseph Mabry, Jr., a wealthy Knoxville merchant and importer, pledged to outfit an entire regiment of Confederate soldiers at an estimated personal cost of $100,000.00. Because of this assistance to the cause, he was given the honorary title of General in the Confederate army. During the course of the war, both Union and Confederate forces occupied the strategic site of his house adjacent to Fort Hill. Confederate General Felix Zollicoffer set up his headquarters in the house in 1861, but it was Union forces who had the greatest impact when they fortified the grounds as part of their Knoxville defenses after later taking control of Knoxville. After Mabrys death in 1882, his daughter Alice Evelyn Mabry and her husband Rush Strong Hazen resided in the house. Their youngest daughter, Evelyn Hazen, later occupied the house alone for many years until her death in 1987. Her will stipulated that the house had either to become a museum or be razed to the ground. The house opened as a museum in 1992.

Ramsey House

The Ramsey House is a two-story stone house in Knox County, Tennessee, United States. Also known as Swan Pond, the house was constructed circa 1797 by English architect Thomas Hope for Colonel Francis Alexander Ramsey, whose family operated a plantation at the site until the U.S. Civil War. In 1969, the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places for its architecture and its role in the regions early 19th-century history. Francis Alexander Ramsey arrived in what is now Greene County in 1783, and shortly thereafter made a surveying trip down the Holston River, where he first identified the future site of the Ramsey House. Throughout the 1780s, he served as an official of the fledgling State of Franklin, and later served in various capacities in the governments of the Southwest Territory and the State of Tennessee. Ramseys children included early Knoxville mayor, W. B. A. Ramsey, and early Tennessee historian and businessman, J. G. M. Ramsey, both of whom occupied the Ramsey House at various times. Due to their Confederate sympathies, the Ramseys fled Knoxville when the Union Army occupied the city during the Civil War, and the family sold the house in 1866. The Knoxville Chapter of the Association for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities purchased the Ramsey House in 1952, and currently maintains the house and grounds as a museum.

Jackson Avenue Warehouse District

The Jackson Avenue Warehouse District is an historic district in the Old City section of Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the 1970s. The district includes several warehouses along the 100-block of West Jackson Avenue, as well as the Sullivans Saloon building on East Jackson. The buildings were listed for their architecture and their role in Knoxvilles late-19th and early-20th century wholesaling industry. The districts original 1973 listing included the warehouses on the north side of West Jackson Avenue and Sullivans Saloon . In 1975, the district was extended to include the John H. Daniel building and the American Clothing Company building . During the 1980s, the north side of West Jackson Avenues 100-block, along with Sullivans Saloon and 120-122 West Jackson, were included in the Historic American Buildings Survey. The Jackson Avenue Warehouses represent Knoxvilles thriving turn-of-the-century wholesaling sector. Most of the buildings along the north side of West Jackson were built circa 1890—1910, with loading docks facing the tracks and elaborate Romanesque storefronts facing Jackson Avenue. Rural merchants would travel to Knoxville via railroad from across East Tennessee to purchase goods and supplies for general stores and other businesses. Sullivans Saloon, built circa 1888 by Irish-born innkeeper Patrick Sullivan, is one of the few remaining late-19th century saloon buildings in Knoxville. In 1985, all of the buildings in the Jackson Avenue Warehouse District, along with the remaining historic buildings along West Jackson, the Southern Terminal complex, the 100 blocks of East Jackson, North and South Central, and South Gay, the White Lily factory on Depot, and parts of State and Vine were listed on the Register as the Southern Terminal and Warehouse Historic District.

Thompson–Boling Arena

Thompson-Boling Arena is a multi-purpose arena on the campus of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. The arena opened in 1987. It is home to the Tennessee Volunteers and Lady Vols basketball teams. Since 2008, it has been home to the Lady Vol volleyball team. It is named after B. Ray Thompson and former university president Dr. Edward J. Boling. The basketball court is named "The Summitt" after Lady Vols basketball coach Pat Summitt. It replaced the Stokely Athletic Center. The mammoth octagonal building lies just northwest of the Tennessee River, and just southwest of Neyland Stadium. As an echo of its neighbor and a tribute to the brick-and-mortar pattern atop Ayres Hall, the baselines of the court are painted in the familiar orange-and-white checkerboard pattern.

Bijou Theatre

The Bijou Theatre is a theater located in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Built in 1909 as an addition to the Lamar House Hotel, the theater has at various times served as performance venue for traditional theatre, vaudeville, a second-run moviehouse, a commencement stage for the city's African-American high school, and a pornographic movie theater. The Lamar House Hotel, in which the theater was constructed, was originally built in 1817, and modified in the 1850s. The building and theater were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. The Lamar House Hotel was built by Irish immigrant Thomas Humes and his descendants, and quickly developed into a gathering place for Knoxville's wealthy. In 1819, Andrew Jackson became the first of five presidents to lodge at the hotel, and in the 1850s, local businessmen purchased and expanded the building into a lavish 250-room complex. During the Civil War, the Union Army used the hotel as a hospital for its war wounded, among them General William P. Sanders, who died at the hotel in 1863. Following the war, the hotel became the center of Knoxville's Gilded Age extravagance, hosting lavish masquerade balls for the city's elite. In 1909, the rear wing of the building was replaced by the Bijou Theatre structure, entered through a new lobby cut through the hotel building from Gay Street. The theater opened on March 8, 1909, and over the next four decades would host performers such as the Marx Brothers, Dizzy Gillespie, John Philip Sousa, the Ballets Russes, Ethel Barrymore, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, John Cullum, and Houdini. After a period of decline in the 1960s and early 1970s, local preservationists purchased the building and renovated the theater.

Knoxville Civic Coliseum

General James White Memorial Civic Auditorium and Coliseum is a multi-purpose events facility in Knoxville, Tennessee, owned and operated by the Knoxville city government. Its components are an auditorium with a maximum seating capacity of 2,500, a multi-purpose arena with a maximum seating capacity of 7,141, an exhibition hall and a ballroom. It was built in 1961. The arena is home to the Hard Knox Roller Girls, of the WFTDA, the Knoxville Ice Bears, of the SPHL and the University of Tennessee Ice Vols, of the ACHA. Beginning in 2012, it will be home of the Knoxville NightHawks of the Professional Indoor Football League. In the past, the arena hosted the Knoxville Speed, of the UHL, the Knoxville Cherokees, of the ECHL and the Knoxville Knights, of the EHL. It was also the home of the Tennessee Thundercats professional indoor football franchise, for two years. It was the main home arena for Smoky Mountain Wrestling, a regional wrestling promotion, run by pro wrestling Hall of Famer Jim Cornette, from 1992 to 1995. Performances hosted in the facility have included circuses, plays and musicals, symphony orchestra concerts, popular music concerts, and comedians. The facility was the site of Randy Rhoads' last show, before his death in a plane crash.

First Baptist Church

First Baptist Church is a historic church located at 510 Main Street in Knoxville, Tennessee. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. The congregation was organized in 1843 by James and John Moses. After its first baptismal service in nearby First Creek, the church had 46 members, including 20 African-Americans. The churchorganized its first Sunday School in 1845. The first building was constructed on Gay Street in 1850. The second building was built at the same location in 1887. The third building was completed in 1924 at the Main Street location, three years after Dr. Frederick Fernando Brown became pastor. This architecturally-significant structure, noteworthy for its Neoclassical design and octagonal sanctuary, was designed by Dougherty & Gardner of Nashville, Tennessee, and is modeled on St Martin-in-the-Fields of London. The exterior of the church sanctuary is sheathed in marble, although the adjoining education space is brick.
♥

This attraction is located in

This is a private property. Please enjoy respectfully and do not disturb the occupants.

Edit Categories
Add Tours

This attraction is not part of any tours

Add Collections

This attraction is not part of any collections

 

Some of the attractions we imported from Wikipedia are not perfect. Send us an email detailing what's wrong and we'll look into fixing it.

GuRoute is all about Gurus sharing their local knowledge. If you feel up to fixing this problem yourself, why not adopt it. You will become the owner and can fix whatever problems you see.

We've copied a link to this attraction into your clipboard so that ou can paste it into an email or text message...

More Info... ✔
You can add your friends to the visit yourself, or, send them a link and let them add themselves...

The visit will appear on both your timelines and on your Shared Timeline.

Click below and we'll email you a link that you can send on to friends or post on your group's Facebook page.

If your friends aren't members of GuRoute yet, this is a great way to get them started.
Recent
Recently used Collections will appear here...
Recent
Recently used tours will appear here...

Where is this?

GuRoute likes to place attractions inside other attractions. So, maybe it's in a city, or maybe it's inside a particular park in that city. Maybe your attraction is a huge park that spans half the county, or multiple counties.

Determining where this attraction is gives it context - if it's in a park, you'll be able to see it alongside all the other attractions in that park. And that helps define the park.

GuRoute will automatically calculate a parent region for this attraction. You can change it if there is something more appropriate.

This attraction is currently located in .

Change

This attraction does not yet have any reviews

Please login to write a review...

Reviewed by
Record new Visit

Add this location to your timneline?

  • If there's an existing attraction open it and add it to your timeline...
  • If not, enter a title and we'll create a new attraction for your memories...
Create new Attraction

Create a new attraction at this location?

  • We rely on Gurus like you to share your local knowledge...
(Give a name for this location)

+
Add this to your timeline instead...

Imagine having a record of all the cool things you've done in your life!


Using our timeline you can keep track of everywhere you visit in your lifetime...

But, you'll need to sign in first...

Add contacts so that you can share your travels and record places that you visit together...

Family
Favorites
Family
Favorites

Profile TimeLine Our Visits Edit Accept Decline Invite

If you have any more friends that visited this place with you, feel free to add them to the visit. We'll write it to their timeline and once they confirm it, they too will have this memory for a lifetime.

If they're not already registered, you just need their name and email address and you can add them and we'll send them an invite on your behlaf.

Add a tour comment

Add some extra information for when this attraction is viewed as part of your tour...

Next Stop Instructions

Add some instructions for what to see/do on the way to the next stop...

Next Stop Instructions

Add some instructions for what to see/do on the way to the next stop...

If you're visiting an existing attraction, open it and add it to your timeline. If there is no attraction for the place you are visiting...

  • Click 'Add My Location' below
  • Or right-click on the map to mark a different location
  • Or long-press if you have a touch screen
You can even add locations while you're offline....
  • Load up the map when you're online and we'll keep track of your locaiton
  • You can add locations to your timeline
  • When you are online again we'll sync them with the cloud

We can't connect to the internet right now. The following attractions are saved locally and can be uploaded when you're online...

GuRoute would like to access your current location so that we can pin you on the map and show you nearby attractions

Add friends so that you can share your experiences with each other...

Add tour to What's Next?

Go...

Either for yourself or someone else...

  1. Do your trip research in GuRoute
    Add all the places that you think might be worthy of a visit into a trip-plan
  2. Add your trip-plan to your "What's Next" timeline
    (or a friend's "What's Next" timeline)
  3. When you're on vacation you'll have all your research at your fingertips
  4. Share your timline with your friends
    They can enjoy your vacation with you, seeing not only where you've been, but where you're going next...
  5. Add/remove attractions if things change

It also makes a great souvenir of your trip

Collections

Go...

Create a home page for a collection of attractions

  • Add an image and description to display on the homepage
  • Start adding content
    Add existing attractions to your collection or create new attractions of your own
  • Collections can be:
    • Public (Anyone can add attractions to your collection)
    • Shared (Only yourself and Gurus you nominate can add content)
    • Private (The collection will only be visible to yourself)

Uses

  • Local business or hotel
    Showcase local attractions that you endorse
  • Clubs
    Showcase attractions that members have created (eg. local historical society)
  • Special Interest
    If GuRoute does not have a category for your special interest you add your attractions to your own collection instead

Examples

Walking/Driving Tours

Go...

A guided tour where GuRoute will direct you from stop to stop and narrate a description of each attraction you arrive at

  • GuRoute uses your phone's GPS to guide you from stop to stop
  • GuRoute automatically detects when you arrive at the next tour-stop and narrates the description of the attraction (Chrome Only)
  • It then sends you on to the next stop

Tours are great to attract people to your town. Even places with no significant points of interest can be lots of fun when part of a tour


Cater tours to your Audience

  • Kid-friendly Tours
    • Focus on what will keep kids interested
    • Instead of parents having to drag their kids around they'll be struggling to keep up
    • Let the kids navigate and they'll get more fun out of finding that historical plaque than they ever would from reading it
  • Accessible tours
  • Short and long tours of the same location

What you need to do...

  1. Click 'Go...'
    Enter a title, description and location for the tour
  2. Add existing attractions OR create new ones and add them to the tour
  3. For existing attractions you can add more information specific to the theme of the tour
  4. You can also add instructions on what to do or see en-route to the next tour-stop
  5. Try out your tour and see how it works...

Mystery Tour

Go...

Create a Mystery Tour

Create a series of clues to show people around a city, neighborhood or whatever place you like...

  • GuRoute will show people clues to get them from attraction to attraction
  • When they reach each stop GuRoute will tell them about the place and give them the next clue
  • Take as long or as you like and explore each location at your leisure

Scavenger Hunt

Go...

Create a Scavenger Hunt

Create a series of questions that people have to answer. The answers can all be discovered by walking aroung the area, looking for clues.

  • How many beers are on tap at Michael Collin's Irish Bar?
  • What's the name of the oldest building on main streeet?
  • Show a picture of some public art and ask them what it is called
  • Clues can have numeric or multiple choice answers