Downtown Knoxville: Explore unrground Gay Street

Contents:

• DID YOU KNOW THE 100 BLOCK OF GAY STREET WAS RAISED? TAKE AN UNRGROUND TOUR
• WHO OWNS GAY STREET?
• GAY STREET
• THE HISTORY OF GREENWICH VILLAGE’S GAY STREET
• BACK TO THE ’90S AND THE GAY UNRGROUND BALLROOM CULTURE OF NEW YORK
• GUI TO GAY STREET KNOXVILLE, TENNSEE

DID YOU KNOW THE 100 BLOCK OF GAY STREET WAS RAISED? TAKE AN UNRGROUND TOUR

The 100 block of Gay Street was raised one story 1919 to the level is today. Storeonts are still visible the unrground tate velopers see an opportuny to re-purpose unrground the 100 block of the Gay Street we know today is the 100 block of yterday or, rather, ytercentury. Fixg 'the Death Dip' The 100 block of Gay Street was raised to rolve what lol historian Jack Neely referred to as "the Death Dip.

"As Gay Street grew and the railroad got by, acmodatg dozens of tras every day, the cy built bridg over the rail yards. "By 1900, the downward slope of Gay Street and the upward slope of a bridge created a road that seemed more like a roller aster — "a pretty absurd thg to fd a by part of town, " Neely said. The pavement lights people walk over daily on the Gay Street siwalk are illumated om the tunnel directly below where the siwalk ed to unrground street area is now jt a ncrete wall led wh utily box.

People who wanr to the bottom floor of the buildg on the east si of Gay Street n peer through glass doors at a mural pated on a wall where the street once was. But jt a few steps away om the mural, out of sight for Emporium visors, is a portn of unrground Gay Street that Hez believ has the most potential. You n see the urtyard lookg down om Gay Street next to Sterchi Lofts.

WHO OWNS GAY STREET?

The unrground floors of the Commerce Buildg are also visible om Gay Street level.

" In Hez's opn, the east si of Gay Street is the more excg si.

There is also a tunnel unrneath Gay Street near Unn Avenue and lots of utily rridors beneath siwalks. 14, 2019Wdg south om Waverly Place, north to Christopher Street, Gay Street is one of the shortt stretch of road New York. Let’s beg wh the qutn “Why is lled Gay Street?

GAY STREET

It is lled Gay Street bee is the middle of Greenwich Village, once the center of gay life the cy.

It is lled Gay Street to memorate the abolnist Sydney Howard Gay. It is lled Gay Street bee the Village had always been a “gay” place the rdials-and-parlor-gam sense of the the time beg — and perhaps forever — Gay Street is now lled by many nam. They appeared a rabow of lors and read ( scendg orr): Lbian Street, Bisexual Street, Trans Street, Queer Street, Intersex Street, Asexual Street, Nonbary Street, Pansexual Street, Two Spir Street and + Street, wh the pl sign signatg any group that might feel ntrast to so much of Greenwich Village, which n feel like a satelle mp of Hedge Fund Universy, Gay Street still retas the character of an old, bohemian left.

No one on Gay Street plaed.

THE HISTORY OF GREENWICH VILLAGE’S GAY STREET

He wished to “vigoroly oppose” permanent stat, he wrote, “bee the effect of this verbal extravagance is to trivialize the very signifint history of Gay Street. Tattersall has lived on Gay Street for 42 years, roughly half of them wh his wife, Jeanne Kelly. Even though there is only a small logo at the bottom of the stallatn, word of the leage has gotten around and triggered an uneass a part of the world already fatigued by rporate terference gay life.

BACK TO THE ’90S AND THE GAY UNRGROUND BALLROOM CULTURE OF NEW YORK

Historians assume Gay Street was given s name the 1820s; appears officially cy rerds for the first time 1827.

It is bee of the associatns that people who have lived on the block liked to thk about the street relatn to Sydney Howard Gay, the edor of The Natnal Anti-Slavery Standard and a key operative the Unrground Railroad, which some believe might have clud stops on the block. It seems unlikely the street honors him: Sydney Howard Gay would have been 13 years old 1827. Alternatively, they might have no ia who Sydney Howard Gay actually was and be thkg only about how much they n fortably put on their Masterrd around the rner at Leffot, the home of the $775 Dearborn ankle boot.

In this se, might serve the greater good to move past street signs and mount a plaque outlg the street’s seems clear that Gay Street was named for a man named Gay — someone, acrdg to property rerds, livg on the Bowery the late 1700s, someone whose distctns have been lost to the Street is also jt around the rner om the Stonewall Inn, a landmark to the movement for L. Her iend Margaret Kunstler, who no longer liv on Gay Street but still owns the hoe that she shared wh her hband there, would simply prefer to see the Gay Street sign reprted as a rabow.

GUI TO GAY STREET KNOXVILLE, TENNSEE

The new signs make a mockery of the word ‘“gay, ” she wrote to Ms.

14, 2019: An earlier versn of this article rrectly stated that no logo appeared on the Gay Street stallatn.