Conceived in 1853 as a canny real-estate scheme by two young investors expecting to get rich off the idea, Market Square came to be Knoxville’s most public spot, a marketplace familiar to every man, woman, and child in the area. By the 1860s, it was the busiest place in a burgeoning city. In a town that became bitterly divided by politics, race, and background, Market Square became a rare common ground: a place to buy all sorts of local produce, but also a place to experience new things, including the grandiose Market House itself, considered a model in a progressive era. Beset by urban blight by the mid-1900s, Market Square had become more of a curiosity than a point of municipal pride, and the neighborhood declined. After years of controversy, the city razed the Market House and struggled to modernize the old Square itself. This second edition is packed with more information about the colorful history of this eccentric place, including details about its African American heritage, the surprising origins of a recent international bestseller, and a much fuller account of its present-day resurgence as an example of vigorous urban revival. Through a combination of public and private efforts in the 21st century, Market Square seems to be returning to its original diverse spirit, suggesting why, on a good day, it can resemble—as a reporter described it in 1900—“the most democratic place on earth.” Jack Neely is the award-winning “Secret History” columnist for Metro Pulse, Knoxville’s weekly newspaper. He is the author of From the Shadow Side and Other Stories about Knoxville, Tennessee, and, with Aaron Jay, of The Marble City: A Photographic Tour of Knoxville’s Graveyards.

Market Square: A History of the Most Democratic Place on Earth

History

Neely, Jack

Americas

Market Square District Association

The Tennessee Theatre: A Grand Entertainment Palace

Historic Tennessee Theatre Foundation

Jack Neely has written 26 varied true stories of the people and places of Knoxville, Tennessee spanning from the 1890s to the present.

From The Shadow Side: And Other Stories Of Knoxville, Tennessee

Tellico Books

Downtown Knoxville (Images of America)

Founded on a bluff overlooking the Tennessee River in 1791, Knoxville was a frontier town as well as the birthplace and first capital of Tennessee. From the postcolonial years through the Civil War and on to Knoxville's emergence as an industrial, dynamic, and thoroughly American city, downtown was where everything happened--the setting of the city's most memorable stories and legends. Spanning First and Second Creeks and connecting the river to the railroad, downtown is where Knoxvillians have built their most defining churches, opera houses, movie theaters, and hotels. Here, traditions, holidays, and the endings of wars have been celebrated; suffrage leaders exhorted politicians to pass a national amendment; conservationists planned a national park; idealistic engineers and architects of a New Deal program reimagined a multistate valley; and musicians convened to record and broadcast new forms of folk music that would be called "country." Downtown is where bizarre gunfights drew national attention and a notorious outlaw escaped from jail and rode the sheriff's horse to freedom across the Gay Street Bridge.

Arts & Photography

James, Paul

Photography & Video

Arcadia Publishing

Discover the vibrant history of Knoxville, Tennessee, in this series of articles from Jack Neely's acclaimed "Secret History" column in Knoxville's Metro Pulse. Neely delves into the shadows of centuries past and weaves a path of local history with unmistakable wit and precision. Learn about the people who made Knoxville the "obscure prismatic city" through their genius, bravery or even impiety--natives like Adolph Ochs, whose fear of the old Presbyterian cemetery kick-started his ascent to the editor's desk at the New York Times; Clarence Brown, the University of Tennessee graduate turned Hollywood icon; and Knoxville's own Mark Twain. Learn about race riots, labor riots and good old-fashioned drunken riots, and discover why Knoxville is Tennessee's forgotten music city.

Knoxville: This Obscure Prismatic City

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

History Press Library Editions

Founded on a bluff overlooking the Tennessee River in 1791, Knoxville was a frontier town as well as the birthplace and first capital of Tennessee. From the postcolonial years through the Civil War and on to Knoxville's emergence as an industrial, dynamic, and thoroughly American city, downtown was where everything happened--the setting of the city's most memorable stories and legends. Spanning First and Second Creeks and connecting the river to the railroad, downtown is where Knoxvillians have built their most defining churches, opera houses, movie theaters, and hotels. Here, traditions, holidays, and the endings of wars have been celebrated; suffrage leaders exhorted politicians to pass a national amendment; conservationists planned a national park; idealistic engineers and architects of a New Deal program reimagined a multistate valley; and musicians convened to record and broadcast new forms of folk music that would be called country. Downtown is where bizarre gunfights drew national attention and a notorious outlaw escaped from jail and rode the sheriff's horse to freedom across the Gay Street Bridge.

Arcadia Pub (Sc)

They can be as elaborate as ornate statuary from the Victorian era or as simple as plain stones placed over fallen soldiers. They might be tucked away in quiet corners of the county or rest in the shadows of the city’s tallest buildings. They are the grave markers of Knoxville's dead, and they hold an unturned key to this East Tennessee community's past. In this new book, Jack Neely and Aaron Jay take the reader on a tour through Knoxville’s graveyards—a photographic and historic sampling of more than forty cemeteries in Knox County. In words and pictures, Neely and Jay record the handiwork of the stonecutter, the provocative environments of gravesites, and the colorful lives of the people buried there. Wandering from small family graveyards to large institutional cemeteries, Neely writes with a graceful style and a respect for the past while Jay’s photographs capture the mood of the stones, sculptures, and design of grave markers. They lead us to the last resting places of a Supreme Court justice, a Grand Prix racing champion, a presidential nominee, and a great blues singer, showing how the lives of these prominent figures often attain added significance by their tombstones, which reveal the diverse burial customs of Knoxville’s citizens. The Marble City invites us to view cemeteries as a means of appreciating an American city’s cultural diversity and the many roles its citizens played in history: the earliest marked burials in the county date from George Washington’s day, and in these quiet acres Confederates lie within whispering distance of Union dead. As the book shows us, each statue and marker has a story to tell. Slaves and slaveholders, professors and paupers, veterans of every war America has fought—Neely and Jay read the history of America in Knoxville graveyards and show that monuments to the dead can still inspire the living. The Authors: Jack Neely, a columnist for the Knoxville weekly newspaper MetroPulse, is the author of Knoxville’s Secret History. His writing has won awards from both the East Tennessee Historical Society and the Society of Professional Journalists. Aaron Jay is an award-winning photographer who has worked in both fashion photography and photojournalism. He presently works for MetroPulse.

The Marble City: A Photographic Tour of Knoxville’s Graveyards

Univ Tennessee Press

Conceived in 1853 as a canny real-estate scheme by two young investors expecting to get rich off the idea, Market Square came to be Knoxville’s most public spot, a marketplace familiar to every man, woman, and child in the area. By the 1860s, it was the busiest place in a burgeoning city, a place to shop, work, play, eat, drink, and live. In a town that became bitterly divided by politics, race, and background, Market Square became a rare common ground: a place to buy all sorts of local produce, but also a place to experience new things, including the grandiose Market House itself, considered a model in a progressive era.  Beset by urban blight by the mid-1900s, Market Square had become more of a curiosity than a point of municipal pride, and the neighborhood declined. After years of fevered controversy, the city razed the Market House and struggled to modernize the old Square itself. Through a combination of public and private efforts in the 21st century, Market Square seems to be returning to its original diverse spirit.Market Square details the colorful history of this wonderfully eccentric place, a place that is once again familiar to the whole community, suggesting why, on a good day, Market Square can resemble—as a reporter described it in 1900—“the most democratic place on earth.”Jack Neely is the award-winning Secret History columnist for Metro Pulse, Knoxville’s weekly newspaper. He is the author of From the Shadow Side and Other Stories about Knoxville, Tennessee, and, with Aaron Jay, of The Marble City: A Photographic Tour of Knoxville’s Graveyards.

Marble City: Photographic Tour

Knoxville: This Obscure Prismatic City (American Chronicles)

The History Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Neely, Jack. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Neely, Jack

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Neely, Jack. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Market Square: A History of the Most Democratic Place on Earth

The Tennessee Theatre: A Grand Entertainment Palace

From The Shadow Side: And Other Stories Of Knoxville, Tennessee

Downtown Knoxville (Images of America)

Knoxville: This Obscure Prismatic City

Downtown Knoxville (Images of America)

The Marble City: A Photographic Tour of Knoxville’s Graveyards

Marble City: Photographic Tour

Knoxville: This Obscure Prismatic City (American Chronicles)