Downtown Knoxville: Explore unrground Gay Street

the gay street

Gay Street is one of the most charmg and picturque streets Greenwich Village, an in of the historic neighborhood’s anachronistic character. But the origs of s name are hotly bated, wh the LGBT rights movement and abolnism often ced as the source of s unual nomenclature. And while the street certaly has strong nnectns to

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GUI TO GAY STREET KNOXVILLE, TENNSEE

The Columb Moonlight Market on Gay Street is a great Saturday night date or outg! The monthly outdoor street ftival marketplace Downtown Columb tak place on the 2nd Saturday of each month om May through October, and gets bigger every year. Moonlight Market on Gay Street Gay Street is by far one of * the gay street *

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTStreetspIn the Village, Another Piece of the Cy’s History Is Comg DownLike other vulnerable landmarks across the cy, the hoe at 14 Gay Street — which helped spire the mil “Wonrful Town” — is beg molished.In 1937, when this photograph was taken, 14 Gay Street and s siblg 16 Gay Street were already more than 100 years old.

Today, there are only a few such ho left Greenwich Village — built the early 19th century for the merntile class, rather than the wealthy.Cred...Berenice Abbott, via The New York Public LibraryOne Monday late November, prervatnists, policians, neighbors and looky-loos gathered at dk on Manhattan’s ty Gay Street, a slim crcent the heart of Greenwich Village, to prott the moln of a nearly 200-year-old hoe there. The place qutn, 14 Gay Street, is one of a clutch of six wsome but prer early 19th-century buildgs on Gay and Christopher Streets that were owned for s by Celte Mart, a sgular character voted to her properti and to the often eccentric st of tenants she nurtured.Ms. Mart died late 2018, at 94, wh no will and no close relativ, so the cy took over her holdgs, sellg 14 Gay Street and s siblgs for about $9 ln to a buyer who flipped them last April to Lnel Nazarian, a 37-year-old veloper, for about $12 ln.

GAY STREET

Nazarian has done foundatn work that has stabilized 14 Gay Street and imperiled s neighbors, so the cy has orred s moln, a slow, labor procs that began jt before Thanksgivg.Chillgly, this scenar is one that is playg out all over the cy, said Andrew Berman, the executive director of Village Prervatn and the anizer of the November prott: As velopers have been buyg up vulnerable landmark properti, they are eher allowg them to terrate or dog work that promis public safety. In the last year, he said, more than a dozen such buildgs have e down.ImageCelte Mart, who died 2018 at 94, owned six historic properti on Gay and Christopher Streets, cludg 14 Gay Street. “As a rult,” he said, “our neighborhoods are payg the price, our cy’s history and herage are payg the price, and the irreplaceable historic landmarks that distguish New York om everywhere else are beg lost.”The cy, along wh the Landmarks Prervatn Commissn, said a statement had approved plans for the work on Gay Street and that Mr.

They are really prec.”The buildg at 14 Gay Street dat to 1827; s siblgs, a year later. By then, Gay Street was an tegrated block, wh a large Black muny and a meltg pot of immigrants om Ireland, Denmark, France, Italy, Germany and Belgium.ImageDemoln recently began at 14 Gay Street.

The cy has orred that the work be done by hand and the material saved for e a renstctn overseen by the cy and the Landmarks Prervatn Commissn.Cred...Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimAll six buildgs are landmarked — Gay Street is the Village’s historic district — but No.

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

Wh the help of his wife, Ramee, he turned the Gay and Christopher Street buildgs to a plex of furnished stud apartments, rated by Ramee and outfted wh slipvers and curtas sewn by their nanny.In her short story “Mr. At one pot, he hung a sign his office at 16 Gay Street clarg this policy. However, she was never the most assiduo steward of the ho.As Jeanne Kelly, the former director of fossil preparatns at the Amerin Mm of Natural History and a Gay Street neighbor for two s, put , they were held together wh sp and a prayer, and the haphazard mistratns of a retue of helpers that at one pot clud a super who was bld and a physics teacher wh a number of alias.But Ms.

Its driver, a private ntractor, said he was there to do work unr the road ont of 14 Gay Street.

Across the street, Joan Goldberg, a broker wh Brown Harris Stevens, was holdg a quasi-open hoe at 13 Gay Street, a most Greek Revival built around 1840 and owned by Margaret Kunstler, the widow of the civil rights lawyer William Kunstler, who died 1995 and was known for reprentg some ntroversial clients. The hoe was open; there were nstant gs and gogs.”ImageRuth McKenney memorialized her dodgy subterranean apartment 14 Gay Street “My Sister Eileen,” a llectn of stori about her adventur as a young wrer the cy that was published 1938 and spired the fizzy early 1950s mil “Wonrful Town,” wh lyrics by Betty Comn and Adolph Green and mic by Leonard Bernste.The days, om the top floor of Ms.

COLUMB MOONLIGHT MARKET ON GAY STREET

Furthermore, the cy is requirg that the moln of 14 Gay Street be done by hand and s material saved for e a renstctn that the cy and the Landmarks Prervatn Commissn will oversee.“I never tend to jt let them rot,” Mr. Sce the 1790s, Gay Street has played a primary role Knoxville’s historil and cultural velopment.

Gay Street is home to art galleri, historic theaters, the East Tennsee History Center and more – wh many buildgs listed on the Natnal Register of Historic Plac. Gay Street was the se of the 1796 Constutnal Conventn that rulted the foundg of the state of Tennsee, and was a fol pot for the early polil activy of both the cy and the state of Tennsee. On the eve of the Civil War, Gay Street was the se of simultaneo Unn and Conferate recg ralli.

WHO OWNS GAY STREET?

Durg the Civil War, Gay Street saw some early vlence, a fatal shootg of a Unnist monstrator, days after the firg on Ft. William Sanrs died as the rult of wounds the Lamar Hoe on Gay.

After the war, Gay Street saw extensive mercial velopment as railroad nstctn brought an dtrial boom to Knoxville.

By 1850, Gay Street was home to three-fourths of Knoxville's mercial activy. In 1854, Gay Street beme Knoxville's first paved road. Almost all public visors to Knoxville ma an appearance on Gay Street.

WHAT’S A NAME? GAY STREET

Durg the Civil War, Andrew Johnson was shot at when he gave a pro-Unn speech on Gay Street. Others who were seen on Gay Street at one time or another were prohibnist Carrie Natn, Socialist ndidate Eugene V. One of Knoxville’s olst buildgs, the Lamar Hoe, now the ont portn of the Bijou Theatre, was operatg as a hotel facg Gay Street by 1817, when hosted a receptn for Gen.

Begng 1908, Gay Street beme the lotn of Knoxville’s first skyscrapers, steel-ame buildgs of 10 stor or more, begng wh the Burwell Buildg, followed by the taller Holston Buildg, and some years later the Andrew Johnson Hotel, which was for almost half a century the tallt buildg East Tennsee. From 1960 to 1963, Gay Street was the se of dozens of civil-rights monstratns, first s-s at all-whe lunch unters, then monstratns outsi the still-segregated movie theaters.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* THE GAY STREET

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