Knoxville

Originally the capital of Tennessee, today it is the manufacturing center for the east Tennessee Valley. It is a city of commercial wellness and industry, as well as culture and history. Knoxville is host to the Dogwood Arts Festival (April) and the Tennessee Valley Fair (mid-September) and home to epicurean delights like the Apple Cake Tea Room with its café and boutique. Calhoun’s with its Southern cuisine or the Orangery with its continental menu.

Things to Do in Knoxville:

For science exhibits featuring a plethora of topics (life, energy, minerals, fossils, etc.) visit the Discovery Center & AKIMA Planetarium which also has an aquarium and a planetarium. TO learn about Knoxville’s past and historic citizens, be sure you visit the numerous museums. At the Beck Cultural Exchange Center, you will find research, preservation and displays of achievements by the city’s black citizens from the early 1800’s.

The Confederate Memorial Hall is an antebellum mansion which was a confederate headquarters during the siege of Knoxville. This 15 room memorial is furnished with museum pieces, southern and Civil War relics, and a library of Southern literature. For more than 38,000 relics, and a library of Tennessee history and genealogy, be sure to visit the McClung Historical Collection at the East Tennessee Historical Center.

The Armstrong-Lockett House has an elaborate collection of American and English antiques and silver, along with beautiful terraced gardens. At Marble Springs, you will find the home of Tennessee’s first governor, John Servier, along with other restored buildings. To see the first stone house in Knox county, be sure you go to the Ramsey House, also known as Swan Pond, which was built for Colonel Frank A. Ramsey. The Ramsey House has period furnishings, keystone arches and ornamental cornices.

At the Governor William Blount Mansion you can see furniture from the 1700’s, Blount memorabilia and a 18th century garden. Other Knoxville attractions are the original pioneer house and restored buildings at James White’s Fort, the 266 foot tower and observation deck at the Sunsphere and the galleries, gardens, and great hall at the Knoxville Museum of Art.

Knoxville Zoological Gardens

This 90 acre zoo is a beautifully landscaped area that will rival any botanical garden. The zoo has wooded hillsides, gorgeous flowerbeds, and shaded paths. There are over 100 flowerbeds with 70,000 annuals and 125 varieties of trees and shrubs. The zoo is home to the largest big cat collection and the largest African elephant collection in the Eastern United States, and it also where the first African elephant in captivity was bred in the western hemisphere.

The Knoxville Zoo has more than 1,000 exotic animals like the snow leopard, white rhinoceros, red panda, gorillas, and red wolf. It is host tropical birds, and birds of prey shows, as well as seal and sea lion shows which educate its visitors about the animals. Extra fun features include a Zoo Choo train ride, camel and elephant rides, and an interactive Children’s zoo.

Skyline Photo by Word Junky
Chimp Photo by The Gut
Sunsphere by Brent K. Moore