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What's the Story?
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By: Chester Kilgore When I was asked to write this article about the history of the Old North Knoxville Victorian Holiday Home Tour, I thought of facts and figures. Not having the archives of all things Old North Knoxville that Andy Anderson has at his disposal, I contacted Andy immediately. Even Andy had to go do some digging, and he shared with me some interesting, some well known, some obscure and some very informative tid-bits.
The idea for the home tour was born from a desire by the neighborhood organization to do more to follow the Old North Knoxville Mission Statement, which is: "to preserve, promote and protect the Old North Knoxville neighborhood". What ONK had that was unique was our variety of wonderful houses, architecture and street-scapes from the Victorian era. The ONK Board thought that people would be interested in actually seeing inside the architectural gems, and paying a small The First Annual Old North Knoxville Victorian Holiday Home Tour was 19 years ago. We sold tickets to folks at St. James Episcopal Church on Broadway, and everyone either drove their own vehicles or walked from house to house. The price was $5. The Home Tour was very well received, and the next year we added more houses, and still more houses and longer hours in the following year. The Home Tour was so well received that we were beginning to have traffic jams in the neighborhood, so we decided to charter buses from KAT and let folks park and ride from house to house. The big buses of the early 1990's really had trouble making some of he tight corners in ONK, so the bus routes on the tour were sometimes very strange to our guests. Later, we were able to charter from KAT the smaller "kneeling" buses, and those allowed more flexibility for the tour route and ease of getting on and off for the tour guests. Later, ONK was able to charter from KAT the "Trolley" buses that we still use today, and these are the most perfect fit for our tour guests thus far. We hope everyone enjoys the trolleys. We used Broadway Shopping Center as the park and ride the bus point two years in the early '90's, but the home tour continued to increase in popularity and our needs out grew the space the shopping center could offer us and them still be able to offer parking for their tenants. St.Mary's Medical Center was kind enough to allow ONK to use their Woodland Avenue parking lot, where we still have our tour ticket booth, parking and bus pick up and drip off. This arrangement has been perfect for the home tour, and we continue to thank and appreciate St. Mary's Medical Center for partnering with ONK for the first weekend of December every year. The ONK Home Tour Committee works year around on the tour trying to make each year the best ever. We have had open to the public on the home tour over 90 different homes during the course of the 19 years. Everything from mansions to shotgun houses, to carriage houses, to residential lofts converted from former warehouses, to Queen Anne styles both huge and tiny, to Craftsman bungalow's have been featured on the Home Tour. This year we feature the first new "compatible new construction" house built under the Historic Guidelines. We have also featured 4 neighborhood churches over the years, and with the addition of the wonderful Holy Ghost Church on Central near Baxter this year. We also feature the unique restoration of a store front on Central at The Time Warp Tea Room where tour guests can stop for refreshments while they view the wonderful renovation.
The real nitty-gritty secret of the history of the Home Tour is the willingness of the residents, homeowners and ONK neighbors to pull together and volunteer to help their neighborhood during the Holiday Home Tour, which is our signature event. Not one person gets paid, all are those who volunteer their time, money and effort to preserve, promote and protect Old North Knoxville by participating in the Holiday Home Tour. I have saved the best for last. We did some calculations, and the total number of 100% volunteer hours given to Old North Knoxville by it's residents and friends for the Home Tour this year is ----- 1,602! VOLUNTEER HOURS given to the community, to the city & county, to preservation of our neighborhood and our history and to our love of our neighborhood. Over the 19 years of the Holiday Home Tour, ONK volunteers have donated to ONK over 30,000 hours of their time. Thirty Thousand hours! Now, that's a history to be proud of! Take a bow, Old North Knoxville, for a job well done in "preserving, promoting and protecting our Old North Knoxville neighborhood"! Thank you each and all, and enjoy the Holiday Home Tour. |
