I love Knoxville. I have had that a million times and I will say it a million more! I love Knoxville. I was one of the few people that didn't want to leave this place after high school. I wanted to be here all the time. That love has only grown in the last few years because of some of the wonderful opportunities that I have been able to be apart of. I am really excited because I know that I get to learn so much about my hometown this year and I will be sharing it here.
We are also going to talking about some famous Knoxvillians that we have come to know over the years. We are going to start of with someone we all wanted, or didn't want, as a little brother from the early 2000s Jake Thomas.
Now, he is a bit older in this picture than most people might remember him. He is best known for his role of Matt McGuire in the TV show "Lizzie McGuire". He was born here in 1990, and has done very well for himself. He is still an actor, mainly on tv but a few movies, and went to Farragut High School. The movie he is best known for is The Lizzie McGuire Movie.
Lizzie is off to Rome! In this adventure we see Lizzie going to Rome to mark the end of her Middle School years, and to kick off high school. She is hoping to see art, eat good food, and hang out with her best friend Gordo. However, things get a little crazy when she get mistaken for one half of an Italian Pop group. The quest becomes is she going to become and awesome pop start, or is she going to embarrass herself like she did at her middle school graduation?
So, Lizzie is off to Rome, where did my book take me this month? Well, we went to 100 block of Gay Street, and to State Street.
One the 100 Block stands these two Beautiful buildings.
The building on the corner is called the Rebori Building. It was the original home the the Lawson Magee Library. In 1915 a man by the name of Rebori, who sold peanuts at his cart on the side of the building, purchased the building at auction. He preferred to sell peanuts, so he rented out the building and still sold his peanuts in the same spot.
The Sterchi Building, that you can see the name of, was actually were a huge furniture Chain store was working out of. It actually has a country music history too. It was at the center of all of the up and coming country music artists that were playing around there. There was deli across the street that hosted country music and songs were sold.
Now we go to State Street, right near were Knoxville, was born. The Frist Presbyterian Church on State Street is the first church in all of Knoxville.
The land for the church was given by James White, on of the founders of Knoxville, who gave up his turnip patch for the church and graveyard. The graveyard is actually older than the church. It was around for 20 years before the first church was built. The beautiful building that is there standing there today was completed in 1901, and has two Tiffany Windows.
The graveyard is the final resting place for a great many founders, and leader in Knoxville. James White is buried here, as you can see above, but so is William Blount. He is one of the signers of the Constitution, and is the only one of those signers not buried in one of the 13 original colonies. He was also a Governor and, very briefly, one of the first two senators for Tennessee. The graveyard has been here since the 1790's and it's a well kept, and beautiful final resting place.
So, I hope you enjoyed this little history lesson and I hope you will join me next month as well.
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