Seven Days Wednesday, Dec. 8 • The News Sentinel’s Christmas charity Milk Fund receives nearly $2,500 from a special “Coffee Day” fundraiser at area Weigel’s outlets. Doesn’t sound like all that much to us. Next time, we suggest they try a “Malt Liquor Day” at the local Pass ‘n’ Gas. Thursday, Dec. 9 • After a long absence, the Tennessee Theatre’s Mighty Wurlitzer organ is taken back to the theater by what appears to be a police escort. But officials say the Wurlitzer was actually receiving a parking citation. Cops downtown will ticket anything that doesn’t move. Friday, Dec. 10 • Work crews demolish the old Smith/Coughlin House so Cherokee Country Club can build a parking lot and golf practice range. That muffled retching noise you hear is the sound of the late J. Allen Smith puking in his grave. Saturday, Dec. 11 • Innovative Thinking Department: A TDOT road hazard crewman has reportedly been saving state money by hauling a bigger tank on his salt truck. Next up, those inventive DOT crewmen will try to save on gas mileage by taking off their emergency brakes before driving up hills. Sunday, Dec. 12 • Ecologists in Cookeville speculate that we’re in for a hard winter, which they deduce from the fact that a certain species of woolly worm enters the season with black stains on both its head and tail. The only thing we’ll speculate is that those woolly worms sound like weird little f@#$ers. Monday, Dec. 13 • Preservationists claim the rubble left from the demolition of the Smith/Coughlin House may generate support for future historic preservation efforts. Realists say it may generate support for a new landfill. Tuesday, Dec. 14 • A national caving organization gives Oak Ridge explorer Barry Beck an award recognizing his expertise regarding sinkholes—holes in the soft surface that lead to big, hard, empty fissures underneath. Sources say there’s no truth to the persistent rumor that Beck moonlights as George W. Bush’s neurologist. Street Talk Kim Trent executive director, Knoxville Heritage What allowed the J. Allen Smith House to be demolished? The ordinance that was applied was part of the city building code. It stated that properties under official consideration for historic zoning are subject to a 180-day moratorium on demolition. This was enacted so that properties going through the review process would still be standing at the end of the process. It was enacted by City Council as an ordinance under the building code, but due to the Tennessee Supreme Court decision that struck down the way the ordinance was enacted, we will advocate a new version. What does the ruling on the J. Allen Smith mean for the Sprankle Building? Home Federal Bank’s planned demolition of the Sprankle Building for a parking lot was put on hold when Mayor Victor Ashe applied for historic zoning on the building. As he was leaving office he came to an agreement with the bank to withdraw the application for historic zoning if they committed to give the City 45 days notice before doing anything with the building. Mayor Haslam has honored that agreement. We are hopeful the leadership of Home Federal will allow the building to be restored, so it can play its role in the revitalization of downtown. I know there have been developers interested in restoring the building for a mix of retail and residential uses. Was a wake held after the Smith house demolition? Yes. We gathered at a Knox Heritage board member’s home near the Smith house to raise a glass to the house and the many people who worked to save it. We mourned the passing of this piece of Knoxville’s history, but we resolved to move forward with even more determination. What is the current status of the Mary Boyce Temple House, at the corner of Gay Street and Hill Avenue? The house is for sale and protected by historic overlay zoning. We are working to locate a buyer who will restore and re-use the house. As with any historic property, we are available to provide information and technical assistance to anyone interested in restoring the house. Amazingly, the house has retained most of its original features and will make a wonderful office or residence. Plus, the developer of the Hampton Inn next to the house, Shalesh Patel, has generously offered a $100,000 grant toward the restoration of the house as part of his development agreement with the city of Knoxville. We feel positive about the future of the house and hope its preservation will be a tribute to one of Knoxville’s first preservationists—Mary Boyce Temple. What was it about Knoxville that made you interested in historic preservation? I love a challenge. I was raised in Mobile, Ala., where we were blessed with an abundance of historic properties, and I learned to love them. I met my husband while living in Atlanta, and he is from Knoxville. When we came here to visit his family, I fell in love with Market Square and downtown. I also loved the fact that, unlike in Atlanta, historic houses were still affordable here. After we moved to Knoxville I was surprised by the lack of awareness about the benefits of preservation and joined the board of Knox Heritage to help change that. What is the latest on the Pickle Mansion on Clinch Avenue that was partially destroyed by fire? The house is for sale along with the apartment building behind it and the vacant lot next to it. We expect an offer will be made to the owners soon. We are hopeful they will accept it so the house can be restored and used again. It is an incredible part of the Historic Fort Sanders Neighborhood and can once again be one of the grandest historic homes still standing in Knoxville.

Rolling Over in Their Graves
Native American burial ground up for development

Somewhere in Sevierville there is a wide grassy plain that overlooks the meeting of the French Broad and Little Pigeon rivers. Scattered over 11 acres are the interred bodies of an estimated 1,000 Native Americans, most of whom are buried only three feet deep. Natives from several tribes, especially the ancient, now-extinct Mississippian Dallas tribe, inhabited this property as long ago as 1000 A.D. Over time, they built up a fortress wall, crowned with garrets and filled with cabins built of wattle.

By the early 1600s, the village was inhabited by Cherokees and named Tanasqui after Spanish explorer Juan Pardo visited it. One of only a few ancient sites of this sort remaining in Tennessee, the grounds have been largely ignored over the years and subjected to grave robbing, as Indian artifacts sell for hefty sums. (Arrowheads go for as much as $700 online, while ancient necklaces sell for thousands of dollars.) Because of such vulnerabilities, there is a need for obscuring the exact location of the burial grounds, says Valerie Ohle, who is of Cherokee descent and a member of The Two Rivers Mounds Coalition.

The coalition is a grassroots organization dedicated to preserving the Sevierville mounds and guarding them against development. Comprised of a group of natives and non-natives, the members have become especially protective of late, as the land was sold in October for $1.1 million.

Though the transaction details are murky, it’s known that the property is broken into 23 separate lots. According to the Sevier County Property Assessor’s office, real estate developer Bill Proffitt owns the 23rd lot, which is the largest lot and contains most of the graves. Proffitt would not comment on his involvement when contacted. Neither would another owner, Alfred Newman, who would only say, “We’ve owned [the property] a couple of times and the Indians come out and demonstrate every time we sell it, but they don’t have any money.”

The coalition may not need money to secure claim over the property. According to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, if kinship to the deceased is proven, ownership of the cemetary is questionable. Thus, Cherokees who have cards from the goverment verifying their ancestry are stepping up as spokespeople for the coalition.

The state has tried several times over the years to secure the property for the sake of research, but has been unable to negotiate a donation, says Jeff Chapman, director of UT’s McClung Museum. When the state looked into purchasing the property, it was deemed unaffordable. The land sold for more than $100,000 an acre.

State Archaeologist Nick Fielder, who has surveyed the site many times, says it is rumored that plans for condos may be in the works. In response, the coalition staged a protest last Saturday; about 20 people turned out for the demonstration.

“I don’t see how you can put a series of condos out there directly on the village site and avoid impacting it significantly,” Chapman says. “To me, the ideal thing, as it has always been, is the preservation of that site, to simply leave it as a green area and utilize it in that fashion.”

Fielder has talked to Proffitt about the land. He says Proffitt understands that if he develops the property he’ll have to hire archaeologists to examine the area and remove any human remains and artifacts where the actual construction would take place. Proffitt plans to leave other parts of the property alone, Fielder says.

Sevierville Planning and Development Director Jim Bryant says that no development plans have been submitted for the property as of Dec. 14.

Dale Redhawk Mason, a Chiricahua Apache, who has led the fight alongside Ohle, finds comfort in Bryant’s report. “I think that I’ve accomplished something [with my protests],” he says. “I’m hoping that [Proffitt] will grow some respect in his heart and decide not to develop it.”

Mason encourages all members of the community to join in protecting Two Rivers.

“I don’t want the community thinking that native people are just looking for a fight,” he says. “I want this preserved for everyone in the community.”

Ohle agrees. “I would feel this way no matter what color the people under the ground were,” she says.

If the land were to be developed, according to law, each of the bodies would need to be unearthed, stored for up to two years for scientific evaluation, and then reburied on a separate site. Fielder says the law treats cemeteries as a real estate transaction rather than sacred ground, so a property owner can move any cemetery from their property if they wish. “Unfortunately private property rights supercede historical values,” he said.

Bracing for the worst, Ohle has gotten Wisdom Keepers Inc., an organization she chairs, to agree to pay for attorneys in case of a court battle to stop development.

All involved in safeguarding Two Rivers foster dreams of building a grand and important cultural center on the edge of the site.

Ohle says she is saddened by the way historians have considered the grave sites of Native Americans. She would like to see the deceased treated more humanely. “Those are people; they were mothers and fathers,” she says. “They had all those people that trusted them to this earth, that they would rest there undisturbed... not to just move them because they were inconveniently located.”

—Ellen Mallernee

Turning the Corner, Again
Music, beer, food, and us

The Corner Lounge is opening again. That venerable North Central Street institution is now the property of Ed Corts and family, with their partner Bert Holmes. Corts says the cinder-block, working man’s bar and grill should be open as a local music venue, with beer, sandwiches, metts & beans and blue-collar ambiance in late January or early February.

Reopened for a while last year by Mike Moore, the Corner has had its ups and downs since Ernestine Purkey, its longtime owner, closed it down in 1988.

Ernie had established it as a place to see and hear such acts as the Steppe Brothers, Con Hunley, who started his career there, and Gary Poteet.

Corts says he wants to recapture the joint’s reputation as a place for Knoxville musicians to hang out and play. “There’s a ton of fabulous talent here,” says Cort, himself a drummer with such bands as Jacaranda, Montage and Blue Mother Tupelo, popular here in the 1970s and later. From a family of musicians, Corts founded the recording and producing business, Studio 613, at Fourth & Gill, and ran it until a couple of years ago.

The Corner, Corts says, will also court a lunchtime crowd with deli sandwiches, Chicago-style hotdogs, and Knoxville’s favorite, Mettwurst and white beans, along with some blue-plate specials.

To be open from 11 to “whenever,” serving beer but not liquor, the Corner may be one of the city’s oldest bar & grill businesses at the same site, Central Avenue at Fulton Street, just north of the Central-Broadway intersection. Previously a diner, then a sandwich shop and cafe, the Corner was known as the Corner Grill by 1942.

Corts plans to clean and rehang the decades-old oil paintings of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Dolly Parton that graced the bar. He hopes to attract Hunley and the Steppe Brothers to play the lounge, where he’s installing a new stage.

There’ll be sit-down places for about 80 persons, plus a small dance floor, a pool table and dartboard, and outdoor tables for use in good weather.

As much of the original atmosphere as possible will be maintained, he says, in a “down-homey” sort of way. He’s looking for more musician and band photos to add to his collection, plus other music memorabilia and posters, to adorn the walls.

The Corner has always been a neighborhood bar, with its music attracting an assortment of police, politicians, journalists, bankers, lawyers and a burglar or two. With any luck at all, Corts will get some of the old-timers back, along with the young admirers of Knoxville music, beer and food.

—Barry Henderson

December 16, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 51 © 2004 Metro Pulse