Adopted by:
The Knoxville Historic Zoning Commission on March 20, 2003
The Knoxville-Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission on April 10, 2003

Introduction

Recommended Actions 2003

Status Report —Preservation Works!

The Properties

Map

Appendix A

Introduction

Concern about Knoxville’s history and the buildings that reflect that history has become a significant part of public decision making in the city in the past few years. From a concern over individual buildings like James White’s Fort and Blount Mansion, the city’s preservation advocates have broadened their involvement to include commercial sections of the city and entire residential neighborhoods, both important reflections of Knoxville’s past.

From 1982 to 1985, MPC conducted an inventory of buildings and structures in the city, and in 1987, produced the first edition of The Future of Our Past, a preservation plan calling attention to historically and architecturally significant properties in Knoxville and Knox County. The plan was updated in 1994 in a second edition, also titled The Future of Our Past.

Preservation achievements grew during this time, resulting in rehabilitating late 19th and early 20th century buildings and neighborhoods throughout Knoxville. New and old residents of Mechanicsville banded together to create the city’s first residential H-1 historic overlay in 1991. Old North Knoxville followed suit in 1992 and since then H-1 historic overlays have been added to the Fourth & Gill neighborhood, a section of Parkridge, Market Square and numerous individual buildings. Neighborhood Conservation Overlays (NC-1) have been created along Tazewell Pike, in Ft. Sanders and in the Emoriland-Fairmont area. Nominations to the National Register of Historic Places since 1990 include Old North Knoxville, Fourth & Gill, Park City, Market Square, Gay Street, the Southern Terminal and Jackson Avenue Warehouse area, Island Home, Kingston Pike, Lindburg Forest, Adair Gardens, Emory Place, Gibbs Drive and South Market and a number of individual buildings.

Programs and legislation have strengthened the city’s preservation movement. Mayor Ashe formed a Mayor’s Task Force on Historic Preservation in 2000 to examine preservation in Knoxville and make recommendations for its improvement. Then, in November of 2002, voters approved an amendment to Knoxville’s Charter requiring the Metropolitan Planning Commission to prepare an annual report on the status of historic preservation. The Mayor is directed by the amendment to present a report on the state of historic preservation to the Knoxville City Council, with MPC to prepare information for the Mayor.

This report, prepared in response to the Charter Amendment adopted in 2002, contains information drawn from three sources: 1) Recommended Actions 2003 collected through a public participation process, 2) a status report on the recommendations from Preservation Works! a historic preservation plan prepared in 2000, and 3) the list of properties from the adopted historic preservation plan, The Future of Our Past, ranked by significance and degrees of endangerment.