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Homes of Knoxville

Any trip to Knoxville, Tennessee, would undoubtedly include the Sunsphere, the 26 story tall structure built for the 1982 World’s Fair.  You might also visit the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, taking a look at the history of the sport, as well as the world’s largest basketball that adorns the building, weighing in at ten tons.  But the city of Knoxville, which originated in 1786, two hundred and twenty-four years ago, is rich in history, especially about the 19th Century and the Civil War.  Once you’ve checked into one of the hotels Knoxville offers its travellers, you can start taking a look across the landscape to find a number of sites that have their roots in deep in the 1860s, or even earlier.
 
Perhaps James White’s Fort is the most visited historic site.  It’s a wooden log home that lets you look at the life of early settlers in this region, owned originally by the founder of Knoxville, who was paid for his services in the Revolutionary War with a land grant of a thousand acres.  Other homes in the area also serve as museums, such as the Mabry-Hazen House Museum (including the Civil War Bethel Cemetery), and the Marble Springs Historic Homestead.  The latter belonged to Governor John Sevier, and was variously a loom house, a tavern, a half-cantilever barn, and a smokehouse.  Today’s it’s used to educate visitors about this governor’s life and the times in which he lived.  In the former, you’ll find a home that displays not only the period of the Civil War, but also the Victorian age.  You’ll discover china and crystal and silver, in a building that once acted as headquarters for troops from both sides of the Civil War.
 
Before you finish your trip to Knoxville, you’ll definitely want to take a look at Blount Mansion.  This 1792 home belonged to Governor William Blount, one of the signers of the Constitution of the United States.  You’ll be able to take a guided tour of this home, which is now a National historic Landmark, enabling you and your family to learn about how frontier government worked and to see antiques from the 18th Century.

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