THE STRIP: NORTH SIDE, PART I

Of the two sides of Cumberland Avenue, the North side has experienced less modernization and renovation. If you were to walk down that side of the street, you would notice that the buildings are built right up to the sidewalk. Parking and alleys are in the back. Newer buildings across the street are set back with room for extra parking, drive-thru windows, and landscaping in the front. In the case of some of these businesses, they only thing that has changed over the years are the tenants. Brick and mortar remains the same!

The Varsity Barber Show has been a Cumberland Avenue establishment for well over 40 years. Here is a picture shot through the window from the UT yearbooks.

It doesn't look like much has changed. According to an online review, Jack, the barber, is great and will even shave the back of your neck.

Next to the Varsity Barber Shop is this FedEx. It is very cozy with another building that butts up to the back of it. I've often wondered who would open a FedEx that blocks half an apartment building, then I realized that the FedEx wasn't always a retail space. Yearbook ads led me to this picture.

Traffic on The Strip -- a pain since the 1970s.

to be continued....

THE STRIP: MY FAVORITE THINGS

I don't hate the whole Strip, I swear. Just most of it.  So I thought it would be nice to do a post about the places I actually go and like.

Ephesus, the business shown in the left of this watercolor is a great Middle Eastern restaurant. I'm not vegetarian, but most every time I go, I end up ordering the Ephesus platter off the vegetarian menu. It's a tasty, and fairly healthy sampler platter with pita, homemade hummus, tabbouleh salad, feta cheese rolls, and tzatziki (cucumber) sauce. I can also give a thumbs up to the Chicken Salad and the very potent Turkish coffee.

This particular FedEx has gotten me out of a printing bind several times for gallery shows. They are friendly, have great turn around on printing and mounting, and do quality work. The best time to go is on home game day during football season. I kid, kind of. Yes, The Strip is full of tailgaters and fans, but I speak from experience. I needed wall signage made on a particular Saturday, and because I was probably the only person who would venture to the FedEx on Cumberland instead of Neyland Stadium, I got my color printing and foamcore mounting done in just 10 minutes!

Eight months out of the year, I do not go to Half Barrel. However, in the summer when school is out and the students are gone, it can be a fun time. The only thing I really don't like about Half Barrel is that smoking is still allowed indoors. Most of the time, I like to sit on the back patio outside. The hot wings are actually spicy, and there is a decent happy hour deal on them. When I want hot wings, I want these hot wings, and there's a generous beer selection to go along with it. Trivia is Tuesday night here, and an acquaintance runs the game. They questions are well thought out, and aren't just about sports and movies. One of my favorite trivia answers from Half Barrel was "Mikhail  Baryshnikov."

Last but not least is Sunspot. I love this restaurant, and have never ordered anything that wasn't delicious. There are two halves -- sit down dining, and a casual bar. This restaurant serves meat and also vegetarian entrees (that aren't just side dishes). It's the place to go if you are looking for a gut-buster, filling meal, or a light salad, or even some casual small plates. Favorite dishes include the Granny Smith and steak salad, the Sunspot veggie burger, fish tacos, and the fried green tomato and ricotta small plate. (It's assembled like lasagna, with fried tomatoes instead of noodles.) You also get tomatillo salsa and warm chips to kick off every meal!

I'm working on a post filled with old images from some of the more elder buildings on The Strip. Stay tuned for stories of raucous hotels and haircut endorsements.

ADVERTISING

One of the things I've learned from my Dad is that digging through old newspapers and phone books for ads is a good way to find out what business was previously in an old building. As it turns out, yearbooks are great too.  Tennessee's yearbook, The Volunteer, was first published in 1897.  While it has little in the way of candid photographs that tell about student life, there are ads in the back. Most of the ads were for businesses on Gay Street, which was the main commercial area in Downtown Knoxville.

from 1910

 The student life sections showing street shots and students out in Knoxville didn't really start to appear in The Volunteer until the late 50s, but I did find some great early ads this weekend that tell what used to be on Cumberland Avenue. Ads were phased out of The Volunteer sometime in the mid 1960s.

The first few ads are from the 1929 yearbook. Before UT became such a large university, it shared a yearbook with the UT Medical College in Memphis. Therefore, some of the ads are for Memphis businesses, some are for the more popular stores on Gay Street, but a few were for buildings on The Strip.

From 1935:

From 1942:

From 1946:

From 1963:

From 1965:

Hope you enjoyed this smattering of what used to be on The Strip!

EVERY BUILDING ON THE STRIP: PART I

I got the idea to paint the Cumberland Avenue strip the week before Father's Day. I wrote it down in my notebook and filed it away as a morning, Summer project.

 I had planned to do one building every two days with my coffee. It would be fun and leisurely. Over the drive between Nashville and Knoxville (it's 190 miles of think time...) I made an ambitious decision. I knew we would be having a School of Art staff exhibition in the gallery I work at. Originally I planned to show 4 photographic diptychs. I had the realization that this gallery space would probably be the only place where I could pin up a large project like this and get quality images of the installation, so I got my butt in gear and started the project.

The concept amused me mostly. Who would be crazy enough to spend time painting a Taco Bell and a Wendy's? I also liked the idea that every image was dependent on the completed group to validate its existence. This project forced me to spend an exorbitant amount of time considering a place I usually try to forget. I wanted to make something that would be curious to folks -- maybe even beautiful --  and make them stop and consider The Strip. In discussing the project with people, I've mostly heard stories. People ended up telling me their favorite of the chain restaurants. I heard old college tales of bars long since gone, and one recounting of a student passing out in the Krystal's drive thru.

To begin the project, I photographed all of the buildings at the same time -- walking up one side of the street while photographing the opposite side. I probably looked insane.  In total, there were three gas stations, two banks, and any number of bars and chain restaurants. The Strip is a place to refuel -- either your car or your belly. It has been the source of many complaints over the years. Too ugly. Too much traffic. Too commercial. Too visible from the interstate.

In the spirit of research, I ended up reading a few articles from the Knoxville News Sentinel, one from a few years ago that has a picture of The Strip in full force, and one written since I've lived here addressing a redesign of the McDonald's and an effort to make Cumberland Avenue more pedestrian friendly.

I began to wonder what The Strip was like in the past. Has it always been a commercial eyesore? In these instances, I'm glad my dad spent most of his life with a camera glued to his face. He attended UT in the early 70s and was able to provide me with a few photographs he took.

Taken from the roof of Clement Hall.

This Strip looked so different, I had no idea what the view was at at first. (Even though I know where the dorm is.) If you are familiar with Knoxville, The right hand corner intersection is showing what is now Chipotle, Ft. Sanders Yacht Club, and the Goodwill. That shield in the mid-left of the image is the Krystal's, recently closed. In the very back left of the photograph is a stack from an old cement factory, now gone.

Middle of the street. Taken from slightly east of the intersection of Cumberland and 17th.

 I also had him look through his yearbooks for any Student Life sections that might feature parts of the strip. Then I discovered that UT has also scanned every yearbook from the early 1910s through 2012. I CANNOT EXPRESS HOW MUCH THIS EXCITES ME. I've been going through those and screen capping some interesting images. The next few blog posts will highlight certain paintings paired with yearbook images. To see installation images and individual images of the complete series, visit my Flickr page.

Stay tuned, y'all.

WHET YOUR APPETITES, SOMETHING'S COMING

I'm in the middle of a big, self-imposed project to end on July 6th. Stay tuned for further details. Until then, here's a little bit of Krystal to hold you over.